Morris junior Jack Wheeler impresses as a standout in three sports

Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times

What does Jack Wheeler do during his downtime as a three-sport athlete at Morris?

It's a trick question. Wheeler doesn't believe in downtime as he cycles from football to basketball to baseball as one of the state's premier all-around athletes.

"All my free time is practicing baseball," Wheeler said. "When I get home from practice I eat dinner, I go hit with my dad — go hit and work out. Then the rest of my time is homework and repeat the process."

Wheeler, a 6-5, 190-pound third baseman and pitcher, is committed to Illinois for baseball. He also owns a football offer from Ball State as a wide receiver and is Morris' leading scorer in basketball.

Morris football coach Alan Thorson, asked why Wheeler is so good at so many sports, has a simple answer.

"It's his work ethic," Thorson said. "He wants to win, he wants to be successful. He's as competitive as anybody I've ever coached."

Wheeler was a two-sport kid growing up, baseball and basketball. He never did football till high school because he was playing junior-high baseball in the fall.

But Wheeler was a quick study in football, starting on the varsity by his sophomore season. Last fall he caught 21 passes for 453 yards and seven touchdowns for an 11-1 team that reached the Class 5A quarterfinals.

"I think he has the makings of an all-state receiver," Thorson said.

Football season usually lasts well into November for Morris, long one of the state's premier mid-sized programs. But it doesn't take Wheeler long to shift into hoops mode.

In Morris' five November games last season, Wheeler averaged more than 25 points per game. He contributed 20 points and six rebounds per game as Morris finished 16-15.

"He's able to compartmentalize," Morris boys basketball coach Joe Blumberg said. "He gives a great effort in football. When you put the pads away, you put on the [basketball] shoes and go compete."

Then when spring rolls around, Wheeler trades his sneakers for spikes and sets the tone for another elite program. At midweek, Morris was 23-3 and Wheeler was putting up video-game numbers: .405 batting average, .515 on-base percentage, .633 slugging percentage with 29 RBI. He also had four saves as the team's closer.

Much as he loves playing alongside his buddies in the fall and winter, there's no question Wheeler's heart belongs to baseball.

"All the time I spent, all the time my parents spent for me to do that — going to hit five, six times a week, sometimes seven in the winter — you're taking all that time and all that travel, I knew baseball was gonna be the one," Wheeler said.

"The kid just lives and breathes baseball," Morris baseball coach Todd Kein said. "He excels at football and basketball too. Athletically, I don't know if there's a sport he wouldn't excel at.

"Everybody sees the product out here but what people don't see is all the time he puts in when we're not here [on the field]."

Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times

It wasn't always easy, especially toggling back and forth between sports.

"The toughest part is summer," Wheeler said. "Sometimes I'm doing all three sports in one day. I really try to balance it out in the middle of the week and not be too sore for the weekend for baseball, which is the most important."

The other tough time was during his freshman football season.

"It was every weekend going somewhere else, like Indiana, Michigan State or LSU," Wheeler said. "It was really tough, really stressful making sure I was always able to have my best ability, even during football season, to put on a show for those coaches at all those camps on the weekend."

But all that time paid off and Wheeler is committed to Illinois, which was leading the Big Ten heading into the final weekend of conference play.

"[Close to] home, a good education," Wheeler said. "My grandmother went there, a lot of people in my bloodline went there. It's a great program." 

Meanwhile, Wheeler will keep going from baseball to football to basketball and back again, making his mark in all of them.

"I feel better when I play more sports," he said.

And right now, he's feeling pretty good.