Baseball Staff & Lessons – Rhino Sports Academy

Director of Pitching & Camps

Jake Godfrey

Playing & Coaching Bio

Jake was an All State Pitcher and State title winner at Providence Catholic HS

Drafted in the 21st round out of high school to the Atlanta Braves he forwent professional baseball to attend Louisiana State University where pitched in the College World Series.

Continuing his collegiate career at Arizona State he was named captain his senior year.

To finish his playing career he played Independent ball for the Southern Illinois Miners.

Jake is currently the varsity pitching coach for Providence Catholic.

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Director of Hitting

Craig Tomczak

Playing & Coaching Bio

Nearly 2 decades with of experience coaching at the high school level.

Craig's coaching career started as an assistant at Waubonsie Valley High School. He then was hired by IHSBCA Hall of Fame member Jim Schmid to start the program at Metea Valley HS.

In 9 years of being the head coach at the varsity level, Craig compiled a 181-130 record, winning 2 Regional titles, competing in 1 sectional find and finishing in the top 3 of the Upstate 8 and DuPage Valley Conferences 5 times.

Craig played at North Central College where he played for Ed Mathey and was an all conferences player his senior year.

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Hitting & Infield Instructor

Jason Vitas

Playing & Coaching Bio

Jason was an assistant coach under Wayne King at Joliet Junior college for 6 years where he was a part of three National Tournament appearances including a National Championship in 2008.

From there Jason became an assistant coach at Providence Catholic HS alongside Mark Smith. While coaching infielders and base runners at Providence, he helped produce 10 DI infielders and 4 MLB Draft picks.

In 2016 Jason was names IHSBCA Assistant Coach of the Year and won state titles in ’14, ’15 and ’16.

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Director of Catching & Hitting Instructor

Ryne Travis

Playing & Coaching Bio

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Director of Speed, Strength & Agility

Blake Harseim

Playing & Coaching Bio

Blake played his high school baseball at Coal City where he was one of the schools most decorated three sport athletes ever.

He started his collegiate career at Heartland CC. After Heartland he finished at Mount Mercy University where he found himself in the record books finishing top 15 in school history in strikeouts per game.

Blake graduated with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and working toward his Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) certificate.

Once his playing career was over, he was the assistant pitching coach and strength and conditioning coach for Mount Mercy University.

He also was the pitching coach and strength and conditioning coach at Iowa City High School which took 3rd in state while he was there.

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Hitting & Infield Instructor

Jake Roberts

Playing & Coaching Bio

Jake played high school ball at Plainfield South and was a four year starter at shortstop while earning All-Conference award twice.

Collegiately Jake played at Gonzaga University, transitioning to a catcher, where he was Second Team All-WCC and WCC All-Academic Honorable Mention.

After Gonzaga, Jake was signed to the LA Dodgers system as a free agent and played for World Series winning manger Dave Roberts.

Jake is also a collegiate pitching coach for Joliet Junior College where he helped lead the team to the 2023 NJCAA DIII World Series.

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Facility Manager & Hitting Instructor

Mike Hughes

Playing & Coaching Bio

Mike has been with the Rhino Baseball program since its inception in 2012.

He has been an assistant or head coach at every age level from the age of 8u to 18u.

Seeing the world of travel baseball at the youth level that spans nearly a decade, Mike is encompassed with the responsibility of being a helping hand for both coaches and parents alike.

Mike manages the facility and scheduling for the program.

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Hitting & Infield Instructor

Danny Wustenfeld

Playing & Coaching Bio

Danny, while at Central Michigan University, was one of their best hitters over his 4 years there.

In his senior year, he tied for the team lead with 6 home runs and was 4th in the MAC conference with 17 doubles. Over his career he is tied for 10th in the schools history for career doubles. He also was in the NCAA tournament twice while at CMU.

He is currently playing professional ball for the Joliet Slammers as well as a volunteer assistant coach for Lewis University.

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Director of Analytics

Jacob Geiger

Playing & Coaching Bio

Jacob, a Plainfield East alumni, pitched at Illinois Institute of Technology.

While there, he received his Bachelor of Science in Applied Analytics. As a student-athlete, Jacob developed an excel program that used pitch by pitch data to assist the coaching staff with scouting, player development and player analysis.

Jacob has coached on the travel ball circuit for a number of years and has focused much of his passion of analytics towards bettering players through technology.

Over the years Jacob has gained valuable experience in baseball technology such as FlightScope, Rapsodo, Blast Motion and Diamond Kinetics.

Jacob also was an assistant coach for Illinois Institute of Technology and works for Primetime Tournaments.

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