Thirteen-year-old Satchel Daleo is pretty sure where he’s going to high school.
He’s certain of where he’ll go to college.
The seventh-grade outfielder from Big Junction, near Stillman Valley, gave a verbal commitment to play for the Northern Illinois baseball team late last week and is happy with that decision.
“I feel good,” Daleo said. “I’ve been asked before which college and which high school I’ll go to. I feel very good about this choice. I’m probably going to Stillman Valley [High School] until my signing age and then I’ll be at NIU.”
Daleo has had success as a youth player, representing the Great Lakes Region in the National Team Identification Series this past September. He’ll be attending the USA National team tryouts this summer and plays for the Junior RiverHawks, a Rockford-area youth travel team.
He also has strong family ties to NIU – Daleo said his family has a combined eight degrees from the university – and he played fall ball in Wasco with one of NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey’s sons. From there, Daleo said Mathey offered some tips and drills for him to work on and Mathey and Daleo’s father, Chris a former coach of the CBA’s Rockford Lightning, struck up a friendship.
Satchel had been to an NIU camp two years prior, and said he was the only 13-year-old invited to a showcase camp on campus for high school age players.
“I went there and I did well,” Satchel said.
Late last week, he told Mathey he was headed to NIU and would be a part of Mathey’s 2015 recruiting class.
Chris Daleo supported his son’s decision and said he was happy Satchel wouldn’t go through showcase after showcase looking for scholarship offers.
He also insisted he and his wife are “not crazy parents who are pushing their kid.”
“Do we have aspirations that he’s going to make the major leagues? No. We’re not those parents,” he said. “We’re realistic. We believe in NIU. We like Ed. He’s been a good man to me and he’s been good to my son.”
NCAA rules prohibit coaches from commenting on players until they’ve signed with the university.
The notion of athletes committing to a college earlier than generations past isn’t something new.
Basketball phenom Ryan Boatright famously committed as an eighth grader to USC in 2007 before he decided to attend East Aurora High School. Boatright later decommitted after USC coach Tim Floyd resigned.
“This is becoming the thing all across the country,” Chris Daleo said. “You’re going to start seeing this more and more and more.”
Both Satchel and Chris feel that Satchel’s commitment to NIU is strong.
“He has a good work ethic,” Daleo said. “He lives, breathes and sleeps baseball. This is what he wants to do and as long as he continues to get straight A’s and not be a knucklehead and continues on his path, he’ll be OK.”
That’s something Satchel felt he could do, all the way to signing day, 2015.
“I’ve just been working hard,” he said. “I love to play baseball.”
