From the ground up: After transforming Kaneland baseball, Brian Aversa earns Hall of Fame honor

Baseball fans love stats.

Here’s one: Kaneland endured losing seasons in the first 10 years of its program. After Brian Aversa was hired as its new head coach in 2007, the Knights have had just one and the Knights are now preparing for their 2025 campaign.

With a state championship, six regional titles and seven conference titles at Kaneland and 399 victories and seven regional titles, Aversa was inducted into the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA) Hall of Fame on Jan. 11 at The Westin Hotel at Yorktown Center in Lombard.

“We’ve always tried to be competitive and put a tough schedule together,” Aversa said. “It’s never going into the season thinking how can we get 20 wins, but it’s a goal of the program at every level we strive for. But we’re not looking for a set number. We want to prepare for the postseason for what we can do.”

Aversa joins some fine local company in the Hall as Wayne DeMaar (St. Charles, 1986), Dave Randall (Waubonsee Community College), Dave Pettengell (DeKalb, 2002), Mark Lindo (Aurora Central, 2005), Dave Rowell (West Aurora, 2007), Len Asquini (St. Charles East, 2022), Jason Cavanaugh (Sycamore, 2023) and Todd Genke (St. Charles North, 2023) are some of the local greats who were inducted in prior years.

“I am just humbled and honored to be a part of it all,” Aversa said. “I hope to continue to uphold the precedent that the members of this Hall of Fame and this coaching community have set. I love competing against those guys as they help drive our program to be better. It’s amazing the accomplishments that some of those guys have like Tim Funkhouser from Edwardsville.”

Aversa began his teaching and coaching career at Meridian High School, spending four years at the small school in Macon as its head baseball coach from 2003-2006.

“It was pretty much a whirlwind going from small-town Macon to Kaneland,” Aversa said. “But being from Geneva I knew the area, knew about Kaneland baseball from competing against them.”

While many within the Kaneland community may know that Brian Claesson is the varsity girls basketball coach as well as one of Aversa’s assistant coaches, few have been around long enough to remember Claesson being Aversa’s everyday catcher during his first season in Maple Park.

“I had him as a world history teacher for the first semester junior year and he wasn’t the head baseball coach yet,” Claesson said. “The head coach stepped down so he got (the job) in maybe January of that baseball season and then that first year with Casey Crosby there was scout after scout asking when Casey was going to pitch. So that was in his first year. I can’t imagine what was going through his head as a young guy. It’s impressive. And that was kind of what started the change at Kaneland.”

In Aversa’s debut season the Knights had a winning one for the first time in program history, going 18-13. The next year they went 19-12 but later that December they tragically lost teammate Jeff Malewig and classmate Blake Denton in a car accident.

“It’s something that coaches aren’t taught and (Malewig) was a part of our fabric and his buddies were a close-knit group,” Aversa said. “As a parent of baseball players, of kids, you never want to see that, and as a teacher those are situations you can’t prepare for.”

Baseball, like life, has its ups and downs. It teaches you about failure. It also can help heal grieving hearts.

“It solidified the bond in that team that was there before and gave them something bigger to play for,” Aversa explained. “And that was the one time when we made the season about somebody.”

Some of Malewig’s former teammates helped Kaneland win the Class 3A state title in 2011.

“Honestly, that kind of propelled into the state stuff with the next teams so close, a year or two behind Jeff,” Aversa said. “Those 2011 guys saw how it affected things and played with guys who were teammates with Jeff. They pulled together in a time of need. Every year we give the Jeff Malewig #41 Award Scholarship for $500 and every year I’m not sure if I’m going to get emotional so sometimes I have to pause my speech.”

When the Knights were set to play at the historic Heine Meine fields in St. Louis during the end of their spring trip in 2009, Aversa and assistant coach Jim Smedley were the first to visit the dugout that morning. They were meant to be there.

“We roll off the bus and Smeds and I see the dew on the grass and the bright, blinding sun and we walk into the dugout and they have this 2 x 10 board all the way down the fence, like our dugout and there’s a cardinal sitting right there. (Malewig was a huge fan of the St. Louis Cardinals). We looked at each other misty-eyed and didn’t say anything. Holy cow, after that, baseball is just a game. What’s more important is life and the relationships from the game. Playing this game we get to teach these kids about those things through this game.”

Baseball, man.

Geneva athletic director Matt Hahn’s first crossed paths when Aversa was pursuing summer umpiring opportunities. Hahn was the Vikings head coach from 2004-2016. Aversa would later coach Hahn’s son, Drew, in football at Kaneland.

