Bulldogs boast regional flavor

~ Notre Dame has sent seven teams to the final four since the fall of '07.

Central baseball coach Steve Williams said that talented athletes want to play on teams that have reputations for winning, and Notre Dame teams have won a great deal lately.

The Catholic high school in Cape Girardeau, therefore, has had a strong mix of athletes enroll recently from towns across Southeast Missouri.

"Success does breed success in the sense that when kids believe that winning is a tradition or is going to happen every year, they tend to perpetuate that thought and so Notre Dame is on a good run right now where they have the best of both worlds -- they have talented kids coming through their doors and they have kids that want to work and win and that's a good combination to have," Williams said.

The Notre Dame baseball program, which will play in its second straight Class 3 final four this weekend and enters the tournament ranked No. 1 in its class with a 27-1 record, is just one of the teams at Notre Dame that recently has had great success and looks to be in good shape for the long term. The Notre Dame softball, basketball, baseball and soccer programs all have been winning consistently in recent years. Notre Dame has sent seven teams to the final four since the fall of 2007.

Notre Dame pitcher Dylan Drury makes a pitch in the second inning against Kelly April 23 at Notre Dame. (Elizabeth Dodd)

Williams said some of Notre Dame's success is in part because it has been able to attract players from across the area. The baseball team features players from Charleston, Sikeston, Benton, Kelso, Oran, Scott City, Jackson and Cape Girardeau.

Notre Dame baseball coach Jeff Graviett, along with some baseball players, said that some strong athletes have chosen to enroll at Notre Dame because they and their parents have been impressed with the education offered combined with the success of the athletic programs and the strong athletics facilities. Graviett and members of the baseball team think their recent consistent winning, combined with the vast improvements made to the baseball field -- Graviett said close to $250,000 in renovations have been made over the past couple of years -- might work to attract more talented baseball players in the upcoming years. They hope it does.

"I would think this is the place that you'd want to be a part of," Graviett said. "You see what we've done here on the baseball field to the success that we've had. If you're a kid who loves athletics and is looking for a strong place academically and spiritually, this has got to be a great place to consider and think about."

Yet while the private school grows, are some local public high school coaches concerned about Notre Dame's recent ability to attract so many strong athletes?

"I don't know if concern is the right word, but it's an issue because obviously they have kids not just from a school district but they have kids from an area," Williams said. "So I guess in some instances, I'm sure it is an issue because they have had students from other districts come to school at Notre Dame, and just by the fact that they happen to be a good ballplayer, that could affect other teams as well."

Notre Dame's Colton Young makes a pitch in the sixth inning against Potosi May 26 at Notre Dame. (Elizabeth Dodd)

Players from all over

The 17-member varsity baseball team that is heading to Springfield this weekend has three players from Cape Girardeau, three from Jackson, three from Sikeston, two from Benton, two from Charleston, two from Kelso, one from Scott City and one from Oran.

Why are some of the current athletes at Notre Dame willing to travel long distances to school each day? What brought them to the private school, which does have a strong academic reputation as it was placed on the Catholic High School Honor Roll list as a top-50 Catholic school nationally in the past four years?

"The majority of our kids went to Catholic grade school, so I think a lot of it has to do with them continuing their Catholic education," Graviett said.

Some players say the recent success of the athletic teams did weigh into their decision to enroll.

All Notre Dame teams are doing well. The school's baseball team, boys soccer team and girls softball team have each made four trips to the final four this decade. The girls and boys basketball teams each have made three trips, while volleyball and girls soccer each have made two appearances in the final four this decade.

Jackson High School and Central High School play in a class higher than Notre Dame, so they face tougher postseason competition and neither school recently has come near the success that Notre Dame has had at the state level. The Jackson football team appeared in three final fours and the girls basketball program appeared in two this decade, while Central boys soccer appeared in one final four (2003). However, the softball, volleyball, baseball, boys basketball and girls soccer teams at Central and Jackson have combined to appear in no final fours this decade. Moreover, neither the Jackson boys soccer team nor the Central girls basketball team have appeared in the final four this decade.

Statistics, therefore, reveal that the chance that a team qualifies for the final four is much better for athletes at Notre Dame than Central and Jackson, two other local schools that offer as many or more sports as Notre Dame. Notre Dame athletic teams have appeared in the final four 22 times compared to six times by Jackson and Central combined since 2000.

"It [success of all the Notre Dame teams] is a big part for me," said Trenton St. Cin of Oran. "Oran has never won a state championship. If I so happen to get one, I'd be the only one in town to have a state ring and I'd love to do that. That had a lot to do with my decision to come here."

