Maine South baseball coach Bill Milano remembers a “little guy with his big old baseball bat” attending his summer camp.
Will Krug might have been the only child Milano ever suggested stay for both the early morning and late morning sessions — such was his love for baseball.
Now, Krug, after walking on at Illinois, is the first Maine South player that Milano can recall to be named a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award in baseball.
Krug nearly never ended up in Champaign. He was offered a baseball scholarship to Binghamton. But he decided to potentially forgo baseball to study civil engineering at Illinois. It was no easy choice.
“In the scope of things, when you’re able to put things in perspective about what can happen in this world and how drastic things can be, this decision not to play a sport is very, very small,” Krug said. “But in the time that I was making the decision, it was like the world to me.”
For a week or two leading up to his tryout, Krug either rode the bus or walked four miles to downtown Champaign to take batting practice.
He made the team his freshman season — but his numbers were unspectacular: a .275 batting average and three stolen bases in 51 at-bats.
His summer with the Crystal Lake Cardinals of the Chicago Suburban Baseball League was a different story, as he tallied 55 stolen bases in 59 attempts.
It wasn’t exactly a surprise.
“We didn’t have a stop sign for him,” Milano said. “Basically, he had the green light all the time.”
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Still, it was a confidence booster.
“How could it not be?” Krug said.
As a sophomore, Krug hit .305 with eight stolen bases as Illinois’ leadoff hitter, but he missed the second half of the season due to injury. He hit .307 with 20 stolen bases his junior year, starting all 53 games in center field. He was named second-team all-conference.
All the while, Krug worked doggedly at his major. Illinois boasts the second-best civil engineering program in the world, according to the QS World University Rankings.
Beyond their rigor, engineering classes tend to require group work and lab time, not easy for an athlete who is busy traveling from Beaumont, Texas, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for games.
“There’s not a lot of downtime,” Illinois redshirt junior pitcher Andrew Mamlic said. “We’re doing stuff on the planes, on the buses. Every minute of free time, we’re trying to get stuff done so we can perform on the field.”
Still, Krug never turned back, never considered switching majors.
When Krug first joined the baseball team, he and his academic counselor at Illinois, Shari Clapp, couldn’t find a weekly time to meet. No problem, Krug took care of his business. Illinois athletes often face the onerous task of asking their professors to reschedule exams around road trips. Krug took care of that too — Clapp only had to come to his aid once.
“He’s always looking for what he can do to accomplish his goals,” Clapp said. “Not only is he looking and setting the plan, he’s executing the plan.”
And somehow, even while sprinting around campus, Krug never seemed ruffled. Clapp said she remembers one time she was talking to Krug at length, only to realize he had to hit the road in 20 minutes. The whole time, he had been perfectly engaged. When she mentioned he should go, he calmly nodded and left.
“We talk about students, we talk about athletes, but what a great person in our world,” Clapp said. “I’m so thankful for the day that Will Krug came for tryouts at Illinois baseball, because I can’t imagine life without him in the last four years frankly.”
Krug has always found time — even to help children with mental and physical difficulties in the Tom Jones Challenger League in Urbana.
“When there’s people who are either looking up to you or you care about, you find time to make time,” Krug said. “It’s not easy and there are a lot of meals that get eaten pretty quickly and not a lot of couch sitting time, but it’s worth it.”
Hence the Senior CLASS nomination, which honors classroom, character, community and competition. Krug is one of 30 candidates. The winner will be announced in June during the College World Series.
Krug compared the honor of being nominated to stealing 55 bases.
“I don’t think it’s set in really,” Krug said. “Maybe one day it will.”
In the meanwhile, Milano said it’s a simple matter of his first name.
“[His father] named him appropriately,” Milano said. “He has a will to succeed.”
Rosenblum is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.