Junior shortstop Jack Counsell grew up a die-hard Milwaukee Brewers fan. After all, his father, Craig Counsell, was hired as the Brewers’ manager when Jack was 10 years old.
As children, Jack and his older brother, Brady Counsell, would hop onto the field of Miller Park after Brewers’ games and hit toward the wall, hoping to send a home run sailing over the fence. They even celebrated with the Brewers in the clubhouse after wins.
Naturally, Jack also absolutely hated the Brewers’ division rivals, the Chicago Cubs.
Fast forward a decade, Jack plays shortstop for Northwestern. Just 8.5 miles down Sheridan Road, Craig manages the Cubs.
Now, Jack identifies as a huge Cubs fan — his loyalty to his dad unwavering — and his favorite players are Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Although his dad’s proximity was not a factor in his decision to come to NU, Jack has found the experience beneficial. Jack can go to Cubs games whenever he wants, get dinner with his dad and see his dad when he needs him. For Jack, family ties run deep — he has always taken a lot of inspiration from Craig, whom he considers his role model, and faced early competition with his brother.
This summer, Jack will spend time at Wrigley Field, working out with his favorite players, who happen to be managed by his dad. He said in the past, having interactions with players has helped him improve.
“I think the biggest thing you can do is get advice from the best players in the world,” Jack said. “So whenever I get that opportunity, I try and ask as many questions as possible, just because I know whatever they’ve got to say is going to be useful and it’s going to help me.”
Though Jack learns from current professional players, advice about the sport started with his dad, who Jack said is the reason he plays baseball.
Before Jack was born, Craig won two World Series as a player: in 1997 with the Florida Marlins and in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Craig also won the National League Championship Series MVP award in 2001.
“(My dad)’s kind of showed me what it looks like at the highest level, and how guys at that level carry themselves,” Jack said. “Not so much the skill part of it, but mainly just how they approach their day-to-day work — how hard they work.”
Senior center fielder Jack Lausch said he has seen these values of strong work ethic and passion translate into Jack’s game.
Lausch, who is good friends with Jack, said he works hard and is a great teammate.
“I think he’s someone who has obviously been around baseball his whole life. (He) knows how to win and wants to do it,” Lausch said. “When I’m playing next to him, I know he has my best interest — he has the team’s best interest. He just wants to go out and win.”
Brady Counsell — a shortstop for the Hillsboro Hops, a minor league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks — similarly said that his brother plays baseball very hard, is a good athlete and is fast, which are big parts of his identity as a player.
Jack and Brady grew up inseparable and, according to Brady, are each other’s biggest fans. For Jack, having an older brother that played the same sport as him increased his love of the game.
“We would always work out together, and it kind of created a competitive atmosphere in everything we did,” Jack said. “We were trying to go against each other, one up each other. So I think it just pushed both of us to be better in everything we did.”
Brady agreed, but quipped that Jack thought he was faster than him, but that the matter was up for debate.
The brothers faced off two years ago, when Jack was a freshman at Michigan — he transferred to NU in 2024 — and Brady was a junior at Minnesota.
“(It was) just a kind of surreal experience that not a lot of brothers can say that they’ve experienced together, playing in the same game together on a college level,” Brady said.
Competition is not just limited to baseball in the Counsell family. Jack has two younger sisters, one of whom won a state championship in basketball earlier this year. Brady said the siblings grew up forming teams of two and playing basketball against each other, creating an ongoing love of competition.
When he was in first grade, Jack won a Little League championship with Brady on a team called the Red Wings. In his senior year of school, Jack led Whitefish Bay High School to a Wisconsin state championship, which he said is his favorite baseball memory.
This season, Jack has his eyes set on helping the Wildcats make a Big Ten Tournament appearance and working towards his dreams of playing professional baseball.
“Something I’ve always wanted to do is play baseball at the highest level possible and then also win a World Series,” Jack said.
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