Dan Capuano’s funeral at St. Rita of Cascia Excessive College on Chicago’s Southwest Facet was standing-room solely. A whole lot of firefighters from Chicago and across the nation attended. Members of the St. Jude Knights youth hockey membership had been there, too, sporting their jerseys.
Capuano’s sons, Andrew and Nick, performed for the Knights, a Northern Illinois Hockey League program that feeds lots of Chicago’s powerhouse Catholic colleges. Nick was on the 2012-13 crew that gained 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 preventing a warehouse hearth on the South Facet on Dec. 14, 2015.
That title-winning Knights crew wished to get again collectively to honor Capuano and his household, so in March 2016, a brand new crew was fashioned. “Staff 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 match, he didn’t need to allow us to in,” mentioned Ralph Lawrence, a former St. Jude coach. “He mentioned that the competitors could be approach too excessive.”
Staff Capuano simply wished to play collectively once more. It acquired in. Issues acquired chippy. Throughout one sport, successful from behind despatched heart Luke Lawrence, Ralph’s son, onerous into the boards.
“May have paralyzed him,” Ralph mentioned. “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 decide was furious. He didn’t drop his gloves, however a scrum ensued.
“It was a bit of low-cost hit within the nook,” Luke mentioned. “J.J. was the primary one to me, come into the nook and alternate just a few phrases with the child.”
“J.J. went off on the child and acquired kicked out of the sport,” Ralph mentioned.
The entire scene was not like McCarthy. He was sometimes extra collected on the ice — his father, Jim, one of many major organizers of Staff Capuano, didn’t just like the outburst — however Luke was J.J.’s shut buddy, and the match was an emotional expertise. And in hockey, management usually entails going into the corners.
“These youngsters performed for one thing greater than hockey that weekend,” Ralph mentioned.
When it was over, Staff Capuano — the crew some thought didn’t belong in South Bend — gained the match. 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 in the end 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 aim 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) acquired used to profitable early as a part of a championship squad with the St. Jude Knights. (Courtesy of Ralph Lawrence)
McCarthy and Lawrence had been inseparable for years. Aggressive in every part, they performed a lot and so nicely 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 in opposition to the pre-skate pastry, however it 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 snigger until today,” Ralph mentioned. “And it didn’t harm him. His velocity was tremendous. 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 mentioned. “He knew what the opposite crew was going to do.”
As Lawrence watched McCarthy play soccer, he noticed comparable issues occur on the sector.
“He had an intuition,” Lawrence mentioned. “It was the identical approach he had it on the ice.”
McCarthy and Lawrence moved on to the Northern Specific, one other Tier II crew that performed within the Central States Growth Hockey League, which expanded exterior 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 mentioned.
Dolan’s crew excelled defensively. The crew’s forecheck was relentless, however it didn’t rating lots.
“When J.J. and Luke got here, that immediately modified,” Dolan mentioned. “I might say our objectives per sport went up by two — and that’s large in hockey.”
Checking was now permitted, too. There could be contact and loads of it, a brand new and completely 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 mentioned. “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 usually meant receiving the puck whereas exiting his personal zone and deciding what to do as an opposing defenseman barreled his approach.
Go the puck rapidly to a teammate? Make a fast minimize 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 completely different parts go into it,” Dolan mentioned. “You must decide with the puck, and you bought to know the place to go along with it and execute that every 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 all places, violence close by. You must 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 undoubtedly slowed down soccer,” Luke Lawrence mentioned.
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 mentioned. “The fast, refined 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 loads of pure means. He additionally noticed hockey’s affect.
“One of many the reason why he was so good at throwing off platform and transferring round and altering route might be as a result of in hockey he would get completely killed if he wasn’t capable of skate previous guys or make them miss,” Holcomb mentioned. “Hockey undoubtedly helped him.”
The primary sport of McCarthy’s remaining 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 Individuals, a Tier I crew, 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 fingers and a fast launch. He performed onerous, generated turnovers and scored. “He was a beast in hockey,” Eagle mentioned. “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 mentioned. “It form of units the tone for the remainder of the crew when one or two guys are form of pushing the tempo.”
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McCarthy missed the primary sport of the match at Michigan due to a Nazareth soccer sport then confirmed up within the first interval of their second sport in opposition to the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite junior crew. Eagle considers it one in every of his favourite hockey recollections. “He raced up, and he confirmed up mid-game and scored a few objectives in opposition to one of many prime groups within the nation,” Eagle mentioned.
There have been three hockey practices each week, largely 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 practically 70 video games that season, many who required journey, and McCarthy made greater than 40 of them, in keeping with Eagle.
The back-and-forth between soccer and hockey required self-discipline, however McCarthy was completely 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 completely different situations. Eagle mentioned McCarthy craved the data to get higher. Teammates had been drawn to him.
“I’m certain lots of people are conscious of this by now,” Eagle mentioned, “however he was similar to an final chief.”
McCarthy hung up his skates after his freshman yr of highschool to concentrate on soccer. Throughout his sophomore season the subsequent 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 loss of life,” mentioned Brody Budmayr, Nazareth’s former quarterbacks coach.
The whole lot stopped. McCarthy was in ache — severe, 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 understand it’s broke,” Budmayr mentioned. “It’s him really dropping to his knees and us considering, ‘Wow, this isn’t good.’”
However there was no approach he was lacking Nazareth’s state championship sport in opposition to St. Charles North. His dad and mom 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 mentioned. “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 Photographs)
On Might 11, 2019, McCarthy introduced he was committing to Michigan and coach Jim Harbaugh. In the course of the recruiting course of, Nazareth head coach Tim Racki informed the story about McCarthy and his damaged thumb.
“Once I informed him he was a hockey participant, (Harbaugh’s) eyes lit up,” Racki mentioned. “After which once I informed him that story, that sealed the deal by way of the child’s toughness and the grit that he had.”
When McCarthy introduced his faculty determination 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; photographs: courtesy of Ted Eagle, Scott Taetsch / Getty Photographs
