By: Gary Seymour
December 11, 2023
www.jolietcatholicacademy.com

In honor of former JCA head baseball coach Joe Rodeghero’s recent induction into the JCA Hall of Champions-Athletics, former Herald-News – Shaw Local sports writer Gary Seymour penned a recap of Rodeghero’s inaugural season at Joliet Catholic in the spring of 1990 after attending the 30-year reunion festivities of the team in the fall of 2023.

After what could be regarded as a three-year rain delay, the 30-year reunion of the 1990 baseball season at Joliet Catholic High School took place last September 2023 at Inwood Golf Course.

Originally slated for the autumn of 2020, the celebration was scuttled due to the nationwide health-related lockdown of social gatherings.

The dinner-and-drinks bash was worth the long wait, though, as players, coaches and well-wishers from that special season met in “The Tent” at Inwood to recount an unforgettable season-long run.

“For a first-year head coach, it was the perfect group,” recalled Joe Rodeghero, who led the Hilltoppers to the state championship game in his debut season at the varsity helm. “These guys loved each other.”

The good vibes and fellowship among the group were as strong in 2023 as in the spring of ’90, when beginnings, endings, pleasant surprises and close calls were the order of the day.

The doors of all-boys Catholic High were closing in 1990 in preparation for the merger with all-girls St Francis Academy, to become the co-ed Joliet Catholic Academy by which the school has since been known.

For Rodeghero, it was the start of a head coaching career that would ultimately include a win-loss record of 582-214 and induction into both the Illinois High School Association Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, the East Suburban Catholic Conference Hall of Fame and the Lewis University Coaches Hall of Fame.

For assistant coach Dan McCarthy, it was the final season with the Hilltoppers before moving on to Ottawa Marquette. McCarthy, along with highly respected veteran pitching coach Leo Michalak, was instrumental in the development of the ’90 Hillmen club that finished 25-6.

Naturally for the senior players, it was the end of the line as high school athletes … and what a finishing act they had in store.

“It was the best year of baseball I’ve ever been a part of,” said pitcher Tim Ciesla, the Player of the Year in the talent-heavy ESCC and Most Valuable Player at the state tournament. “Coach Rod believed in us from Day One.”

At the reunion Ciesla took his turn behind the mic after his battery mate, Mike Cardwell, kicked off the evening’s festivities as the emcee. Cardwell, the catcher and cleanup hitter in Rodeghero’s lineup, recounted the uncommon tightness of the group.

“Everyone was a part of the effort,” he said. “All of the guys on the bench supported whoever was on the field. It was really a close-knit team.”

Name tags may have seemed a needless formality for a group of such close familiarity, but the stick-on IDs erased any doubts about who was whom that the passing of 33 years may have presented. One of those name tags also provided a funny, if wistful, reminder of the pivotal moment in the state title game.

In addition to Cardwell and Ciesla, all of the Hilltopper starters in the championship game – Brett Brenczewski, Marc Chignoli, Dave English, Brent “Curly” McGraw, Mike Pitak and Brian Czerak – were all on board at banquet, as well as valuable utility players Kevin Callans and Max Ziesmer, and equipment manager Pat Keating.

Jim Barello, the Hilltoppers’ athletic director during that season, also attended, as did Jack Schimanski, who as head baseball coach in 1988 led the Hillmen to the state quarterfinals.

Ciesla and Cardwell detailed the various high points of the season, and how the lack of wider notice from the nominal “experts” served as motivation. Rodgerhero may have been all-in with this group from the first day of practice, but for the Illinois pollsters it took a little more convincing.

Nowhere to be found in the Chicagoland Top 25 for much of the season – or even the “Up and Coming” appendix to the Top 25 – the Hillmen finally broke through after wins over ranked powers Mundelein Carmel, Lockport and Oak Park River Forest.

By the time they’d advanced to the state tournament in Springfield, the Hillmen were at the top of the ratings heap.

In their quarterfinal matchup at Lanphier Park, Ciesla and the Hilltoppers had an answer for a Loves Park Harlem team looking for its 26th consecutive win, and the answer was, “Nope.” Ciesla cooled off Harlem’s hot bats, and Chignoli blasted a home run in the 10-3 win.

