Leaving A Legacy: Notre Dame Baseball’s Niko Kavadas Readies For MLB Draft
Sometimes speaking something into existence is as easy as just doing it.
Niko Kavadas was in grade school when he went to an Indiana University baseball game with a family friend, Dave Metcalf, who was also his youth baseball coach. Metcalf took one look at Hoosier slugger Kyle Schwarber and turned to Kavadas.
“That’s you,” he told him. “That’s going to be you in a few years.”
Metcalf wasn’t far off. He might have even sold his former little leaguer short.
Schwarber smashed 40 home runs in 180 games at IU from 2012-14. Kavadas, a first baseman who just wrapped up his senior season at Notre Dame, hit 46 homers in 161 games. Twenty-two of them came in his record-setting senior season.
If the trajectories of the two Midwest baseball bashers continue to parallel each other, Kavadas is far from finished. Schwarber spent the first six seasons of his professional career with the Chicago Cubs and is in his first year with the Washington Nationals. He has hit 146 MLB home runs and counting.
A Mishawaka (Ind.) Penn High School graduate who grew up what might as well be a throw from right field to home plate from Notre Dame’s campus, Kavadas already lived out one dream. He put on a golden helmet and repped “ND” across his chest for four years.
Now it could be time to live out another.
Kavadas expects to hear his name called during this week’s 20-round MLB Draft, which starts Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on MLB Network and ESPN. He’ll be watching anxiously with his immediate family in Mishawaka.
“Sunday and Monday are some really big days,” Kavadas told BlueandGold.com. “I’m excited to see how it plays out. I’ve worked my whole life for this moment. It’s surreal to realize it’s finally here.”
‘That’s Something I Want To Leave Behind’
Draft day could have come a lot sooner for Kavadas. Schwarber was drafted after his junior season in Bloomington. He was a surefire first-rounder, though, and the Cubs picked him with the No. 4 overall pick.
Kavadas wasn’t as heralded a prospect at that point in his career. Schwarber hit at least .300 in all three years at IU with a career-best .366 mark as a sophomore. It took Kavadas until his senior season to have a career-high batting average of .305.
Still, Kavadas had the resume to get selected in a normal year. It just wasn’t a normal year. The 2020 draft was slashed down from 40 rounds to five because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kavadas never heard his name. His dream of playing professionally would have to wait.
The consolation? The dream he was already living could continue.
Kavadas said he grew up going to Notre Dame games to watch guys like Aaron Heilman and Jeff Samardzija — two eventual MLB pitchers who both hailed from Indiana. Kavadas was one of three players on the 2021 Irish roster from the Hoosier state.
Kavadas saw himself as taking the torch as Indiana-born players to star at Notre Dame from Heilman and Samardzija with intent to pass it on to those who come after him. In a way, he already has.
Ryan Gumpf and Brady Lynch, both freshmen, were the other players from Indiana on Notre Dame’s roster. The former came from St. Joseph High School in South Bend. The latter came from Penn High, Kavadas’ old stomping grounds.
“I think a large part of my legacy is providing some hope for players in this area to know if they work hard enough and are talented enough, Notre Dame will find you — especially if you are 15 minutes away,” Kavadas said. “That’s something I want to leave behind.”
‘He’s Here Now’
Kavadas led the Irish to its second ever Super Regional appearance and first since 2002. Notre Dame was one win away from its third College World Series bid.
That win never came.
It still stings Kavadas that his senior season ended in Starkville, Mississippi, watching eventual national champion Mississippi State parade around its own ballpark. Assuming Kavadas gets picked sometime this week, that was the last time he’d ever suit up in blue and gold.
“It was really disappointing to see the season end the way it did,” Kavadas said. “We felt like we were a better team and if we catch them 10 times we win seven or eight. It was unfortunate that on that given week they outperformed us.”
If anyone understood how hard it was for Kavadas to accept closure, it’s former Notre Dame assistant coach Jesse Woods. Woods was Kavadas’ neighbor in Mishawaka. He saw Kavadas go from the boy hitting wiffle balls down the street to the man hitting home runs over the fence at Frank Eck Stadium.
“The first practice in the fall of his freshman year, I remember looking over at him wearing the Notre Dame logo on his chest,” Woods said, “and I know how much that meant to him. Just seeing him actually wear it for real, I remember thinking, ‘He’s here now. He did it. This is it.’”
‘I’ll Take Care Of It Coach’
It didn’t happen overnight.
Metcalf and Kavadas’ father, Jim, founded the Granger Cubs travel team when their sons were 8. Metcalf’s son, Nolan, spent the last four years with the Kansas Jayhawks. The duo played for their fathers on the Cubs until they were 14.
During a game in the latter part of that span, the Cubs were taking it to their opponent by a wide margin. Metcalf remembers a coincidental pattern of four runs then two, four runs then two repeating on the scoreboard for the first four or five innings.
The streak was on the verge of snapping with Kavadas in the on-deck circle. The Cubs already scored three runs in the frame, but the batter ahead of Kavadas struck out with nobody on base. A stray three was about to go on the board next to the string of fours and twos.
“It looks like we’re going to get off our pattern here,” Metcalf joked with Kavadas as he walked to the plate.
“Oh, I’ll take care of it coach,” Metcalf said Kavadas told him.
Kavadas hit a solo home run. The Cubs finished the inning with four runs — right on cue.
“He’s one of those kinds of people who doesn’t miss out on the little things,” Metcalf said. “He’s got that confidence. He’s one of the most driven and focused individuals I’ve ever been around.”
‘Constantly Striving For More’
Woods and Kavadas have continued the relationship that started on the residential streets of Mishawaka and blossomed in the year Woods spent coaching him at Notre Dame.
Woods keeps close connections with many of his former players, but he said his bond with Kavadas is just different. That’s because Kavadas is just, well, just different.
“He has such a passion for baseball and the competition within baseball,” Woods said. “At his core, he’s such a competitive baseball player. He loves competitive success so much that he just wants to be as great as he can be. I’ve been fortunate enough to coach some of the best players Notre Dame has ever had, and Niko is right up there with them.”
It’s the determination and drive that pushes players to succeed at the next level. If Kavadas doesn’t achieve everything he wants to as a professional, it won’t be because he didn’t try.
Woods said Kavadas pushes himself as hard as anyone he’s ever coached, and that includes Baltimore Orioles slugger Trey Mancini. Mancini, who Woods coached at Notre Dame from 2011-12, is participating in Monday’s MLB Home Run Derby.
Could Kavadas be the next former golden domer to achieve that feat? He's certainly not counting himself out. First things first — he's got to hear his name called this week. Then all bets are off.
“I’m a super determined and super competitive person,” Kavadas said. “The minute I stepped on campus, I wanted to be the best player on the field no matter who was between those lines with me. That’s a goal that’s difficult to achieve, so it keeps you constantly striving for more.”
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