WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: Jim DeSana & the Michigan Monarchs

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

WRFH host Luke Miller talks with State Rep. Jim DeSana, founder and president of the 501(c)3 organization sponsoring the Michigan Monarchs baseball team, playing its games at Hillsdale College.

Hello everyone. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Luke Miller, and Michigan Representative Jim Desana is here with me today to discuss the Michigan Monarchs baseball team in Hillsdale. Jim Desana is the founder and president of Catholic baseball players for Christ Incorporated, a 501C3 nonprofit organization sponsoring the Michigan Monarchs. He founded the Monarchs in 1999, and they have played in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League since their inception. DeSena is the Monarchs team president and General Men. and has served in that role for the past 23 years. Mr. Desana, thank you for being here with us today.

You're welcome, Luke. Glad to have. Glad to be talking to you. So it's that time of year. School has just ended. Summer baseball is coming up. We're all excited about it. Around here, that means the Michigan Monarchs are winding up to start the season.

So tell us a little bit about the team. Our team is typically with the Great Lakes League. It's a new group each and every year. Various colleges, Michigan State. Michigan State, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, University of Toledo, Notre Dame. Drawing heavily, obviously, from the schools that are close to us. We've made the playoffs the last two years, and I would imagine that the quality of our team will be similar to the last two years. We typically carry 14 position players and about 14 to 15 pitchers.

So between 28 and 29 guys, the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League for all your listeners, it's been around since 1987, one of the top five leagues, summer collegiate leagues in the country, wood bat. There are two teams in Michigan, the Michigan Monarchs and the Muskegon Clippers, and then there are six teams in Ohio. The Lima Locos, the Grand Lake Mariners, the Flag City Sluggers out of Finley, Ohio. the Hamilton Joe's, the Zinia Scouts, and the Southern Ohio Copperheads out of Athens, Ohio. They play at Ohio University.

So what do the fans need to know about opening day? Like when and where should the fans go? And what can they expect their experience to be at a Monarchs game? Well, it's nine innings of summer collegiate woodbat baseball. We typically do a few fun things with the kids in between innings, race around the bases, typically we'll do some throwing, some throwing contests, fun throwing contests in between innings. And there's good interaction with the kids, with the players.

Some of the boys will be, will interact as bat boys for us. And it's a very fun atmosphere. It's not, I would say, it's not as serious competition as a regular college baseball. game so we can interact with families, with kids that come to watch our games. And if you like baseball, it's just a really good environment to come watch a baseball game and see really high-level talent. We've got lots and lots of guys that have gone on into minor league and major league baseball.

I think our number of players drafted is well over 100 now. Well, that's awesome. That was something that I wanted to actually ask you about. I actually saw a clip online the other day of Hayden Yatsik, who was a former Michigan monarch. He signed a professional contract last year with the San Francisco Giants. And he made his debut in Singale, a couple weeks ago, and he had a triple and a home run. There was also a really funny clip of him actually from a couple of days ago, he was in the on-deck circle and the bat went flying out of his hands and got tangled up in the net and got

a new bat and proceeded to go up and hit a home run. But I know he was a former Michigan monarch. So how does it feel to have former monarchs go on to be professional baseball players like that? it's really humbling and yet an honor to have been, to have had these players play in our program and to have them advance all the way up into Major League Baseball, which is their goal and why they're playing in our league to begin with. They're trying to hone their games so that they can get drafted. That's their goal, get drafted or get signed.

And so we've had, I believe, the number of, of guys who have played in the majors is somewhere in that 12 to 13 range. I'll have to look at our list of MLB guys. And it's also really neat for the fans and the families that have had players to say, wow, you know, we knew him when he was in college when he was playing summer collegiate baseball. And here he is now in the major league. Just as a reminder, you're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.

I'm Luke Miller here with Jim DeSanna to talk about the Michigan, monarchs. So what has been the best year for the monarchs that you've been a part of? I would say our best year was 2001 when, so 1999, the first year we were in the league, we won the league. And I have to say that was our single league championship. That was probably by far our most decorated team and the best year we had in the league. But in 2001, we traveled to the NBC World Series and won seven games in the NBC World Series, which was at that time back in the early 2000s, was the premier summer collegiate baseball tournament in the country.

I mean, there's so many players that have played in the major leagues that have played in the NBC World Series from Albert Pooholls played in the 1999 NBC World Series. So our early history, way, way back when, was, you know, the times have changed a little bit. A lot of the Division I players will take the summer off. We still have a large percentage of Division I college baseball players. Tendency is to be more on the younger side, freshman and sophomores in college. But back then, you would have, you know, four, five, six kids on the team that would be drafted.

picks the next year and the next year's draft. So the monarchs have had some great years. I know we're getting pretty close to opening day now. So what are your expectations for the team this year? I think that, you know, pitching is always the key with summer collegiate baseball. We have a pretty deep pitching staff. And I think we've got last year we started off. We had a couple of injuries to our pitching staff.

