Dan Capuano’s funeral at St. Rita of Cascia Excessive College on Chicago’s Southwest Facet was standing-room solely. Lots of of firefighters from Chicago and across the nation attended. Members of the St. Jude Knights youth hockey membership have been there, too, carrying their jerseys.
Capuano’s sons, Andrew and Nick, performed for the Knights, a Northern Illinois Hockey League program that feeds a lot of Chicago’s powerhouse Catholic colleges. Nick was on the 2012-13 group that received the Squirt A state championship.
Dan had devoted a lot of his time to the Knights earlier than he died within the line of obligation whereas combating a warehouse fireplace on the South Facet on Dec. 14, 2015.
That title-winning Knights group wished to get again collectively to honor Capuano and his household, so in March 2016, a brand new group was shaped. “Group Capuano” would play within the Shamrock Shuffle on the College of Notre Dame over a weekend. Their jerseys could be pink and white and embrace Dan’s badge quantity: 1676.
There was an early hiccup. “The man that was operating the event, he didn’t wish to allow us to in,” stated Ralph Lawrence, a former St. Jude coach. “He stated that the competitors could be manner too excessive.”
Group Capuano simply wished to play collectively once more. It received in. Issues received chippy. Throughout one sport, a success from behind despatched middle Luke Lawrence, Ralph’s son, arduous into the boards.
“Might have paralyzed him,” Ralph stated. “It was a foul hit.”
That’s when 13-year-old wing J.J. McCarthy rushed in. The long run five-star recruit, Michigan quarterback, nationwide champion and soon-to-be NFL draft choose was furious. He didn’t drop his gloves, however a scrum ensued.
“It was just a little low-cost hit within the nook,” Luke stated. “J.J. was the primary one to me, come into the nook and change just a few phrases with the child.”
“J.J. went off on the child and received kicked out of the sport,” Ralph stated.
The entire scene was not like McCarthy. He was sometimes extra collected on the ice — his father, Jim, one of many main organizers of Group Capuano, didn’t just like the outburst — however Luke was J.J.’s shut pal, and the event was an emotional expertise. And in hockey, management typically entails going into the corners.
“These children performed for one thing greater than hockey that weekend,” Ralph stated.
When it was over, Group Capuano — the group some thought didn’t belong in South Bend — received the event. A yr later, they returned and repeated as champions.
Ice is in McCarthy’s blood. His mom, Megan, was a aggressive determine skater. He began enjoying hockey in kindergarten. Organized soccer got here later.
McCarthy is on report calling hockey his past love. What he skilled on the ice would finally assist make him a greater quarterback — one now on the verge of being drafted within the first spherical.
He was 10 when the Knights defeated Winnetka within the Tier II Squirt A state championship in March 2013. He and Luke Lawrence assisted on the one purpose of the sport. It was a particular season for a particular group, one which finally cut up up as gamers modified groups and ranges.
McCarthy (far proper) received used to profitable early as a part of a championship squad with the St. Jude Knights. (Courtesy of Ralph Lawrence)
McCarthy and Lawrence have been inseparable for years. Aggressive in every little thing, they performed a lot and so effectively collectively on the identical line that they earned a nickname referencing Henrik and Daniel Sedin, the dual stars from the Vancouver Canucks.
The Lawrences and McCarthys stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts earlier than practices or video games. The dads would get espresso. Luke would get a bagel or a banana. McCarthy at all times ordered a strawberry frosted donut. Ralph Lawerence suggested towards the pre-skate pastry, but it surely grew to become McCarthy’s go-to. (After McCarthy signed an NIL deal at Michigan, a medium iced espresso and a strawberry frosted donut grew to become his official Dunkin’ Donuts meal within the Detroit space.)
“We snort until today,” Ralph stated. “And it didn’t damage him. His pace was high-quality. His abdomen didn’t get upset.”
As a coach, Lawrence emphasised enjoying positionally robust within the impartial zone and the significance of forechecking and backchecking. However McCarthy performed the sport with really feel.
“He knew the place the puck was going to be,” Ralph stated. “He knew what the opposite group was going to do.”
As Lawrence watched McCarthy play soccer, he noticed comparable issues occur on the sphere.
“He had an intuition,” Lawrence stated. “It was the identical manner he had it on the ice.”
McCarthy and Lawrence moved on to the Northern Specific, one other Tier II group that performed within the Central States Growth Hockey League, which expanded outdoors of Illinois. It was time for a brand new problem.
“I don’t assume I’ve ever been as excited as a coach,” Northern Specific coach Brent Dolan stated.
Dolan’s group excelled defensively. The group’s forecheck was relentless, but it surely didn’t rating rather a lot.
“When J.J. and Luke got here, that immediately modified,” Dolan stated. “I might say our targets per sport went up by two — and that’s large in hockey.”
Checking was now permitted, too. There could be contact and quite a lot of it, a brand new and totally different degree of physicality. McCarthy might give hits, take hits — and keep away from them. The additional contact additionally meant extracurriculars, and McCarthy had no downside mixing it up.
“If I wanted something or if I used to be getting banged up within the nook, J.J.’s at all times there for me, getting in there and ensuring that nothing’s gonna escalate,” Luke stated. “He would at all times stick up for me.”
By the point he hung up his skates, McCarthy had developed into a quick, bodily ahead. (Courtesy of Ted Eagle)
Hockey requires fast decision-making below duress and amid contact. For McCarthy, as a ahead, that always meant receiving the puck whereas exiting his personal zone and deciding what to do as an opposing defenseman barreled his manner.
Cross the puck shortly to a teammate? Make a fast lower across the defenseman? Chip the puck previous the opponent and go after it?
