Austin Padjen takes over as Prairie Ridge baseball coach

A ballplayer got cut. A relationship never severed.

Austin Padjen laughs when recalling his unsuccessful attempt to make the varsity baseball team his sophomore year at Prairie Ridge in 2010, although it was hardly funny for him back then.

Coach Glen Pecoraro cut Padjen, humbling the young pitcher and causing him to self-reflect.

“I wasn’t very good,” Padjen said. “I just kept working at it. He took a chance on me my junior year.”

Padjen developed into a solid pitcher for the Wolves his junior and senior seasons. The 6-foot-3 right-hander walked on the baseball team at McHenry County College after graduating from Prairie Ridge in 2012 and then enjoyed two productive seasons at Beloit College. As a junior, he helped the Buccaneers win the Midwest Conference Tournament championship and earn a berth in the NCAA Division III regionals.

Recently, Padjen was named the new head baseball coach at his high school alma mater in Crystal Lake. He replaces none other than the legendary Pecoraro, the first coach in the program’s history, whose Wolves won 14 regional championships and finished second in the Class 3A state tournament in 2021.

“It’s very full circle, and it’s very humbling, because you’re talking about a man [Pecoraro] who was like a second father to me,” said Padjen, 31, who served as Crystal Lake Central’s pitching coach the past five seasons. “To be the guy who’s the next coach after him is an honor. It’s very humbling to be back in your old high school. It just makes you feel like you want to do the job right.”

Not all of life’s curveballs buckle a person’s knees.

Padjen never let getting cut his sophomore year in high school hinder his growth as a ballplayer and person.

“It’s very full circle, and it’s very humbling, because you’re talking about a man [Pecoraro] who was like a second father to me."

—  Austin Padjen, Prairie Ridge baseball coach

“It was kind of a wake-up call in my life,” Padjen said. “Every young man needs a moment, where it’s like, ‘Hey, you got to get it together.’ It’s one thing to be cut, but [Pecoraro] never stopped motivating me, which is why I think he’s been so impressive for 30 years. There’s no better motivator of young men than Glen Pecoraro. I just kept going. I kept trying. I kept listening to him. I’d ask him what I got to do, and it worked out.”

Padjen’s perseverance has helped him in his journey as a social studies teacher and as a coach, both in baseball and football, which he also played in high school. He will teach social studies at Prairie Ridge.

“It’s definitely one of those life lessons that I can try to give to students and kids, and I think it’s why I like coaching so much,” Padjen said. “It’s something that I can relate to when you struggle and you need advice and you need help.”

Padjen’s first job after graduating from Beloit was coaching JV baseball for Pecoraro in 2018. After a couple of years and following the lost 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then Crystal Lake Central athletic director and former head baseball coach Jeff Aldridge hired him.

Padjen served as pitching coach under Andy Deain and then Cal Aldridge (Jeff’s son) the past two years.

In Cal Aldridge’s first season as head coach in 2024, the Tigers won the Class 3A state title. Cal Aldridge, Padjen and fellow assistant coach Tristan Stewart all played under Pecoraro.

“We all got really close to each other, especially winning a state title,” Padjen said. “I feel bad for leaving the people at Central because they’re awesome humans, and they treated me so well.”

The opportunity to replace Pecoraro, who’s a member of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, was one that Padjen couldn’t turn down. He says it was thanks to Pecoraro’s help that he was able to earn a spot on MCC’s baseball team.

Padjen will take over a Wolves team that finished 27-10-1 in their final season under “Coach Pec.”

“I think if it wasn’t for Pec, I wouldn’t have the baseball journey I have,” Padjen said. “That’s what makes it so surreal to be back at Prairie Ridge. I may be the guy taking over for Pec, but as he said to me, I can only be myself, not him.”