The name is laughable.

The Downers Grove-based baseball dynasty known as the Longshots is anything but a long shot when it comes to success. Scores of this travel team's players have gone on to play college baseball and the team boasts some major league draft picks over the years as well.

Longshots? Hardly. But 18U manager/organization president Rob Rooney is comfortable with the name.

"It was the name of a 16-inch softball team I played on and we won a national championship in 1991," he said. "It's a unique name. We carried it over to the baseball team and it stuck."

The younger version of the Longshots was formed in 1994 and many of those players graduated high school in 2000 with several players going on to Division I schools and six of those players were drafted by major league organizations. In 2000, the Longshots joined forced with Downers Grove Youth Baseball and the program really took off and Rooney said there are currently close to 200 players in the program.

The organization is going through another hot streak.

The Longshots U18 squad is wrapping up the season when it heads to the Diamond Sports Promotions World Series at the end of the month at Illinois State University. Earlier in the month, the Longshots were at ISU and won the Top Collegiate Prospect Tournament.

"We won it last year when they players were in the U17 age group," Rooney said. "This year, we became the first team to ever win it back-to-back."

Members of this powerhouse include Jacob Hernandez and Dan Sheppard (Downers Grove North High School), Nick Burdi (DG South) John Boyle, Pat Gelwicks and Alex Staehely (Benet), David Kiyosaki and Josh Camalick (Hinsdale Central), Cam Verbeke (Fenwick), Mike Morrissette (Providence), Colin Meister (Montini), Mike McKinley (Neuqua Valley), Anthony Lopez (Naperville Central), Kyle King (Bartlett), Zach Scott (St. Charles East), Zach Hirsch (St. Charles North), Ryan Crowley (Morton) and Paul Rambaud (St. Ignatius).

Sheppard was drafted by the Cubs and Crowley was selected by the White Sox in June.

The stacked U17 team won the Diamond Sports Midwest Regional July 19.

Members of that team include Joe Claver (Downers Grove North), Steve Adkins (York), John Erickson (St. Charles East), Mike Gerber (Neuqua Valley), Colin Hart (Lockport), Ryan Richardson and Matt Stevens (St. Charles North), Kevin Sweeney (Fenwick), Bo Andrews (Rockford Harlem), Kevin Babica (Addison Trail), Joe Battaglia (St. Joseph), Tim Bodine (Warren), Samuel Bumpers (Bradley Bourbonnais), Cory Johnson (Oswego), Jeff Johnson (Warren), Matt Lynch (St. Ignatius) and Dan Savas (Leyden).

The U16 team is also making an impact.

Members of that squad include Nick Burdi, John Dillon, Kyle Engel, Andy Hieptas, Clay Johnson, Joe Rossi, Nick Tenerelli, Matt Wivinis and Jake Wolf (Downers Grove South), Steve Banda (Downers Grove North), Paul Solka (Maine West) Tim Blaha (Stagg), Jacques Camalick and John Spacapan (Hinsdale Central), Jeff Gurrister and Matthew Lithgow (Lemont), Jim Heilenbach (Lyons), Keenan Johnson (Lake Forest Academy), Zac Lewinski (Benet), Jose Godinez (Immaculate Conception), Matt Nugent (Andrew), Stew Sabatino (Lockport), Phil Warner (St. Charles North), Kirk Wells (Hinsdale South), Juan Figueroa and Max Quinones (Clemente), Carlos Oliverria (Leyden) and Anthony Valldepares (Lake Park).

The Longshots gather players from all over the Chicago area but Rooney maintains strict criteria on his older players.

"We're not trying to be All-Star collectors," Rooney said. "We're really focused on development. That's why we've been so successful placing kids in college. Scouts come and watch us. Our 2010 graduating class was playing in a tournament in Rochelle and even though three kids from that team have committed, there were probably 15 to 20 college guys watching them."

Rooney started the program in part to help his sons, Bobby and Reed. Both have graduated from the program to Division I schools but the elder Rooney is still having fun coaching the Longshots.

"It's really rewarding," he said. "We had a young man recently make a college decision and he told me 'thank you very much for helping me.' That in itself is worth all the work that you put into it. There's a lot of work, but they are great kids. If you can help them a little bit in their life, it feels good."

By Jeff Vorva

Triblocal.com reporter