Brother Rice Baseball, Lacrosse Standouts Live Out National Team Dreams
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
October 23, 2026
Broder Katke sees it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a stepping stone and also a chance to showcase himself not only on a national level, but eventually an international one.
Not least of all, however, is the chance to represent his country.
When the Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice senior and Vanderbilt University commit found out he'd made the USA Baseball U-18 team for the recently commenced WBSC Americas U-18 Pan Am Championships in the Dominican Republic, he didn't dwell on the pressure and long odds he overcame, but instead on what a tremendous opportunity the selection offers.
"There are definitely a lot of ways to look at it," said Katke, one of three Brother Rice athletes selected to compete in select United States national competitions this fall. "I just looked at it like, don't press, don't make the situation bigger than it is. You just go about it like any other game, any other at-bat.
"It was super cool to make the team a cold-weather state. Putting that "USA" across your chest and representing your country is a big thing."
A senior catcher for Brother Rice, Katke made the U-18 team following tryouts at the USA Baseball facility in Cary, N.C., in late August. Eighty-eight players were invited including other catchers from California, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, Minnesota and Puerto Rico. Katke impressed a coaching staff comprised of predominantly former major leaguers by going 5-for-17 with two RBIs in eight games.
The Pan Am Championships are a qualifier for the 2027 U-18 World Cup in China. Katke is the first Michigan native to make the U-18 roster since Billy Killian of Remus Chippewa Hills in 2003. Just 10 Michigan high schoolers have made that team since its founding in 1981.
Recent graduates of the U-18 program include current major leaguers Pete Crow-Armstrong, Bobby Witt Jr., Riley Greene, C.J. Abrams, Corbin Carroll, Nolan McLean, Jackson Holiday and Dylan Crews. Among USA Baseball coaches at the tryouts were former big leaguers Brian Schneider, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond and Brad Wilkerson.
Katke made Michigan's all-state Dream Team at Brother Rice last spring after batting .410 with 21 RBIs and 34 runs. In three seasons at Brother Rice, Katke has hit .371 with 78 RBI, 31 doubles and eight homers in 275 at-bats.
He knows the rarity of making a national team when 14 of the 20 players come from baseball-popular, warm-weather states California, Florida, Texas and Georgia.
"Michigan is a cold-weather state, but it doesn't get enough credit in baseball," said Katke, rated as the nation's 37th-best player by Perfect Game and 31st by Prep Baseball. "But (cold-weather) teams haven't faced some of the pitching we have. I was never stressed out at the tryout; I just wanted to compete and give myself the best shot at making the team. I thought of it as a chance to express myself rather than trying to impress.
"There are bigger and faster players than me, but I was there to do the best I could. It was nice to go there knowing you were representing your school, our coaches, community and state. If you go there thinking anything else, you're playing the wrong game."
Katke said one of his strengths as an athlete is the ability to put pressure aside. Katke followed up his performance at the tryouts by playing for the West team last month at the 2026 Dick's Perfect Game All-American Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. He was the first Michigan player to make that game since Northville's Dante Nori in 2023.
"Pressure is a privilege," Katke said. "You feel intensity and you're excited, and there's a thin line between the two. You're going to have anxiety, but the preparation I had leading up to the event was some of the best I've ever had."
Katke is one of three Brother Rice athletes who have recently donned USA national team jerseys. Senior Ben Waechter made the USA Lacrosse U-19 team while junior Michael Burkhart made the U-17 team. The Brother Rice lacrosse players were the only Michigan players to make either team, both of which competed in the Sept. 27-29 Brogden Cup held at the USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md.
Committed to continue at Duke, Waechter was all-state and All-American last season and scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the 2025 Division 1 championship game against Detroit Catholic Central. He was one of 85 players invited to the original tryouts who later were cut down to the final 25.
"Everyone dreams of having "USA" stitched across your chest," he said. "That's awesome. You're playing with some of the best lacrosse players in the country, which is always a goal you have in mind. Getting to the highest step you can make is great, something awesome to be part of."
While Katke competed against well-known southern and western baseball players, many of lacrosse's top high school-age players come from the East. The talent level at the tryouts was an eye-opening experience, Waechter said.
"It was definitely hard because the East has so many players, but I've always had good coaches who do the same things that coaches in the East do," he said. "It just comes down to how much you want to put into it."
The USA U-19 team defeated Canada 8-7 in the final to go undefeated in three games.
Burkart lettered for Brother Rice as a junior last season. He went through a Regional qualifier and then 100-player combine to make the U-17 roster.
"It was an amazing experience," he said. "You have to go out there level-headed and not wanting to get out of yourself and play badly. I felt I was pretty composed and not overconfident, and that worked for me."
Like Katke and Waechter, Burkhart was aware there are limited chances to impress coaches at tryouts. He credits the national team coaches, however, for giving all players an equal shot at making the roster.
"I thought we had a lot of chances to make plays," he said. "Things move pretty fast. You do drills and technical stuff, but there is an opportunity to be seen. That's what you want."
The U-17 team beat Canada 16-3 in the final to earn a gold medal.
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Broder Katke heads to first base while playing for his national baseball team. At right, Michael Burkhart and Ben Waechter pose for a photo together. (Middle) Katke waits on a pitch during an at bat for USA Baseball. (Below) Waechter launches what would become the game-winning shot for Brother Rice in the 2025 Division 1 Final. (Katke photos courtesy of USA Baseball.)
As Time Marches On, Tuttle's Blissfield Success Sets Record Pace
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
May 24, 2021
BLISSFIELD – Larry Tuttle spends a little more time in the dugout these days.
