Waves, Goodbye: Summer baseball program hangs ’em up after 25 seasons

The final out in the Wilmette Waves’ victory over Highland Park on Wednesday, July 31, was a conclusion in more ways than one.

It not only ended the game and the season, but it also ended the existence of the Wilmette Waves, a summer baseball club that has rostered New Trier high-schoolers for the past 25 years.

The program is ending along with the career of Waves head coach and co-founder Mike Napoleon, the state’s all-time-winningest baseball coach who retired from New Trier after the spring season. He founded the Waves alongside Don Wallace, of Wilmette, in 2000.

After the finale, Napoleon said the Waves regularly achieved their mission of giving ballplayers a boost.

“For the most part we’ve gotten kids ready to play at the next level, whether that is college — back in the early days (of the Waves) — or whether it be varsity baseball,” Napoleon said.

Other benefits, he said, included getting more playing time with the high school coach, more time with classmates and potential teammates, and more experience on New Trier’s home field, Duke Childs.

But times have changed. Napoleon is handing the New Trier coaching reins to his son, Dusty Napoleon, and summer baseball is not what it used to be. Local teams have given up timeshare to regional travel programs, powerhouses that commonly compete around the country in massive tournaments that can bring in tens of thousands of attendees.

Top Tier is one of the larger local travel programs and has grown from one team in 2004 to 67 across the country, including 27 teams out of Glenview. Top Tier commonly plays in those large tournaments, such as ones put on by Perfect Game, maybe the largest event organizer that annually draws to its tournaments 2 million participants from more than 100,000 teams — both numbers growing tenfold in the past six years, according to an article in Sports Business Journal.

Many high school baseball players participate with multiple teams each summer, leaving the Waves with a smaller and unpredictable pool of players.

“The landscape of travel baseball has changed so much,” New Trier Athletic Director Augie Fontanetta said. “A lot of kids are playing in a lot of different organizations.”

Despite the dissolution of the Waves, Fontanetta said New Trier baseball players will have plenty of opportunities to play summer baseball, and how New Trier wants to get involved, such as with feeder programs and youth camps, will be up to Trevians head coach Dusty Napoleon.

The Waves ended things with a victory, finishing the season 13-8-1 — another winning campaign. The Waves, in their 25 years, have never had a losing season.

The 22 games played, however, is the fewest in team history. Last season they played 24, but in 2019 they played 40 and in 2004 a program-high 49.

When they began in 2000, the Waves played in American Legion Baseball, winning the Illinois legion title in 2004. Then in 2011 they moved into Connie Mack baseball, a wooden bat league that the Waves won four times (2013, ’14, ’17, ’18). Most recently, the Waves competed in the Illinois Summer Baseball League with teams like the Evanston Naturals, Highland Park, Notre Dame, South (Glenbrook South) and Deerfield. The league’s future is unclear.

This summer, the Waves winning-season streak was in jeopardy. They began 1-3 and were 4-6 after 10 games. But they turned things around and finished the season with nine wins in their final 11 games.

“The team started out rocky at the beginning of the season but as a group, we got to know each other more and have more team chemistry,” said rising senior Caiden Carpenter, who recorded the final hit, RBI and out (as a pitcher) in Waves’ history.

Carpenter also earned the coaches award at the annual Waves awards ceremony following the final contest. Other awards went to: Sam Rivera (Golden Glove), Chase Vukovich (Golden Bat), Neil Sanderson (Golden Arm) and Nathanial Blazo (MVP).

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Subscribe to The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a subscriber? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.