Ryan Thorsen and Chris Senn Earn Illinois NACC Baseball Players of the Week Honors

Illinois Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference baseball players of the week

honors go to Rockford College infielder Chris Senn and Concordia University Chicago pitcher Ryan Thorsen for the week ending March 16th.

Concordia senior Ryan Thorsen, Lake Villa, Illinois, earned pitcher of the week honors throwing eight scoreless innings against Rose-Hulman last week.  Thorsen struck out nine and gave up five hits over eight innings.

Rockford's Chris Senn, Victorville, CA, earned player of the week honors by hitting .471 with five doubles, a homer and 10 rbi's last week. 

Illinois baseball players, Zach Jacobs and Eann Cox, Earn GLVC Player & Pitcher of the Week honors.

Zach Jacobs and Eann Cox earned Player and Pitcher of the Week honors from the Great Lakes Valley Conference for the week ending February 24, 2014.


University of Indianapolis outfielder Zach Jacobs hit .600 last week with a homer, a triple and three rbi's to earn Player of the Week honors.  Jacobs is from Peoria Heights, Illinois and a transfer from Illinois Central College.


Lewis University pitcher Eann Cox gave up two hits and struck out seven in a 4-1 win over Ohio Dominican last week.  Cox is from Erie, Illinois and a transfer from BlackHawk College. 

Illinois Baseball Players on the 2014 Missouri Valley Preseason All-Conference Team

Illinois baseball players who are named to the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference preseason All-Conference Team.


Chris Godinez, Bradley, hit .320 in 2012, injured in 2013, Chris lives in Lake Bluff, Illinois.

Brock Stewart, Illinois State, hit .330 in 2013, Brock lives in Normal, Illinois.

Greg Partyka, Bradley, hit .309 in 2013, Greg lives in Bartlett, Illinois.

Kevin Kaczmarski, Evansville, hit .339 with 3 triples and 6 home runs, Kevin lives in Cary, Illinois.

Dan Savas, Illinois State, went 10-0 with a 1.79 ERA and 98 strikeouts, Dan is also a Louisville Slugger preseason All-American, Dan lives in Rosemont, Illinois.

Jeremy Rhoades, Illinois State, 6 saves in 2013, Jeremy lives in Wheaton, Illinois.

Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Clinic Info

The 2014 IHSBCA Coaches Clinic will be held at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center.  Registration and booths open at 3:30 on Friday January 24, 2014.

Speakers include Corey Stevens from Wabash Valley, Justin Stone from Elite Baseball, Brian Green University of Kentucky, Dan Hartleb, Drew Dickinson, and Eric Snyder from the University of Illinois, Lee Tinsley, Chicago Cubs, Justin Dehmer, Paul Hoel, Andy Satunas, and John Newton.

For more information you can visit the IHSBCA site by clicking on the link below.

IHSBCA 2014 Clinic Info 

Three Division III Illinois Baseball Teams Ranked in Pre-Season Poll

Three Division III Illinois baseball teams are ranked in the Pre-Season poll released by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

The highest ranked team on the poll is Concordia University Chicago, ranked #13.  Concordia is also ranked #16 on the Pre-Season Poll released by D3Baseball.com.  Concordia finished last season at 39-7.




Augustana is also on both polls coming in at #22 on Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and #21 on D3Baseball.com.  Augustana finished at 34-11 in 2013.


Illinois Wesleyan is the final Illinois D3 baseball team on the Pre-season Polls coming in at #26 on the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.  Illinois Wesleyan finished 2013 with a record of 33-14.

The Sad Salary Situation for Illinois Junior College Baseball Coaches

This post discusses the inequity of pay for junior college baseball coaches in Illinois.  Are the baseball coaches at Illinois junior colleges half as good as the baseball coaches in all other states?  According to the salary information provided by the Office of Postsecondary Education, baseball coaches salary, and apparently by the administrators at Illinois junior colleges, the answer seems to be yes, they are only half as good.

We researched the salary data from 2008 through 2012, provided by the U.S. Department of Education, on Illinois junior college head and assistant baseball coaches, their annual salaries against all of the other states that have NJCAA Division I, II, or III baseball.


Here is some of the 2012 data that we looked at:


First for Head Coaching positions - 

• Illinois only has 5 full time head coaches in 2012 where as there are 91 in the other NJCAA states.
• The 2012 average annual salary for head baseball coaches in Illinois $10,212 where as the average in all other states is $19,968.  As you can see, Illinois head coaches are paid about 50% less than in all other NJCAA states.
• Illinois head coaches also have to do more work as the average number of assistant coaches in Illinois is at 1.74 and all other states average closer to 2.

Next, Assistant Baseball Coaches -

• There are zero full time assistant coaches in Illinois where as other NJCAA states have 42.
• The annual salary for assistant baseball coaches at NJCAA schools was $3,925 in 2012 verses $8,554 in all other NJCAA states, that is 45.8%!
• Other NJCAA states offer 17% of assistant coaches full time employment where Illinois junior colleges offer only 4% of assistant coaches this opportunity.
• Illinois assistant coaches only earned $248 per participant (player) for the entire season where as all other NJCAA junior college states earned over $500 per participant (which is more than the head coaches in Illinois earn).

The total number of participants (baseball players) has increased 4.7% from 2008 to 2012.  There are more student-athletes playing baseball at community colleges in Illinois.  This means more tuition, more state Base Operating Grants, more federal funding.


It is easy to see but hard to understand why the coaches in Illinois are paid only half of what other NJCAA states are paying baseball baseball coaches.

Eureka Hires Another New Head Baseball Coach

Next in line at Eureka College is ex-McHenry County College baseball coach

Kim Johnson.  Johnson has coached at Moraine Valley, Bellevue, Illinois Central, and Western Illinois.

Johnson takes over for Isaac Cox (2013) , who took over for James Clark (2012).