Western Illinois baseball adds second Sears brother
HARLAN (Nov. 14) -- Steve Daeges certainly knows how much fun it is watching two sons play baseball for the same NCAA Division I university.
Harlan Community’s long-time head baseball coach traveled the midwest during the early-to-mid 2000s as sons Matt and Zach Daeges had successful careers at Creighton.
Chad and Janelle Sears of Westphalia are about to experience some of those same joys.
HCHS senior Brett Sears made it official on Wednesday, signing a national letter of intent to join the baseball program at Western Illinois University in Macomb. Older brother Dillon Sears was a freshman infielder for the Leathernecks (17-31 overall) this past spring and was also Brett’s high school teammate for three seasons.
“It’s going to be a lot easier for his parents having Brett and Dillon at the same university,” Coach Daeges said. “It’s pretty neat to see both of your kids out there on the field at the same time, so it’s going to be very special for his parents and special for Dillon and Brett.”
Brett Sears was selected as a first-team All-State pitcher in 2018 after going 10-1 on the mound with a 1.42 earned run average and 112 strikeouts in 59 and one-third innings for the Class 3A state runner-up Cyclones. He batted .363 at the plate with 31 runs-batted-in and a career-high 20 extra-base hits.
Now sporting a 28-3 career pitching record, Sears was also named All-Area Player of the Year by the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil as well as the Class 4A/3A captain of the Omaha World-Herald’s All-Western Iowa teams.
Sears verbally committed to Western Illinois earlier this summer, but has been leaning toward the Leatherneck program for quite some time. The opportunity to rejoin his older brother played a big factor in his decision, he said, but WIU also seemed like the “right fit” overall.
“I felt that I would get a chance to make an impact right away and maybe get on the field freshman year,” he said.
“I talked to Creighton and Iowa and South Dakota State a little bit and also looked at Iowa Western [Community College], but I pretty much knew Western [Illinois] is where I wanted to go."