The family business
Casey Kmet’s father played football at Purdue, his mother played prep basketball, and his brother plays for the Bears. But the St. Viator graduate is getting in at-bats with the Oilmen after recovering from an injury at Notre Dame.
The competitive gene did not skip Casey Kmet, an infielder for the Northwest Indiana Oilmen.
It’s been part of his DNA since growing up in a family full of athletes, including his older brother Cole, who just so happens to be a tight end for the Chicago Bears.
Despite being two grades behind, Casey Kmet has always striven to be a worthy opponent and — later — a teammate.
“We’d go play basketball and he didn’t have to invite his friends over because I was athletic enough to play with him,” Casey Kmet said. “When I was in high school, I wanted to be good enough so I could be on his team and play with him. It’s pushed me ever since.”
That same mindset carried Kmet into his college career at Notre Dame while fueling his summer with the Oilmen. And he’s off to a blazing start.
Kmet has played in only four games after joining the team in late June, but the numbers are impressive. He has a .400 batting average with two home runs and a 1.000 slugging percentage.
“It’s been pretty good so far,” Kmet said with a smile.
Although Cole and Casey Kmet are the current generation of athletes from his family, they aren’t the first.
Their mother, Kandace, was a high school basketball player. Their father, Frank, played football at Purdue. One of Frank Kmet’s teammates at Purdue was Jeff Zgonina — Kandace’s brother — who played 17 seasons in the NFL.
Casey Kmet starred at St. Viator in Arlington Heights before graduating in 2019, but his college career has had a slower start thanks to an injury that wiped out his 2020 season.
As Kmet put it, “I broke my ankle and tore everything in it” sliding into a base during his freshman season.
He returned to baseball last fall but said there was enough discomfort from the initial injury that he had a second operation, limiting his 2021 season with Notre Dame to six games and only two at-bats.
Dealing with that injury was a harsher version of the overall lesson Kmet learned while transitioning from being a high school star to a Division I athlete.
“It’s a process and it’s not going to happen right away,” he said. “That was hard for me to understand at first. You go from playing every day to college where there are 23-year-old guys playing with you now. It’s a different type of adjustment.”
Returning to the field has been a major focus for Kmet this summer and a primary reason why he’s with the Oilmen, given the time he has missed with injuries in the last two years.
“I just want to put some swings on the ball and get back to playing every day rather than just playing here and there,” he said.
Although it has been a small sample, the competitive mindset that drives Kmet — and the other athletes in his family — has already been observed by Oilmen manager TJ Marik.
“The No. 1 thing I’ve noticed out of him is how hard he plays,” Marik said. “I knew we were getting a great player. He has plus power and plus speed, which is crazy at his size. But he’s not afraid of anything. He’ll do whatever it takes out there.”
After spending his childhood striving to be on the same athletic level as his older brother, Casey Kmet knows he has more work to do to match Cole’s status as a professional athlete.
“It’s definitely cool to see him there,” Casey said. “But wherever it takes me, it takes me.”