“Individuals who don’t play hockey don’t actually perceive how briskly of a sport it’s and what number of totally different parts go into it,” Dolan stated. “It’s a must to decide with the puck, and you bought to know the place to go along with it and execute that each one in a cut up second. That’s not overexaggerating it. That most likely helped J.J.’s imaginative and prescient in soccer.”
A shift on the ice can really feel like standing within the pocket: chaos in every single place, violence close by. It’s a must to see it — or, extra importantly, really feel it — to beat it. McCarthy, who was on Northern Specific’ energy play, had the poise and spatial consciousness to function within the maelstrom.
“Hockey positively slowed down soccer,” Luke Lawrence stated.
Specifically, McCarthy developed a Patrick Kane-like knack for avoiding main hits. Dolan later noticed him make hockey-like cuts enjoying for Michigan.
“He’s attempting to keep away from getting drilled,” Dolan stated. “The short, delicate actions that you just make in hockey most likely helped him within the pocket after which additionally whereas he’s out on the sting dashing or scrambling.”
In the summertime between seventh and eighth grade, McCarthy began coaching with Greg Holcomb, a personal QB coach from Subsequent Stage Athletix. Holcomb noticed quite a lot of pure potential. He additionally noticed hockey’s affect.
“One of many explanation why he was so good at throwing off platform and shifting round and altering path might be as a result of in hockey he would get completely killed if he wasn’t in a position to skate previous guys or make them miss,” Holcomb stated. “Hockey positively helped him.”
The primary sport of McCarthy’s closing hockey season got here, fittingly sufficient, at Yost Ice Enviornment on the College of Michigan campus.
He was enjoying for the 14-and-under Chicago Younger People, a Tier I group, throughout his freshman yr at Nazareth Academy highschool. McCarthy had at all times been proficient sufficient to play on the highest degree of youth hockey, however soccer overlapped with hockey an excessive amount of, particularly on the weekends.
CYA coach Ted Eagle didn’t thoughts the battle due to who McCarthy was.
McCarthy had good palms and a fast launch. He performed arduous, generated turnovers and scored. “He was a beast in hockey,” Eagle stated. “He threw the physique round and he wasn’t form of this much less expert, larger man. He was simply quick and bodily.”
And he was a spark — a tone-setter. In hockey, you want that.
“I relied on him, too,” Eagle stated. “It form of units the tone for the remainder of the group when one or two guys are form of pushing the tempo.”
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McCarthy missed the primary sport of the event at Michigan due to a Nazareth soccer sport then confirmed up within the first interval of their second sport towards the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite junior group. Eagle considers it considered one of his favourite hockey recollections. “He raced up, and he confirmed up mid-game and scored a few targets towards one of many high groups within the nation,” Eagle stated.
There have been three hockey practices each week, principally after soccer observe, which resulted in some very late nights for a highschool freshman. And there have been the out-of-town video games missed due to soccer video games on Friday nights or Saturday mornings. CYA would play almost 70 video games that season, many who required journey, and McCarthy made greater than 40 of them, in accordance with Eagle.
The back-and-forth between soccer and hockey required self-discipline, however McCarthy was totally different. Eagle described him as a “front-of-the-line man” in observe. He paid consideration to the smallest particulars, requested loads of questions, talked by means of totally different situations. Eagle stated McCarthy craved the knowledge to get higher. Teammates have been drawn to him.
“I’m certain lots of people are conscious of this by now,” Eagle stated, “however he was identical to an final chief.”
McCarthy hung up his skates after his freshman yr of highschool to deal with soccer. Throughout his sophomore season the following yr — and simply days earlier than Illinois’ Class 7A state championship sport in 2018 — McCarthy’s throwing hand collided with a defensive lineman’s helmet as he launched a cross.
“As a quarterback, it’s the kiss of demise,” stated Brody Budmayr, Nazareth’s former quarterbacks coach.
Every part stopped. McCarthy was in ache — critical, excruciating ache. After just a few nervous moments, the sophomore starter with Division-I curiosity wished to check his hand. He dropped again to cross, after which …
“It’s simply the ache and anguish of you recognize it’s broke,” Budmayr stated. “It’s him really dropping to his knees and us considering, ‘Wow, this isn’t good.’”
However there was no manner he was lacking Nazareth’s state championship sport towards St. Charles North. His mother and father discovered an orthopedic surgeon to work on Thanksgiving, and enjoying grew to become a matter of ache tolerance.
That wasn’t an issue. McCarthy was a hockey participant.
Within the state championship sport, McCarthy was 15-for-21 passing for 201 yards and a landing as Nazareth dominated 31-10. A legend was born.
“In the end, he was the one which needed to go on the market,” Budmayr stated. “He taped it up and he led us to a state championship.”
McCarthy’s hockey coaches are satisfied his expertise on the ice knowledgeable his play on the gridiron. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Pictures)
On Might 11, 2019, McCarthy introduced he was committing to Michigan and coach Jim Harbaugh. Throughout the recruiting course of, Nazareth head coach Tim Racki instructed the story about McCarthy and his damaged thumb.
“Once I instructed him he was a hockey participant, (Harbaugh’s) eyes lit up,” Racki stated. “After which after I instructed him that story, that sealed the deal when it comes to the child’s toughness and the grit that he had.”
When McCarthy announced his college decision on social media, he thanked three hockey coaches — Lawrence, Dolan and Eagle — for permitting him to play each sports activities collectively.
“I might not be the place I’m with out having had hockey in my life,” he wrote.
(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; images: courtesy of Ted Eagle, Scott Taetsch / Getty Pictures