ROCHELLE — An offseason shoulder procedure required Breydan Andrews to miss his senior season with the Rochelle Hub varsity baseball team. It won’t be the end of his baseball career, though, as Andrews will be continuing his academics and his athletics at Monmouth College.

Andrews played three years of baseball at RTHS, earning his way onto the varsity roster as a junior. Andrews primarily played catcher during his junior season, posting a .260 batting average with 19 hits, 11 runs and a team-high 12 RBIs over 26 games. Andrews, who has fully recovered from his shoulder surgery, will begin summer baseball with the Dixon Rebels on Thursday.

“When I went down and visited Monmouth, it was a small and student-oriented vibe,” Andrews said. “The baseball program and coach [Alan] Betourne are amazing and it felt right as soon as I went down there… I’m looking forward to perfecting my craft and I’m going to be playing against good kids every single game. I’ll have to fight for my position at practice every day.”

Andrews said his recruitment to Monmouth began last April, when he attended a Junior Day and spoke with head coach Alan Betourne. The relationship rekindled in January, when Andrews reached out about scheduling another visit. After continued conversations with Betourne and attending more games, Andrews made his decision to commit and sign with the college.

“Coach Betourne and I talk on the phone often and he builds very close relationships with all of his players,” said Andrews, who intends to study business in hopes of eventually pursuing a career in real estate. “I went to elementary school and middle school in Kings and I had 15 kids in my class, so I’ve always had a one-on-one connection with my teachers. Rochelle is still considered a smaller high school, so I could talk with all of my teachers and I know all of them very well. When I went down to visit Monmouth… It was a very close-to-home feeling.”

Andrews grew up playing baseball in Rochelle, competing in Rochelle Little League and playing travel baseball for the Rochelle Rampage. Andrews, who will look to catch or play second base at Monmouth, said his offense has come along the most since starting his high school career. 

“A lot of the people I played with at Rochelle are people I played with for basically my whole life,” Andrews said. “They helped me fall in love and stay in love with the game and I don’t know if I would’ve kept playing baseball if I went anywhere else because of how close our team was. Even though I missed my senior year because of surgery, I had a really fun time during my junior and sophomore years… Rochelle has definitely helped me get to where I’m at.”

Andrews has fully recovered from his shoulder surgery, which he said required work on his labrum and other areas of his shoulder. Andrews rehabbed with Dr. Jonathan Staab at Rock Valley Physical Therapy and overcame a two-month throwing plateau to return to full strength.

“My shoulder joint was getting too loose and that’s the main reason why my arm was hurting so much,” Andrews said. “It wasn’t staying in the right spot when I’d go to throw. I did physical therapy with Mr. Staab and he was amazing with it. I got back into my throwing program and my arm was coming back up over the first few weeks. I plateaued for a couple of months and at times, it was stressful, but as more time went on, I could see the improvements week by week.”

Andrews said that growing into his body over the last couple of years has helped him improve behind the plate, with his pop times, arm strength and blocking all seeing major improvements. Andrews, who posted a .927 fielding rate as a junior, said his ultimate goal is to play baseball at the Division I level.