Star players, Hall-of-Famer assistant coach have Nazareth Academy baseball riding high
Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park, Illinois, captured its first baseball state championship in 2022, and won back-to-back titles the following year.
The Roadrunners haven't slowed down since, thanks to a pipeline of talented players and a veteran coaching staff with some Hall-of-Fame help.
This is Lee Milano's 26th season as head baseball coach at Nazareth Academy, and it began with another impressive winning streak — 14 straight games, to be exact, by a team with youth and experience.
"It's the best. I mean, there's nothing like winning. We've won a lot my four years here, and hopefully, we do a little more winning later this spring," said Nazareth senior Jaden Fauske.
Fauske has been a part of a 35-game and 46-game winning streak at Nazareth, winning two state titles. The LSU commit is also a top 20 MLB draft prospect.
"There's been up to 70 scouts, general managers, out at out games to watch him — which is not an easy thing," said Coach Milano. "He is going to walk away here as the most decorated baseball player we've ever had."
Nazareth has another player headed to an SEC program on the roster. Junior shortstop Landon Thome is committed to defending national champion — Tennessee.
"Me and him going to similar colleges in the SEC, we've become really tight over these last few years," Thome said of his teammate Fauske. "I would call him one of my best friends, and we really get to pick each other's brains too in baseball. He knows a lot."
Another mind Landon learns from is his dad. White Sox legend and Hall-of-Fame slugger Jim Thome is an assistant coach.
"You know, it's a dream come true to watch your son keep progressing, be around a good culture of coaches, and then watch his love of the game just grow and grow," said Jim Thome.
Jim Thome, of course, was on the World Series champion 2005 White Sox team. His career is quite the inspiration for his son.
"I've grown up in the clubhouses around my dad, and just seeing him play, I mean, it's really inspired me to want to be like him — because he's like my hero," said Landon Thome, "so just makes me want to follow that path and create my own path too so."
Milano takes pride in both the younger Thome and Fauske.
"He's definitely a different player than his dad, which is really I think a good thing for him. But he also has the power," said Coach Milano. "Both young men are great kids. They do volunteer work. They're quiet leaders."
But leadership and talent are not the only things that make the team unique.
"I just feel like we have a really strong bond here at Naz, and around the team, I mean all the guys — we're really close, even though some of them are new," said Landon Thome. "So it's really cool. We have a really good bond."
"Coach Milano is obviously the baseball aspect, but just being a young man too — learning to respect the game, learning to be humble," said Fauske.
All lessons that have led to a lot of success at Nazareth.
"Winning has become a big thing here, and we take a lot of pride in making sure we give them the information but that they want to be good," said Coach Milano. "They put the work in, they take the information, and at the end of the day, they go play — and the reward is them doing well."
The team hopes "doing well" this year means a third state title in four seasons.
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