OP_122718

30 | December 27, 2018 | The orland park prairie sports
opprairie.com
OP’s Minervini counted on as Brother Rice’s stat man
RANDY WHALEN
Freelance Reporter
When Orland Park’s Mike
Minervini missed the Brother
Rice basketball victory over
Harlan Academy on Nov. 24
in the title game of the Joliet
West Thanksgiving Tournament,
it was a rare occasion.
It was only the fourth time
that Minervini, an Orland
Park resident, has missed a
Crusaders basketball game
since 1993. He did so with
good reason, though. That’s
because Minervini, who
has been the statistician for
Brother Rice baseball, basketball
and football for the
better part of the past two
decades, was doing stats for
the football team in the Illinois
High School Association
Class 8A state championship
game that evening at Memorial
Stadium in Champaign.
“I still got to cover the first
three games at Joliet West,
Minervini said. “Although
they moved the time of the
basketball title game up to
3:30, I still only went to the
football game.
“I wasn’t going to miss
that. I went with basketball
[quarterfinals] in 2005, baseball
[fourth place] in 2007
and now football [second
place in 2018]. It completed
the trifecta of state events for
me.”
The other basketball
games he has missed were
in 2002, when his daughter
Nicole got married. The
next year, Minervini, who
also does stats for St. Xavier
University basketball,
was committed to be at the
SXU contest when a Crusaders
game in Indiana got
rescheduled for a Saturday.
Then, in December of 2011
his oldest son, Michael was
returning from the inaugural
seven-month deployment
of the aircraft carrier, the
USS Bush. He and his wife,
Division I Brother Rice recruit Marquise Kennedy is one of
several stars Orland Park’s Mike Minervini has kept stats
on. TIM O’BRIEN/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
Former Brother Rice pitcher Ryan Palmblad, an Orland
Park native, is one of many Crusader baseball players
statistician Mike Minervini has covered.
TIM O’BRIEN/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
Sandra, got to join the other
families of the crew when
the ship returned to Norfolk,
Virginia.
He rarely misses Brother
Rice games. He has covered
games inside and outside. He
has kept the numbers in the
wind, rain, snow, sleet and
heat. His travels have taken
him to numerous cities in and
outside the Chicago area.
Minervini has been doing
the basketball statistics since
1993, the football numbers
since 1999, and the baseball
stats since 2000. He’s only
missed one football game,
and that was the second game
of the 1999 season when his
niece Allyson Polickey got
married. He has not missed a
baseball game since 2003.
So, how did Minervini, a
1966 Richards graduate, who
attended Eisenhower for his
first three years until Richards
opened, get involved in
Brother Rice athletics?
“My daughter [Nicole,
1993 grad] went to McAuley
and was a cheerleader there,
and my sons [Michael, 1995
grad and Ross, 1998 grad]
went to Brother Rice and
were involved in a variety
of sports,” Minervini said. “I
had followed Rice athletics
for awhile. I had relatives that
went there, and I attended the
1981 and 1985 football state
title games. So, they asked
me to help out, first with Pat
Richardson in basketball in
Mike Minervini, of Orland Park, (with clipboard) has been a fixture for Brother Rice sports
for 25 years. JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
Orland Park’s Jack McMahon (No. 44) and his Brother Rice teammates made it to the
Class 8A championship game in November, which was a highlight for statistician Michael
Minervini. JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
1993.”
He does not do stats for
McAuley events, because he
simply does not have much
time to do so. He also has
done the basketball stats for
the St. Xavier men’s and
women’s teams for the past
19 years. There are very
few conflicts with Crusader
events, but when there are, he
goes with Brother Rice.
There are many favorite
moments he can recall, starting
with basketball in 2005.
“We beat Simeon (77-
76) in double overtime at
St. Xavier in the [Class 4A]
sectional final that year,” Minervini
said. “Derrick Rose
was a sophomore, and that
was his last postseason loss,
as Simeon won it the next
two years. Then we beat Proviso
East (59-58) at the UIC
Supersectional to go downstate
for the first time.
“In baseball, we went
undefeated in the Catholic
League in 2017, and this season
was a huge highlight to
have a 13-game win streak
and advance to the state title
game in football.”
Living five minutes from
Brother Rice for many years,
Minervini moved his family
to Orland Park in 1997, and
they have been there since.
He retired from the CTA in
1999, and that also helped
free him to do more statistical
work. He has been married to
Sandra for 47 years and obviously
loves what he does
with Brother Rice, but turned
71 on Nov. 2. So, some of his
impressive streaks may soon
be ending to tend to family.
“I’ve got nine grandkids
that are involved in sports,”
Minervini said. “So, it’s getting
close. But it’s not because
I’m tired of it.”