That win sent them to the Saturday morning semifinal, where pitchers Bill Jenkins and Mark Hinzie combined to edge Oak Park 3-2. The speedy Fitzgerald tripled and singled with two RBIs to lead the offense, setting the stage for the final against an Edwardsville club that hit .370 as a team and was ranked No. 17 in the nation by USA Today.

Ciesla, who was on the hill against Edwardsville for his second start in two days, humbly characterized the Hilltoppers as a solid team with no superstars.

Stopper, star, ace – whatever label you prefer – Ciesla was unquestionably the man on the hill for the Hillmen. He’d followed his 7-0 junior year season with a dominant 10-1 record as a senior, when he also led the team in hitting with a .411 average. His MVP honors at the state tournament marked the first time that a player from a team that didn’t win the title took home the individual award.

As noted in the cable television broadcast of the championship game, both squads were alike in their strong defense, base running and execution of fundamentals. The contrast in coaching styles, meanwhile, was stark. From one dugout came Rodeghero’s upbeat, positive-reinforcement approach to motivation; in the other was an accomplished, emotive taskmaster.

Ciesla allowed just one hit in his seven innings, handcuffing the downstate sluggers to a degree where their most effective offensive weapon was the bunt.

A scoreless tie was almost broken in the bottom of the fourth when Fitzgerald singled and Brenczewski, who had the game-winning hit in the regional final, drilled a liner down the left field line that landed foul by a few feet.

But the Hillmen finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth, taking a 1-0 lead behind singles by Pitak and Szerak and McGraw’s RBI fielder’s choice.

The rally continued when English was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second and bringing Fitzgerald to the plate.

By that time, the park was buzzing with the tension unique to a tight pitcher’s duel. The intense pressure was evidenced when Fitzgerald worked the count to 3-and-2, bringing the Edwardsville coach out of the dugout to bark about the ump’s strike zone. Fitzgerald reached on a fielder’s choice on the next pitch, putting runners at the corners with two gone and Chignoli coming to the dish.

Then came the telltale swing of the bat. Chignoli got around on a fastball and sent a scorcher to the left side that hit the ground inside the base line and continued on a line directly toward the third base umpire. The ump instinctively spun around – a move that allowed his avoiding the sharply hit ball but at the same time hindered his view of its trajectory. The next contact that the ball made with the ground was far up the left field line, less than a foot in foul territory, where it appeared to have crossed over the bag along the way.

While the 1-0 lead was huge, a two- or three-run cushion at that point would have been insurmountable, given that on that night Ciesla was virtually unhittable.

But it was called a foul ball, Chignoli was retired on the next pitch, and the rally was over. After having dodged that bullet, Edwardsville had the momentum, and tied the game in the sixth on a walk, a stolen base, a bunt, and another bunt.

With the score still tied after seven innings, Rodeghero relieved his workhorse starter, moving him to center field. Although it was certain that adrenaline would have carried Ciesla for as long as it took, the coach wouldn’t countenance even the slightest possibility of endangering the teenager’s pitching future.

The 4-1 loss to Edwardsville in nine innings was a gutting end to a great postseason, but in retrospect the entire journey was a thing of beauty.

The look back at that at season, and that game, wouldn’t be complete without revisiting the flashpoint on which the outcome swung. In addressing the moment at the reunion, Chignoli – whose name tag read, “The Guy Who Hit The Fair Ball” – was magnanimous.

“You win some, you lose some, and some days the calls don’t go your way,” he said. “That’s baseball.”

It’s also a broader allegory. Rodeghero infused in his team the understanding that defeat is a bruise, not a tattoo, and that a strong moral chassis can help absorb the speed bumps that life will be throwing their way.

The coach who believed in his first team from the first day would go on to lead the 1994 JCA squad to the state championship – a first for Hilltoppers baseball – and serve as an assistant to Jared Voss’ state title winners in 2013, 2022 and 2023. All were cherished experiences in a rewarding career that began with an extraordinary group in 1990.

“These guys were wonderful kids, and today they’re good men,” their coach said at the reunion. “Businessmen, hard workers and honest family men who reflect Catholic values. I’ll never forget my first team as long as I live. They’re champions in life. That’s all that counts in the world.”

Fair enough.

*In loving memory of Bill Jenkins