And we were pretty, we were scrambling to, split up games and this year I think we have a better opportunity to start off with a really high quality, high quantity of arms. We are on the younger side again this year, so it'll be interesting to see as we get out and play the other teams around us how we stack up from an offensive standpoint. Our natural rivals, as you can probably imagine, are the Muskegon Clippers and the Lima Locos. Those teams, we've typically been in a division with those teams.

And this year, I believe the league is eight straight teams. There's no divisions. But we also have the Finley, Ohio team, the Flag City Sluggers, which are probably our closest opponent, honestly, the closest team

to Hillsdale is Finley. And so it'll be interesting. I think we'll have some fans traveling from some of the some of our visiting teams. Ms. Kagan usually brings some fans to Hillsdale, as does Finley. So I think it'll be extremely fun atmosphere for the fans, extremely fun atmosphere for the players.

And Hillsdale, as we started to get a little deeper into the season last year, it was people in Hillsdale started to know we were there, started to realize there was really good baseball being played in the summer, and we started to get some families and some kids as we got into late June and into July. So we're really hoping that this year we can have a good start kick off to the season. We typically play games Tuesday through Sunday, and the games are three games series. So when we play a team, we'll play them three times. The only unique aspect of that is on our local rivals, we may not play all three games in a row in Hillsdale.

we might play, let's say, for instance, we play Muskegon at Muskegon on a Friday and then come back and play them in Hillsdale on a Saturday and a Sunday. So I wanted to ask you a little bit about roster construction. There are a few former monarchs that were also Hillsdale Chargers this year. I talked to Patrick McClain and Logan McLaughlin, who both had fantastic years for Hillsdale this year, by the way. But those two also have played for the monarchs and had great things to say about their experience. I know last year, former Charger Andrew George also played for the Monarchs. So how do you and the coaches go about making the roster? So the roster is built traditionally with the programs that we have dealt with year and and year out.

So between 13 and 18 college programs, they send players to us each and every year. And a lot of it is, as you can probably imagine, if there's a player in Southern Michigan, South East Michigan, mid-central Michigan, where it's close for them, or even Northern Ohio, a player that's within an hour, hour and a half of Hillsdale. We recruit players a lot from the Battle Creek, Kalamazoo area, Jackson, and, of course, a lot of players from the Detroit metro area. So coaches nowadays are looking to place players close to home so that some of them may choose to work a few hours. during the day because we don't have a lot of demands on the players during the day.

The games are all played at 7 o'clock at night other than the Sunday afternoon games. So you would see a flavor on the character of our team where you would see a lot of guys that are from Michigan, from Ohio, Toledo area, sometimes from the Chicago area. We had a lot of Chicago players last year. And then some players from Northern Indiana as well. And the coaches, the college coaches are the ones that pretty much drive the bus when it comes to that. They will call and suggest two or three players from their program. And we're a developmental program.

So that whole give and take there where they have a player for us. We're on board to help that player come play for us in the summer and work on his skills and try to work himself up into a level where a major league baseball team would consider signing them, drafting them and the hopes that when they get to their senior year of college, they would have an opportunity to play baseball beyond college. And we've got a lot of great Hillsdale players over the years. In our whole 25-year history, we've had players from Hillsdale College. We've had players from Wayne State, players from Grand Valley,

players from Davenport University, a lot of good players from Davenport. So a lot of Division I and Division II schools across Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, We've had a lot of players from junior colleges as well. And that dynamic has changed. There's just a lot more junior college players now because the Division I colleges have trimmed their scholarships down to, I believe, 35, 35 players now. So, yeah, it sounds like there's some great competition in the state of Michigan. I know from playing at Hillsdale College that there's great D2 baseball across the state.

Grand Valley, you mentioned, they're in the super regional. starting today for Division 2 baseball with a shot at going to the D2 College World Series. Davenport and Wayne State were also regional teams that I know you mentioned. So I know it's got to be great competition for a lot of those players to get together and play with each other and against each other over the summer. Do you get any of that kind of dynamic with the players who have played against each other in college baseball before teaming up to play in summer baseball? Yeah, it's really interesting when they're playing on competing programs in the spring.

and then their close teammates playing together in the summer. And baseball is such a camaraderie sport to begin with. And after a game, oftentimes, players will talk after the game, shake hands, and good seeing you. A lot of these kids, they played baseball together growing up. They played high school baseball together. May have played some travel baseball together. So a lot of these guys form long-lasting friendships with players on the other colleges,

and a lot of those friendships originate from their summer collegiate baseball experience where they're like, oh, I remember playing summer ball in the Great Lakes League, and I became really good friends. A lot of the families that have hosted players for us become close with their player, and I would just put a shout out out to any of your audience if they have an extra bedroom or a finished basement or an extra spare room in their house and can take a player. We are still looking for spots for players to live in the Greater Hillsdale area. And they can contact me personally through my cell phone or email or even on Facebook.

