Lincoln-Way East hires John McCarthy as head baseball coach

FRANKFORT – Lincoln-Way East this week announced the hiring of John McCarthy as its new head varsity baseball coach, beginning in the 2023-24 school year. McCarthy, who also will serve as a counselor at East, has most recently worked at Homewood-Flossmoor as its head varsity baseball coach and as a counselor.

“We are excited to see where he can take the baseball program.”

—  Mark Vander Kooi, Lincoln-Way East athletic director

McCarthy has a strong background in baseball, previously working as the director of baseball operations for Illinois Sparks Baseball and as the head varsity coach at Brother Rice before joining the staff at H-F in 2018. McCarthy was a Major League Baseball draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 2002 after a career at St. Rita and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

McCarthy has a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana-Lafayette and a master’s degree in school counseling and guidance from Lewis University. He joins the Griffins with more than 10 years of experience in school counseling.

McCarthy was hired to take the place of Eric Brauer, who stepped down after five seasons and had a 135-32 record. In those five seasons, the Griffins won three regional championships and posted a school-record 31 wins and a sectional championship this past spring.

In his four seasons at the helm for H-F, McCarthy led the Vikings to an 83-55 record and also won a regional championship in 2021, when his team finished 22-9. The Vikings then went 24-12 in 2022 before going 19-16 last season. While he was at Brother Rice, he had a record of 186-79 in seven seasons from 2012 through 2018, including three consecutive regional championships (2016-18) and a sectional title in 2018.

“John comes to Lincoln-Way East with a great track record and reputation,” Lincoln-Way East athletic director Mark Vander Kooi said. “As good as he is as a baseball coach, he also takes pride in being a great guidance counselor. He has been very successful as a head baseball coach at two programs that compete against the best in the state. John has impressive vision and goals, is a good communicator and cares about people.

“We are excited to see where he can take the baseball program.”