3 for Division I: One small-town Rockford-area family could have three big-time recruits

Kendall Erdmann grew up competing with his older sisters.

“I’d like to think I can still hold my own,” Katie Erdmann, his oldest sister, said. “For the first two years of college, I would come back, and I was fine. But I think the day has come. This past year, 2022 Christmas break, we sat at the kitchen table and arm wrestled and he beat me for the first time."

But just another competitive day for the Erdmann family — which may do the unthinkable and produce three NCAA Division I athletes from the same small-town family.

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Katie first played volleyball for Southern Mississippi but transferred to Division II Florida Tech, where she set the school record for attack attempts in a season (1,315) last year and had the fourth-most kills in school history (459). She will be a red-shirt senior next year at NIU.

Kara Erdmann first signed with Michigan State but switched to UW-Milwaukee when MSU changed coaches. She had 42 assists as a freshman defensive specialist for UW-Milwaukee this year. She also pitched Forreston to a third-place finish in the 1A state softball tournament last year.

Kendall Erdmann, 5-8 and 145 pounds and fresh off beating his sister in arm wrestling for the first time, says he needs to get bigger and stronger to play Division I baseball. But he might have all the other skills needed.

“He’s the real deal,” Forreston baseball coach Mike McClellan said. “You talk about the five-tool baseball player. He has got a plus-arm. He’s got plus-speed. He’s got a plus-bat. If he keeps going, he’s on target to be exceptional in baseball. If he works hard in the weight room, he’s definitely going to have a chance to follow in his sister’s footsteps.

“And that would be unprecedented. Schools from smaller conferences rarely have kids go D-I in any sport.”

Forreston might have three from one family.

The first two laid the groundwork for the third.

“My sisters played volleyball, so we’d go in the back yard and play volleyball,” he said. “They were both softball players, so we would go and play catch. They both played basketball for awhile, so we would go and do that.”

They both excelled at everything. And expected Kendall to do so, also.

Erdmann has delivered. He started at point guard on Forreston’s basketball team as a freshman. And he led a baseball team that won the NUIC South title in batting average (.451), on-base percentage (.543), hits (46), and triples (3). He also anchors the defense at shortstop and pitches a little (26 strikeouts in 20 innings with a 2.20 ERA).

Erdmann, along with his sisters, got his athleticism from his parents. His dad played Division III football at Augustana. His mom played junior college basketball at Highland in Freeport.

In some ways, this is the stereotypical story of star athletes forging their youngest brother into becoming the best of all. But this time the elders weren’t older brothers. They were older sisters.

“It’s just because we grew up in that competitive environment,” said Katie Edrmann, who will work on her Masters in science and data analytics at NIU. “And it was super enjoyable for all of us.

“But we definitely didn’t let him have it easy. I always knew one day he was going to be taller than me, bigger than me, stronger than me, so for as long as I could, I let him have it. Because I knew it wasn’t going to last forever.”

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The Erdmann sisters expect Kendall to join them as a D-I scholarship athlete.

“We push each other” Kara Erdmann said. “We all know we want to do big things, even coming from a small school.”

Kendall Erdmann says he feels no pressure to live up to his sisters. But they have shown him what is possible. And he knows his dream sporting life is to play Division I baseball.

“I have a lot to do to get there," he said.

Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford-area Erdmann family could have 3 NCAA Division I recruits