“He’s a Hall of Fame person, too, a wonderful man,” Hahn said. “Whenever I think of Brian, I think of all the games we coached and especially when we were playing in 2014.”

That was the same year that Drew Hahn was diagnosed with cancer.

“We blow the game in extra innings and we’re kind of getting ready to play in the JV game mood and as we are giving the game away, I see Batavia coach (Matt Holm) walking up,” Hahn said. “We’re at Kaneland. Why is Matt Holm here? I’m making out the JV lineup and I see him and Brian (Aversa) walk over. And they always play that Cougars game and they donated the proceeds from the game to my son’s medical bills. So when I think of Brian, I get emotional. That’s the kind of person he is. And he is so dedicated to his kids.”

Update on Drew Hahn: He’s cancer-free, recently graduated from school and he has a girlfriend.

Nik Panico, who was named the 2024 North Athletics Collegiate Player of the Year playing for Aurora University last spring, caught his final high school game for Aversa in 2019.

“One of my favorite things about playing under coach Aversa is you know that he has your back and your best interest in mind,” Panico said. “I was a captain of the team and he wasn’t afraid to push me to push the other guys to get better. Not only did he want me to be the best baseball player I could be, but he also wanted to develop my character and help me be a better human being. Not every coach I’ve played under in my career necessarily cared about me as a person, but Coach Aversa always made it a point to ask how school was going or ask questions about my family or even ask how my relationship was going. And that’s something he still does today.”

When Panico got engaged late last December, Aversa was among the first people to text him back.

“He remains someone I can reach out to if I need a different opinion or help with anything,” Panico said. “I think Aversa does a really good job at uniting the team to play for something bigger than ourselves. It’s more than just the personal stats or the personal accolades. It’s not about playing for the name on the back of our black jerseys but playing for K on our hats. We are representing our school and the even greater Kaneland community. We are a reflection of all the teams in the past as well as in the future.”

Jason Rader, one of Aversa’s old friends and teammates at Geneva High School and Millikin University, remembers beating up on Kaneland in the program’s early years.

“I think we beat them by 30 runs,” he said. “People forget what he did, how he was able to turn it around all the way down to the youth level.”

For those keeping score at home, Rader’s memory was close, but not exact as Geneva blanked Kaneland, 24-0, on April 14, 1997.

Rader knew his former roommate would thrive as he made the shift from athlete to coach and teacher.

“We grew up together and our top memories are from sports,” Rader said. “And all the way back in high school, he was always a leader. He’d lead by example and he was going to put the work in and bust his (butt). He’s a great human. I even met a player he coached who came out and worked for me. Part of the reason I hired him was because of how Brian taught him as a player. To see the impact he has on individuals. He sees them through every step of the way, such a great leader.”

And now he’s a Hall of Fame coach getting ready for another season, each one unique in its own way. Last year the Knights finished 20-12, losing to Benet in a Class 3A regional semifinal.

“With baseball being the last season before graduation, it probably sticks the most with the kids,” Aversa said. “The spring break trip and Senior Night at the Cougars (Stadium) with Batavia are good memories and we always tell our guys why we do these things. If you’re serious about playing in college you’ll be making trips like this so it prepares you for that grind of waking up somewhere else and getting out of your comfort zone. Bonding and the memories you make are put at the forefront and those won’t go away, win or lose, or whatever. It’s the bus rides, playing in a Euchre tournament, hanging out together. It’s spending time feeling the emotions of big games and just the goofy stories and laughing about those things.”

Aversa said it takes the tireless efforts of his coaching staff, combined with a lot of talented ballplayers, to turn Kaneland into a tough team to beat every afternoon and Saturday morning.

“It starts with coach (Dan) Hallahan, the freshman coach from Geneva was with me originally and then we moved him to the freshmen,” Aversa said. “He’s the best fundamentals coach I know. And I’ve been lucky to have some stability. Smedley’s been with me for 18 years now and I’m really close with guys like (Brian) Claesson and (Jake) Bachio who are on the staff with me.”

Everyone contributes.

“The wins may go under my name, but it’s been a total team effort,” Aversa said. “None of it happens without everybody else. They’ve done so much for our program and it’s good to be around good baseball minds. And we’ve had some really good players with guys like Bobby Thorson, Tyler Conklin, Joe Laudont. We’ve been blessed to have that kind of talent at Kaneland.”

The Knights lost some key talent from a year ago. They’ll have a brand-new outfield. Every team can always use arms.

“We’ve got some guys that are going to have to fill some big holes,” Aversa said. “We don’t have the big bopper bat this year. We have a lot of guys who are going to have to grind it out, scratch it out.”

While playing America’s pastime for a Hall of Fame coach.