Dom Panozzo, Callaghan O’Connor give Bishop McNamara pair of D-1 arms

Dom Panozzo and Callaghan O’Connor, Bishop McNamara baseball teammates, have both long had the dream of pitching at the NCAA Division I level. And although the two have taken different paths, they’re both close to realizing those dreams, Panozzo a senior Illinois State commit and O’Connor a junior Notre Dame commit.

“It’s special,” Panozzo said of being teammates with another D-1 commit. “You don’t really get to have this opportunity at the high school level. Obviously, when I get to Illinois State, everybody will be ‘that dude’ from their high school team, but having a guy that can do just as well as I can on any given day just pushes me.”

The pair have pushed one another, and their teammates, in a season that’s largely yielded successful results thus far. Currently, the Fightin’ Irish are 17-6 overall and 10-3 in the Chicagoland Christian Conference, a game back of Hope Academy, who they host in Tuesday’s conference finale, for first place in the CCC.

Irish head coach Kurt Quick said that wherever the team goes, opposing fans will give some taunts towards the pair, mocking their college status and any pitch that doesn’t look like it registers in the low 90s mph range they’re clocked at, something they’ve handled well.

“They’re both great kids,” Quick said. “They come from great families and they have great attitudes in the dugout and on the field. They’re leaders to the rest of the team.”

O’Connor to continue legacy with Fightin’ Irish

O’Connor has always loved baseball. As the younger sibling to a pair of Notre Dame graduates, Corrine and Broghan, and son of another, Thomas, he’s always loved Notre Dame. So when he was presented with the opportunity as a freshman to go from being Fightin’ Irish at McNamara to the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame, he didn’t take long into his high school career to make it official, committing in January of his freshman year.

“It just feels like home,” O’Connor said. “It’s [family ties], and it’s also having Irish heritage in some way. They’re the Fighting Irish as well, they’re the Irish and I’m Irish. ... It feels like Mac. It’s hard to explain, but when you know you know.”

O’Connor, a three-year starter in baseball and basketball, has seen success in both, earning multiple all-conference honors, Daily Journal All-Area honors on the diamond last year and helping the basketball team to a Class 2A Sectional championship appearance this past winter.

A primary motivator while he’s in McNamara green and white is again Corinne, a 2015 McNamara graduate who won state championships in softball and basketball, and Broghan, a 2019 graduate who was a sectional champion baseball player and basketball standout.

“It was really special to see my sister so well, and my brother, too,” O’Connor said. “I wanted to be like them some day, follow in their footsteps and win regionals, sectionals and state championships.”

Panozzo proves resilient on path to ISU

Like O’Connor, Panozzo knew from a young age he wanted to play baseball as long as he could. He represented the United States at the Latin American Baseball Classic in the Dominican Republic when he was 12, one of several youth baseball highlights before his freshman year at Bradley-Bourbonnais.

But once he got to high school, the road got rocky for Panozzo. He transferred to McNamara, where he graduated eighth grade from, ahead of his sophomore year, one he couldn’t pitch due to an arm injury that required surgery that May. And as he worked his way back to full health last year, Panozzo had to rehab himself physically and mentally.

“There were days I even questioned if I wanted to play the game anymore,” Panozzo said. “A year ago, I wasn’t sure this was something I wanted to do, but coming in I turned things around over the summer by just finding myself, giving my body the time it needed and giving myself grace, which was killing me my junior year.”

He spent some time last summer in Mississippi with one of his travel coaches, and while he didn’t find his pitching form he was looking for, he hit a mental reset that allowed him to finally come around on the rubber later in the summer, earning a scholarship offer to a place where “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else” in ISU.

And as he’s grown into one of the senior leaders for the Irish, he’ll end high school and start college with his arm back to life and a fresh perspective.

“When you’re out there for yourself, it’s not as fulfilling as pitching a good game for your team and giving them a chance to win,” Panozzo said. “There’s going to be more ups and downs to come, but I can confidently say I’ll be able to handle those ups and downs for the rest of my career because I’ve been through it before.”