The Blissfield coach, 76, says that is his daughter’s idea.
“My daughter tells me she didn’t want me out there,” Tuttle said. “My reaction time isn’t what it used to be.”
Tuttle not coaching third base is something new. However, not much else has changed with the Blissfield baseball program since Tuttle arrived more than five decades ago as a budding baseball coach.
He was an assistant coach at Temperance Bedford who wanted to be a varsity head coach. Blissfield gave him that opportunity, and he never left.
“They asked me if I wanted to coach track,” Tuttle said. “I said, ‘No, I want to coach baseball.’”
Earlier this month, Tuttle’s Royals beat Hillsdale, on the road, in front of a large contingent of former players, parents and community members who made the trip to witness history. With a 15-0 win in the opening game of the Lenawee County Athletic Association doubleheader, Tuttle passed former Grand Ledge head coach Pat O’Keefe to become the winningest high school baseball coach in state history.
Blissfield is up to 27-3 this season, giving Tuttle 1,324 career victories. O’Keefe compiled 1,315 wins during 1968 and then between 1970 and 2019 before stepping down. Both are in the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Pat and I go back a long way,” Tuttle said. “We’ve known each other a long time. We were both active in the coaches association as board members. He is a good man. This record has been between he and I for many, many years.”
The secret to Tuttle’s success is that he treats today’s games pretty much the same way he did when he took over the program in 1968.
“The expectations don’t change,” Tuttle said. “That’s important. It is the same today as it was with all my teams. You set that expectation early on. The kids have been great.”
Tuttle has had enormous success at Blissfield. This week the Royals clinched the LCAA tittle, the 40th league title Tuttle has won during his 53 seasons. Also during that span, Blissfield has won 32 District, 23 Regional and seven MHSAA Finals championships. His most recent Finals title came in 2003, which, at the time, was his third in four years.
He has coached several baseball players that went on to play in college, several at the Division I level, and around a dozen who were either drafted or signed as free agents with Major League Baseball organizations. A couple of them have made it to the Major Leagues, and others have remained in professional baseball as coaches or managers at one level or another.
Steve Babbitt moved to Blissfield in the late 1980s when he was hired as a teacher, and became Tuttle’s assistant coach. He eventually became Blissfield’s athletic director. He was in the district for 30 years, and has retired – and Tuttle is still at it.
“He already was the head coach for 20 years when I got here, and now I’m retired and he’s still coaching,” Babbitt said. “It’s remarkable. … For somebody to be as passionate as Larry and to do it as long as he has, for more than 53 years, is unbelievable.”
Babbitt said Tuttle might have mellowed a little bit over the years, but, to his credit, he’s adapted his coaching style while keeping the expectations the same.
“Once you cross that line and get on the field, nothing has changed,” Babbitt said. “The expectations are the same. He loves the game.”
Tuttle coached third base up until this season, when he decided to turn that duty over to assistant Eric Schmidt, one of his former players. Tuttle not only coached Schmidt, but Schmidt’s father as well. The Royals have several coaches, all with various duties.
“Eric is doing third base this year and doing an excellent job,” Tuttle said.
Matt Ganun and Matt Jones – both former Royals baseball players – take turns coaching first base. Another former Royal, Jeff Jackson, helps relay Tuttle’s calls from the dugout.
“Jackson and Ganun were on the 1992 state championship team,” Tuttle said. “They know the game.”
Having so many coaches in the dugout is a blessing, Tuttle said.
“I’ve got a lot of great coaches with me,” Tuttle said. “Everybody knows their responsibility and it just falls into place, much better than anybody thinks. If someone look at us, it looks like we are stumbling over ourselves. That’s not the case at all.”
Tuttle has heard from several of his former players and community members since setting the wins record.
“I’ve had a number of players who have contacted me, some over the internet, some have phoned. It has been very exciting from that standpoint and very rewarding to hear from them,” Tuttle said.
“I heard from Brad Fischer. He has been in pro baseball for 43 years with various teams, Major League teams. … He made a comment to me that really hit home. He said, ‘Coach, if it hadn’t been for you, my career in baseball would never have happened.’ That really hits home when someone tells you that. Then I know maybe I’ve had an impact on some lives.”
Blissfield is enjoying one of its best seasons in years, led by five seniors – Nolan Savich, Ty Wyman, Zack Horky, Scott Jackson and Gavin Ganun. Ganun and Horky have signed to play at Bowling Green State University next season.
Tuttle’s goals have been the same pretty much every season for years – win the league, win the District, and make a deep MHSAA Tournament run. This year’s team is ranked No. 6 in the most recent Division 3 coaches association poll.
Breaking the record also brought a lot of attention, from newspaper and television stations to Bally’s Sports Detroit doing a segment on Tuttle and the team for a Detroit Tigers pre-game show.
“It’s been exciting,” Tuttle said. “It’s been good for our whole community and the school system. In a small town, the school system is a major part of the community.”
Tuttle lives across the street from Blissfield High, not much more than a long fly ball from the Royals’ stadium. Most days, especially this time of the year, that is where you will find him, working on the field.
“I don’t do as much as I used to because I have a lot of people helping me,” Tuttle said. “Some of the other coaches won’t let me now. But I’m over there almost every day doing something, because usually there’s something that has to be done to keep it looking like it does.”
Some things never change.
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Blissfield coach Larry Tuttle poses for photos with his team after setting the MHSAA record for baseball coaching wins this month. (Middle) Tuttle’s 1992 team was among his Finals champions; he is standing back row, far right. (Below) Tuttle with this season’s five seniors. (2021 photos courtesy of Joe Flaherty. 1992 photo from MHSAA files.)