Thursday, June 8, 2006 10:20 PM CDT
Shelbyville grad to play football, baseball at Illinois Wesleyan
By Mike Monahan, Staff Writer
BLOOMINGTON -- Shelbyville’s Kraig Ladd has signed to play football and baseball at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.
Ladd, a quarterback on the Rams football team, which reached the Class 3A playoffs this past year before being eliminated by St. Joseph-Ogden, 41-8, chose the Division III school over several others including Aurora University (football), Kaskaskia College (baseball), Illinois College (basketball), and MacMurray (basketball).
“Illinois Wesleyan is a great school,” said Ladd. “You can’t beat it academically. It is a beautiful campus. Bloomington is a college town with Illinois State just down the road where some of my best friends go. Their coach (football coach and athletics director Norm Eash, a 1975 IWU grad) is one of the nicest guys I have met in my life. He pretty much sold it to me.”
Ladd is one of 41 incoming freshman to the football program, including one other player that is also to play baseball. Only one other quarterback was recruited for a Titan team that lost its starting quarterback (Tom Kudyba) and had three other quarterbacks on the roster.
“The starting quarterback graduated and the position is wide open,” said Ladd.
At Shelbyville Ladd, a 6-foot-4, 195 pounder, was captain of the team this year, one that finished 5-5. He was second team all-Okaw Valley Conference. He threw for 10 touchdowns and was 76-of-160 for a total of 1,149 yards this season under coach Andy Kerley. He was third in the Mattoon Journal-Gazette/Charleston Times-Courier in passing yards per game (114.9). In 2004 the Rams reached the final four in Class 2A and in 2003 the team reached the Class 3A playoffs, both under Rick Woolverton.
Ladd said he began getting letters for football in the summer.
“It has been a lifelong dream to play college football,” said Ladd. “There is nothing better than that.”
Ladd is to face former teammate Adam Helton, who is to play at Millikin as both schools compete in the Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.
“I was always glad he was on the same team and I didn’t have to play against him, but now I do,” said Ladd.
The Titans finished 3-7 overall last year and 2-5 in the CCIW. Eash has a 19-year record of 116-63-1 all at IWU.
In baseball Ladd is one of 12 incoming freshmen for coach Dennis Martel, who has coached for 19 years at IWU and has a career record of 475-317-3. The Titans were 28-14 overall last year and 14-7 in the CCIW.
“It is a beautiful baseball field and I figured I have to at least try it for a year,” said Ladd. “Their coach came to the Argenta-Oreana game and said I would play mainly first base and see time in the outfield as well.”
The baseball team lost 12 seniors on the roster of 40.
“He can hit at the Division III level,” said Shelbyville coach Tony Pullen. “He is just a great hitter. He can take the outside pitch and take it the opposite way with some authority. He can definitely have success at the Division III level. It is a great baseball program with a great baseball coach.”
Ladd helped the Rams to their second consecutive sectional title by batting .500 and Shelbyville finished 28-3, the best in school history. He led the team in batting, on-base percentage (.613) and slugging percentage (.865) with a team-high eight home runs and a team-high 41 runs batted in. Defensively Ladd had a .982 fielding percentage at first base. He finished his varsity career with a .446 batting average and a career fielding average of .966. He finished his career on teams that went a combined 87-29.
“It is a great honor just to be acknowledged that I am a good enough of an athlete to play sports at a great place like Illinois Wesleyan,” said Ladd, who also was on the student council, key club, Future Farmers of America and has been a community volunteer and mentor during his high school years.
Ladd also excelled in basketball where he was the captain his senior season and earned second team all-conference honors averaging 19 points and 11 rebounds per game, earned MVP honors and special mention all-state by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.
Academically Ladd said, “I am leaning towards something in the medical field, law or be a sports agent.”
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
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