Nazareth’s Gabe Kaminski on path to become program’s all-time best

Gabe Kaminski still remembers how nervous he was heading into his freshman year at Nazareth. He only had one goal of making the Roadrunners’ varsity roster and wasn’t sure he’d do it.

“I didn’t think I was going to make varsity,” Kaminski, now a senior, said.

Those nerves went away quickly. Once Kaminski made the varsity roster after the first practice, his goal continuously shifted.

He wanted to earn All-CCL/ESCC honors as a freshman. Check.

He wanted to grow strong bonds with his teammates. Check.

He wanted to win state championships. Check. Check.

One goal Kaminski never pondered, though, was becoming the greatest Roadrunner in program history. But as he enters his senior season, Kaminski has the chance to cement himself as the program’s most-decorated player.

“He’s literally one of the most-decorated players in program history,” Nazareth coach Tim Racki said. “He is in that category of Julian Love, J.J. McCarthy on the football level, that’s a no-brainer.”

Kaminski impressed Racki after that first practice and has continued to stun Racki with this tenacity and competitiveness ever since. As one of the few freshmen to make the varsity roster under Racki, Kaminski rose to the challenge of competing on the defensive line in the CCL/ESCC and earned all-conference honors.

He earned some college interest after his freshman season but continued to improve and generate eye-popping statistics. As a sophomore, Kaminski finished with 74 total tackles, 34 for a loss, 13 sacks, and one forced fumble and safety each.

Those stats grew last year to 132 tackles, 43 for a loss, along with 19 sacks, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception. He earned All-CCL/ESCC and Illinois High School Football Coaches Association All-State honors and was named the Orange Lineman of the Year.

Most importantly, he helped Nazareth win back-to-back state championships the last two seasons.

“Some kids can get fat and happy that early in their career at that age and not have the maturity to handle it,” Racki said. “Gabe checks all the boxes in terms of hands down one of the best players I’ve coached.”

Despite the strong on-field performances, Racki considered Kaminski’s off-field leadership essential to overcoming obstacles the last two years. Nazareth started the last two seasons 2-4 and 0-5, respectively, but went undefeated the rest of the seasons to win state championships.

Although Kaminski isn’t a vocal leader yelling all the time, when he spoke, his teammates listened. And they watched what he did. Racki said Kaminski continuing to fight when it seemed like the odds were against the Roadrunners helped keep the team together and accomplish back-to-back historic runs.

“You never want to give up on a season,” Kaminski said. “You want to keep fighting for the brothers next to you and just keep going as hard as you can. Giving up isn’t an option for any of us and we are all unselfish, we want to do what’s best for each other. We keep fighting.”

Kaminski and the Roadrunners worked hard this summer to make sure not to put themselves in similar positions once again. While the slow starts make for historic runs, Kaminski said they’d like to have an easier path to win a third straight title.

The biggest challenge will be to start start fast and finish strong. The Roadrunners are 4-8 in the months of August and September the last two seasons and they know that will need to change in order to accomplish their goal this time around.

“Everyone has bought in and all the coaches are preaching that we’re not going to start how we have the last season especially, none of my teammates want to do that either,” Kaminski said. “We’re going to work our butts off so that doesn’t happen.”

Three years after worrying whether he’d make Nazareth’s roster, Kaminski feels comfortable heading into his senior year. He’s committed to play collegiate football at Stanford after he graduates and is focused on winning something that hasn’t been done in program history: winning three straight state championships.

“He’s literally one of the most-decorated players in program history. He is in that category of Julian Love, J.J. McCarthy on the football level, that’s a no-brainer.”

—  Tim Racki, Nazareth coach

Despite the accomplishments, Kaminski doesn’t consider himself to be at the same level of program greats like Love and McCarthy. Not even close. He doesn’t really worry about becoming the greatest Roadrunner in program history either.

But if history repeats itself and Kaminski can help lead the Roadrunners to a third straight crown, it’ll be hard for him to make the argument against himself. Even if that’s not his goal.

“You can never have too many state championships, too many wins,” Kaminski said. “I’m always hungry for more wins. The awards don’t matter that much to me. The most important thing to me is just winning on the field with my teammates and creating the brotherhood with my teammates.”