Difficult Decision Ends With Van Ameyde Choosing Notre Dame

LAKE ORION - Making a college decision is difficult for nearly everyone. But few have had it as tough as Chase Van Ameyde, whose final two choices came down to Notre Dame and Michigan State, where his father is an assistant coach.

“It was really hard,” the Brother Rice junior admitted. “Michigan State recruited me as just another kid, not as my dad’s kid. The real main reason it was close was my dad was at Michigan State and I always liked being coached by him. But going to Notre Dame and playing in the ACC was intriguing.”

So much that Van Ameyde is now a Notre Dame commit.

“They saw me at the PBR Future Games,” Van Ameyde reflected. “Going into the Future Games I had not talked to any schools, but after that I started to get many calls.”

One was with the Fighting Irish.

“Spencer said Notre Dame would like to talk to you,” Van Ameyde said in reference to Spencer Impellizzeri, PBR Michigan Director of Operations who was the head coach of Team Michigan at the Future Games in Georgia. “We talked and I stayed in contact with them for a long while. When Sept. 1 hit, they wanted me to come on a visit. I went and saw the campus and a football game.

“They offered then but I wasn’t ready to make a decision,” Van Ameyde continued. “I was playing fall tournaments and wanted to see if anything caught my eyes. After talking to a number of schools I narrowed it down to two, with Michigan State being the other. After that, I sat down with my parents and said I wanted to go to Notre Dame. I felt I made the right choice. My dad was all good about it.”

The opportunity to be a two-way player at the Atlantic Coast Conference program in South Bend, Ind., four hours from home, was a big piece of the puzzle.

“That was pretty important to me,” explained the 6-5 180-pounder, who is the fourth-ranked 2024 right-handed pitcher in Michigan and the fifth-rated junior third baseman. “My dad said to go two-way as long as I can. At the Future Games I pitched and hit well and I also had a good summer hitting.

“Most schools were looking at me as a two-way,” added Van Ameyde, whose only other visit besides Notre Dame and MSU was with Ball State. “To have Notre Dame look at me as a two-way is pretty special.”

Being a third baseman/pitcher in the ACC will, obviously, be demanding.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Van Ameyde admitted. “I have to do all the arm care stuff and at the same time be ready in practice for infield drills and hitting.”

Still, the 4.2 student at Brother Rice, who plans to major in business at Notre Dame, has high aspirations when it comes to making an impact at the next level.

“On the field I feel I’ll be able to come in early, my freshman and sophomore years, and help the team win both ways, hitting and pitching,” Van Ameyde said. “Off the field I feel I get along well with people. I’ll be a team-guy, not a me-guy. It’s all about the team winning.”

Notre Dame is confident that Van Ameyde can do just that.

“In talking to their pitching coach, he liked how I looked on the mound,” Van Ameyde related. “Not trying to be arrogant, but I know I’m going to get the guy out. When I dropped down at the Future Games he liked that. The hitting guy said he liked my ABs and how I approached them.”

With a father as a college coach, the idea of playing baseball at that level came naturally.

“Being around the game when I was young, my dad let me and my two brothers sit in the dugout,” Van Ameyde pointed out. “I thought college baseball was pretty neat. I didn’t know all the colleges back then, I figured I’d just go wherever he coached, Michigan State or Eastern Michigan (where he was head coach for two years prior to becoming an assistant at MSU). But this year I realized there is so much more out there.”

Along with his father, Mark, Van Ameyde pointed to an additional influence.

“My dad is the main one that helped me,” Van Ameyde explained. “We’d do all those late nights of baseball after basketball. Bob Riker, my summer and high school coach, has also been a big part of this in helping me be a better player and helping with my recruitment.”

It was a process that took off just a few months back.

“Coming into summer I’d talked to nobody,” Van Ameyde said. “Then I went to the PBR National Championships and another tournament and we performed well. I got my first call from Purdue and I’m thinking, this is really happening. The Future Games was a week-and-a-half later and after that I had tons of calls and everything started taking off.

“It was weird,” Van Ameyde added. “Coaches were texting my dad and asking him if it was okay they were recruiting me. He just wanted me to do it.”

When the decision was finally made, relief set in.

“I felt all the pressure off my shoulders,” Van Ameyde  said. “Telling my dad and him being cool with it and my mom being totally okay with it. … There was a lot of excitement. The hard work I’d done for so long had paid off.”