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.)
Carefelle Twins Bring 'High School Musical' to Life Starring on Field, Stage
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
May 27, 2025
It’s appropriate that seniors Ezra and Micah Carefelle played two of the lead roles in the Muskegon Mona Shores production of “High School Musical” this spring.
The show, in essence, is the story of their lives.
Ezra, the leading scorer on the red-hot Mona Shores boys lacrosse team and kicker on the football team, played the lead role of Troy Bolton.
Micah, an all-area receiver on the Sailors’ football team and star face-off man in lacrosse, played Chad Danforth, Troy’s best friend and sports teammate.
“Their lives are the actual script of High School Musical,” said Molly Lawton, the longtime director of the Mona Shores spring production. “It’s not often that you get two athletic guys who can sing and dance – and aren’t afraid to do it.”
Fear is not a word in the extensive vocabulary of the Carefelle boys, who are now playing a leading role for the Sailors’ lacrosse team, which is 17-3 and riding a 12-game winning streak heading into Wednesday’s 6 p.m. showdown at Rockford (14-2) for a Division 1 Regional championship. Rockford was seeded first and Mona Shores second in the bracket.
The Sailors actually lost their first two matches of the season, but a big reason for that was because the Carefelles did not play, as those games fell at the same time as “High School Musical” performances.
With the high-energy, highly-skilled Carefelle twins in the lineup, Shores has won 17 of its last 18 games.
“Other coaches often tell me that we out-worked them or out-toughed them, and it all starts with Ezra and Micah,” said first-year Shores boys lacrosse coach Adam Zarotney. “They are very skilled, but what sets them apart is that they always give 100-percent effort, 100 percent of the time.”
Keep your head in the game
Much like the musical, the Carefelles spent a good deal of this spring racing back-and-forth between lacrosse practices and theater rehearsals.
“There were a couple of rehearsals where we literally sprinted from lacrosse and were completely drenched in sweat,” Micah said.
And it worked the other way around, as well.
“I literally did my final audition for the play with my eye black on, because I had to get to lacrosse,” said Ezra with a laugh.
Ezra, who his coach said “has the ability to score from anywhere at any time against anybody,” leads the team with 66 goals and 44 assists for 110 points. Ezra is 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, slightly smaller than his brother.
Micah does not have nearly as many points, with 20 goals and 19 assists for 39, but he makes his biggest contribution on face-offs. He has won 141 of his 237 face-offs (59 percent) on the season.
“When we need a goal, we have an offensive series where we just get out of their way and let them go,” said Zarotney, who is assisted by Curtis Pek and Chad Burton. “They can get to the middle of the field and do things that other kids can’t.”
While Zarotney would love for them to “leave it all on the field” (as coaches often say), Lawton wants her lead performers to save some of their boundless energy for the stage.
Lawton marveled at the way the twins were able to shift gears, immediately and seamlessly, and knock out their performances every time.
The biggest problem she had was that they looked too much alike on the stage. So, Ezra straightened his hair and Micah bleached his, added a little goatee and, voila, the twins became Troy and Chad.
“The word I would use to describe it is magical,” said Lawton, called the Carefelles two of the most polite gentlemen with whom she’s worked. “They are both very smart and memorized their lines long before I required it. The chemistry between them on stage is really something special.”
Beating the odds
Ezra and Micah both love their unique, Biblical names, which are fitting given the importance of faith to the Carefelle family.
Ezra means “helper,” while Micah means “like God,” and their mother, Tracy, insists that it was a miracle that the boys were born healthy.
Tracy and her husband, Adam, visited a specialist shortly after learning they were having twins. After the ultrasound, the doctor gave them sobering news: Because they were mono-amniotic (sharing the same “bag of waters”), he said there was only a 50-percent chance of survival.
Tracy started going for an ultrasound every week and expected to have to give birth very prematurely by C-section, until an amazing, incredible – perhaps miraculous – event was discovered during the 28-week ultrasound.
“That ultrasound showed that each of them was now in their own sac,” said Tracy. “The doctor told us he had never seen a membrane form that late in a pregnancy.”
As a result, Tracy was able to go nearly to full term, delivering Ezra (6 pounds, 8 ounces) and then Micah (6 pounds, 4 ounces) by natural birth. They are considered mirror-image twins, which helps explain why Micah is right-handed and Ezra is left-handed, and why their hair naturally parts on different sides of their heads.
Micah and Ezra also have an older sister, Lydia (a 2024 Mona Shores graduate), and three younger sisters – Chloe (eighth grade), Selah (seventh grade) and Ava (kindergarten).
The Carefelles developed their singing voices and acting abilities growing up in the church choir. Ezra actually sang the national anthem at most of the Sailors’ home lacrosse matches this season, running up to the press box to sing into the headset and then running back down the bleachers to start the game.
Both will attend Hope College next year. Micah will play football and major in exercise science, with a goal of working as a chiropractor or in physical therapy. Ezra will play lacrosse and major in secondary education, with plans to become a high school teacher and coach.
“Our faith really energizes us and gives us confidence in everything we do,” said Ezra, who carries a 3.98 GPA, while Micah is right behind at 3.89. “We have learned to rely on our faith to get us through hard times and struggles.”
Start of something new
Ezra is extremely competitive but admits he’s almost subdued compared to his brother.
Micah’s feistiness and intensity are great things most of the time, but sometimes get the better of him – which was the case during last week’s Regional Semifinal win over Hudsonville, when he was ejected after leaving the sideline to defend a teammate during a tense moment on the field. Because of the ejection, he also must miss Wednesday’s game against the Rams.
Zarotney points to his team’s depth and the fact many attackers have contributed to the team’s success, notably senior Conner Osterhart (a Hope College commit), junior Cullen Conrad and freshmen Jack Carlson and Payton Koziak.
The young defensive group also has improved steadily throughout the season, led by junior George Duggins and freshman Owen Terpstra.
But perhaps the hottest player on the team down the stretch has been senior goalie Ben Warren, who has saved 59 percent of shots on goal with a 79-percent clearing percentage.
“The whole team is playing with a lot of confidence right now,” said Zarotney. “These kids really play for each other. At the end of the day, I really think that separates us from other teams.”
If the Sailors prevail Wednesday, they will advance to Friday’s Division 1 Quarterfinals – which would be a great thing, but also create a big problem.
The Carefelles are scheduled to go on the choir’s season-ending trip to New York City this weekend, leaving Thursday night. While they were able to juggle lacrosse and theater all season, this weekend those two opportunities would be almost 800 miles apart.
“That would be a tough one,” Ezra admitted.
Historically, when you tell Ezra and Micah they can’t do something, they do it. So perhaps they will come up with something (i.e., fly out separately right after their lacrosse match and meet up with the choir group in NYC) to allow them to do both.
Sounds preposterous, but don’t put anything past the Carefelle boys.
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Micah Carefelle, left in his football jersey, and twin brother Ezra, right in his lacrosse jersey, pose for a photo at Sailor Stadium. (2) Ezra Carefelle, left, plays Troy Bolden, and Micah, right with dyed hair, plays Chad Danforth in the Mona Shores production of “High School Musical” in March. (3) Ezra Carefelle attacks during a recent lacrosse match. (4) Micah Carefelle hurdles a defender during a football game against Byron Center last fall. (Top photo by Joe Lane. Theater photo by Neeve Callaghan. Lacrosse/football action photos by Eric Sturr.)