And I could vouch for that too. I got to play Summer Ball last summer and stayed with the host family. And I still keep in touch with that host family. And they were very kind to me, made it a great experience. So I can back you up on that that hosting is a great opportunity for the audience if you feel so inclined to do that for the Michigan Monarchs. Just as a reminder, you're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Luke Miller here with Jim DeSanna to talk about the Michigan Monarchs. So you're also the founder and president of Catholic baseball players for Christ, a nonprofit organization that sponsors the Monarchs.

So what does that organization do? The organization exists to promote the sport of baseball and to promote it being played with the spiritual aspect of sport and intertwine faith and prayer into the sport of baseball. So the Catholic athletes for Christ, which we are also associated with, have had Jeff Soupon, Mike Sweeney, a lot of big, big name MLB players. and there's actually a very active ministry in Major League Baseball of Catholic Baseball players on various MLB teams and masses that throughout the country on Sunday in Major League Stadium, I believe Wrigley Field has a mass on Sunday at the stadium. I believe also that the Boston Red Sox have a mass. The Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Guardians, I should say, have a mass on Sunday.

day for the players who oftentimes are staying in a hotel and then being bused from the hotel to the stadium in the morning to get out there for their major league baseball games. So providing these avenues to have masks for the players really helps them to kind of not fall away from their faith when they go and play a seven day a week sport. And we've really demonstrated to people how difficult it is for some of these players. They are traveling around with their team so they don't have to be. have a car and they could always Uber from their hotel to a church, but it just makes it so much nicer for if there's 10, 11, 12 Catholic players on the baseball team to be able to go to

Mass before their Sunday afternoon, their Sunday 1 p.m. baseball game or if it's a Saturday and they can make it on Saturday, but typically it's a Sunday Mass before an afternoon game. And so we integrate faith into our program. We pray before the games. It is a, it's just a way to demonstrate how, how do you keep your life in order as a college athlete and a professional athlete? And what kind of discipline do you need to be able to hold that all together? And ultimately, we, we rest on the fact that you have to have a faith in God. And so we have, we have non-Catholic players, non-Catholic players on our team that also participate with us. And they are glad to participate.

It's very easy to do, honestly. and we'll have players share their faith. We have a team in the league called Athletes in Action, and we have those players. We have a very nice sharing night after a game with athletes in action where players will talk about their faith in Jesus Christ. They'll talk about their love of baseball, their thankfulness to their families,

for having raised them and put them in the place. Because ultimately, them being able to play baseball in the summer is because of the sacrifice that their parents are, making for them. They're not working a job, you know, at least not a 30 to 40 hour a week job because there's not enough time. We play six days a week, so they have to play, you know, in the evening, it's very difficult. We get out to the ballpark where we are taking batting practice two hours before the game, so we're at the park by 5 p.m. So it's not easy for these guys to work a job. So it's the sacrifice to their families. And then,

And we also really talk with them about how fortunate and how blessed they are to be an athlete, to be somebody who young kids look up to and even peers of their own age who admire them and look up to them for their athletic ability. And I think that that's a big thing that's lacking in today's sport. But there's a lot of bright spots out there of really good examples of people who play professional sports that are very, very proud and out there about their faith in Jesus Christ. I think of the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, Harrison Butker. He's another one of those athletes that get out and talk to the community about his faith

and how he integrates it into his professional sports career. Yeah, that's awesome to hear. I didn't know about that organization with the Catholic athletes, and that's really encouraging for me to hear. So just for the people who want to stay up to date, people who want to keep up with the monarchs online or on social media or find their schedules, where's a good place for people to go

to keep up with the monarchs? I would go to our Facebook page, Michigan Monarchs on Facebook. That's probably the best place we try to post there frequently. We are, the league transitioned into a new website. So we will be, the Great Lakes League website is another good place to see the schedule, see the standings, see the teams, I believe it's g-l-scl-cel.org, Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, all the letters, the acronym for the league.org. And Google Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, and you should find it. And then we will have Mish Monarchs.com back up. We had to, last year we had to transition from our old Point Street website to a new website, and then we anticipate we'll have that up here shortly. But I would say Facebook page number one is the best place to get that information.

You can also follow the Michigan Monarchs on Twitter or X. Perfect. Well, this has been great. Mr. DeSan, thank you very much for your time. Luke, thank you for talking with me. And best wishes to you, best wishes to all your audience. and a happy Memorial Day to everybody. Our guest today has been Jim DeSanna,

founder and president of Catholic baseball players for Christ, and team president, general manager of the Michigan Monarchs, here to talk about his team's upcoming season. I'm Luke Miller and you're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.