Oran High School has made the final four five times in baseball this decade. St. Cin, a junior, said many of his family members played baseball at Oran, including his cousin who was a senior on the 2003 squad that went to the final four. He said he looked up to the members of that 2003 team. But after examining the situation at Oran, he felt like the talent was starting to dwindle among players in his age group and that Notre Dame was a better fit for him as its baseball program would include Colton Young, Jake Pewitt and Wesley Glaus. He played with those three players on a traveling team before high school.

While the success of the teams had an influence of some current baseball players, others said that their parents were the ones who decided to enroll them there.

Aaron Tomaszewski of Scott City said he was living in Sikeston when he was looking at high schools and that his father decided to enroll him at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame standout pitcher and hitter Dylan Drury is one of two Notre Dame players who live in Charleston. He said the strong sports teams were just a bonus for him.

"My dad has been telling me that I'm coming here since I was 5 or 6 years old just because he knows it's a good school and he went here," Drury said.

Notre Dame senior Austin Greer, of Benton, helped the Notre Dame basketball team to the 2008 Class 4 state championship as one of the team's leading scorers. He also has the best batting average on the baseball team this year and has provided much of the power hitting for the baseball program over the past two springs.

Greer said some people have believed that he was recruited for athletics by Notre Dame. But Greer said that his mother attended Notre Dame and she wanted him to attend. He said that when he was in eighth grade it didn't matter to him whether he attended Kelly or Notre Dame.

"I get it a lot from being down south and having a lot of Kelly friends," Greer said. "They're like, 'Oh, you were kind of recruited up there.' Reality for basketball is that why would they recruit a 6-foot-1 kid to play post alongside [Ryan] Willen. That just doesn't make any sense. None of us are recruited. We just wanted to go to a good winning program and by [winning] happening it attracts good players."

Notre Dame has been the subject of accusatory comments about illegal athletic recruitment posted numerous times on the Southeast Missourian's Web site.

A remark left by one reader in the comment section of a story about Notre Dame adding a wrestling program for the 2009-10 academic school year stated, "Let's see if they recruit John Cena to lead the team this year." Part of another comment underneath the wrestling article stated: "Construction of the runway for the three new Concord jets that will serve as the school bus for some of the new students who live in Oklahoma and Iowa will begin shortly. Please turn in your jet fuel fundraising sheet after mass on Wednesday."

Graviett denied that he and the other coaches at Notre Dame recruit or handpick athletes.

"We try to let our program and school do the recruiting for us," Graviett said. "I think that's probably the big picture here."

Attracting players

Young of Sikeston said that he was attracted to Notre Dame after his cousin attended the school and liked it. Young, one of the standout pitchers on the team, also said his parents thought Notre Dame was the best school for him to attend and that he liked the idea of going there because some of his friends also would be attending.

Young is one of the baseball players that hopes the recent success of the baseball program will make Notre Dame more attractive for talented baseball players.

"I think a lot of kids see all the high school players doing well and going to final fours all the time in just about every event," Young said. "Soccer has gone a lot in the past four or five years. Basketball is the same and hopefully baseball is the same, too, and I think kids look up to that and want to come here."

Greer added: "Kids want to go to a winning program. They don't want to go to somewhere that doesn't win. Losing is not accepted here at Notre Dame. Winning is what you do."

Besides the winning, Graviett thinks the improvements that have enhanced the field might attract some players, although he said the renovations were for the current players.

Stadium seating, dugouts sunk into the ground and a brick wall behind home plate have been added since last spring. Bermuda grass and lights were added the year before.

Graviett estimated that the recent changes likely have increased the field's value to near $500,000 and the majority of the money to renovate came from sign sponsors.

"We wanted to create an atmosphere that's unlike any other in high school baseball around here, and I think we've done that with the pro-style dugouts and the facilities and trying to play a few night games to enable people to come see," Graviett said. "Again, in the big picture, is it going to bring a few kids here down the road? Good possibility."

Williams said that a nice facility is an attraction for prospective students considering where to attend high school.

"I think everybody, including us at Central, try to update their facilities and make them as nice as possible," he said. "Notre Dame has been fortunate enough to have some very financially blessed people donate money to help upgrade their facilities, so they've done it right.

"They have a very nice facility to play in and I think that is an attractive thing for some kids who are making up their minds on where they'd like to go to high school."

Whatever the reason, Notre Dame athletics have been on fire this decade. Just take Graviett, for instance. This weekend's trip will be his fourth to state in the past two years between coaching the softball and baseball teams.

"It's nice going in every year and knowing that you're competing for a state championship and that your goals are set higher than some programs," he said.