Video highlights of Whitefish Bay’s first state baseball championship
Watch selected highlights from Whitefish Bay’s run to its first baseball state championship this week.
Zac Bellman and Lou Saldivar, Wochit
Something’s in the water, or perhaps in the infield dirt, in the Milwaukee-area community of Whitefish Bay.
Including a first-round pick for a second consecutive season, the Blue Dukes program has produced four Major League Baseball draft picks over the past two years and seven since 2009. It’s perhaps part of a broader movement that has led to more selections from across the state of Wisconsin, but it has become a hotbed for pro-baseball talent.
“There’s always been players here (in Wisconsin) but never really anyone necessarily getting looks,” said Jay Wojcinski, head baseball coach at Germantown for the past two seasons after coaching 17 years at Bay. “There’s programs like StiKs and GRB doing a phenomenal job with the kids, and when they play in their tournaments across the country. The kids are playing well, the teams are playing well.
“For the kids that put that time in and do it, with the facilities they have and coaching staffs that they have, it makes things a little bit easier for us because we’re not supposed to do anything with them basically for nine months out of the year (per WIAA rules), and they’re still getting quality instruction and play in meaningful games at all those big tournaments.”
Don’t discount the role of Wojcinski, though. The 2025 Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame inductee certainly didn’t hurt the cause.
“I kind of knew that if I didn’t screw things up for them, we should have a pretty good run,” he said.
Last year, the Arizona Diamondbacks made Whitefish Bay’s J.D. Dix the 35th overall pick, a competitive balance-A pick that nonetheless counts as a first-round selection. It marked one of the highest selections for a Wisconsin player straight out of high school, behind only four other players.
In the 16th round last year, the Rays drafted Bay alumnus Brady Marget out of Tulane. Then came 2025, when Michigan second baseman Mitchell Voit also got taken in the first round, the 38th pick by the New York Mets. In the 10th round, the Diamondbacks again went to the Whitefish Bay well, selecting Brady Counsell out of Kansas.
Naturally, the name “Counsell” isn’t foreign to Brewers fans, nor to Whitefish Bay, the longtime hometown of former Brewers manager Craig. Both sons Brady and Jack played at Craig’s alma mater before pursuing college careers. Brady spent three years at Minnesota before transferring to Kansas. Jack Counsell began at Michigan but transferred to Northwestern.
“Craig was always around town, and any time I ever needed to talk to him or ask him something, he was always more than willing to help out with the program,” Wojcinski said. “There were times in the winter he’d work with the infielders, that kind of thing. Him and his wife Michelle were super important to our program.”
With the ascendance of their sons came a bumper crop of elite Bay talent, but that’s not necessarily where the Blue Dukes pipeline began.
In 2009, the Bay squad featured draftees Kevin James (Tampa Bay Rays, ninth round) and Charlie Markson (Detroit Tigers, 44th round). Markson didn’t sign and later got drafted again by the Brewers in the 38th round of the 2013 draft out of Notre Dame. In 2019, Nick Lackney went in the 18th round to the Phillies out of the University of Minnesota.
Dix perhaps took the show to a new level, earning acclaim as one of the top high-school players in the nation. He hasn’t slowed down in the minors, with an .892 OPS this season at the Arizona Complex League and then Class A Visalia, where the 19-year-old has 15 hits in his first 49 at-bats, including five extra-base hits.
“The year after his sophomore year, he hurt his shoulder,” Wojcinski said. “When he came back at the beginning of the season, the year that we won state, he was DH’ing, probably for about two-thirds of the season until he was comfortable with throwing. When he came and started playing the field, even more scouts started showing up. It was a lot of fun to be around.
“JD was so laid back and mild-mannered; he never let that stuff bother him. I think the other kids enjoyed it as more people were watching his play. They embraced it.”
It’s possible Brady Counsell and Dix wind up as teammates at some point this year within the Diamondbacks organization, fittingly the place where Craig Counsell once earned NLCS MVP as Arizona went on to win the 2001 World Series.
“Even when I had him as a freshman, Brady was a fantastic fielder, got to everything,” Wojcinski said of a player given the one and only NCAA Division I Rawlings Gold Glove at third base for his work at Kansas this year. “He came around on offense … he kept adding on every year, getting better and better.”
Jack Counsell and Dix batted 1-2 for the Blue Dukes team that won the 2023 WIAA Division 1 title, Bay’s first-ever appearance at the state tournament (remarkably after Marget, Brady Counsell and Voit had already moved on to college). Nobody would be surprised if Jack Counsell’s name gets called in an upcoming MLB draft. Nor that of outfielder Michael Lippe, a first-team All-State player for Bay in 2022 who started his career at Louisville and is transferring to Minnesota.
The first baseman Marget, meanwhile, is rehabbing his shoulder in the Rays organization. Assuming Voit and Brady Counsell sign, their pro journeys are just beginning.
Wojcinski will be following all of it, albeit at Germantown, a program he joined because he felt it was “time for a change, as dumb as that sounds” coming off the state title with Bay. He certainly was paying close attention during the 2025 draft.
“All those kids were very talented in high school, with great heads on their shoulders,” he said. “The last couple years to see the hard work over the years pay off for them, it’s one of those ‘wow’ moments.”
Wisco quietly turning into an underrated baseball hot bed 👀🤫
— Gavin Lux (@TheRealGavinLux) July 14, 2025First-round MLB draft picks from Wisconsin high schools
Wisconsin high-school draft prospects taken in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft:
2018: Jarred Kelenic, Waukesha West (No. 6 to Mets)1979: Kevin Brandt, Nekoosa (No. 11 to Twins)1970: Gary Polczynski, West Allis Hale (No. 15 to Reds)2016: Gavin Lux, Kenosha, Kenosha Indian Trail (No. 20 to Dodgers)2024: JD Dix, Whitefish Bay (No. 35 to Diamondbacks)*
* Pick was a “competitive balance – A” selection
Wisconsinites taken in first round of MLB draft as college playersBill Burbach of Dickeyville was selected 19th overall in 1965 by the Yankees. He attended high school just across the border in Iowa.Dave Globig of West Allis Hale was selected third overall in 1976 in the January draft by the Brewers after attending the University of Minnesota. January drafts were held each year for players who were drafted but did not sign after the June draft. January drafts continued until 1986.Augie Schmidt of Kenosha Bradford was selected second overall in 1982 by the Blue Jays after attending the University of New Orleans.Tom Fischer of Kettle Moraine Lutheran (and the University of Wisconsin) was selected 12th in 1988 by the Red Sox.Gavin Kilen of Milton was selected 12th overall in 2025 by the Giants. He attended college at Tennessee.Mitch Voit of Whitefish Bay was selected in the competitive-balance round (No. 38) after the first round in 2025 by the Mets. He played college baseball at Michigan.