Brewster Brings Sticks Baseball Ties to First Summer with Rivets

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Northwoods Rockford Rivets

Brewster Brings Sticks Baseball Ties to First Summer with Rivets

June 13, 2025 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
Rockford Rivets News Release


ROCKFORD, Ill. - Chase Brewster has spent years coaching some of the best young baseball talent in the country. Now, in his first summer with the Rockford Rivets, a few of those familiar faces are back by his side.

Most of his life has revolved around baseball. Particularly, helping young people chase their dreams in the sport that has allowed him to achieve one of his.

That's why, with the help of his close friend and mentor Steve Landers, he decided to launch Sticks Baseball, a now nationally ranked travel baseball program based out of Brewster's hometown of Texarkana, Arkansas. Its goal is to help middle and high school-age baseball players develop while playing competitively against some of the top ranked players across the country, ultimately sending many off to college on baseball scholarships.

Sticks began as just a single team. Then, it became two. Not long after, there were five, then ten. At one point in 2020, it had reached twenty-five teams. Today, Sticks has expanded across the country to the southwest, northeast, and even into Canada.

Since Sticks' high school program was founded by Brewster in 2017, the organization has sent over 600 players to play college baseball and has produced 56 MLB Draft picks. In recent years, Sticks has even seen some of its alumni debut in Major League Baseball, most notably St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn and Los Angeles Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe.

Brewster (right) with current St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn (left) in 2019.

Through it all, Brewster has built close bonds with players and families that extend far beyond the dugout. To him, every person that's come through Sticks is family, and the connections he's established last long after players make their final out on the field.

"It's turned into a fraternity of sorts," Brewster said. "I owe the Sticks everything. We built it from the ground up, and it holds a special place in my heart."

This summer, though, Brewster made the difficult decision to step away from the coaching side of Sticks and move to Rockford to become the head coach of the Rockford Rivets in the Northwoods League. But his Sticks fingerprints are abundant throughout his first Rivets squad.

Among the Rivets' soon-to-be 35-man 2025 roster, nearly half of them are former Sticks players that are reunited with their old coach. After officially being announced as Rockford's new manager back in September, Brewster reached out to many of the guys he used to spend summers coaching on his 17U White Sox Scout Team along with other various Sticks travel teams and told them he had the chance to bring some of them back together.

It didn't take much convincing for a lot of them after that.

"As soon as he said that, I was like, 'All right, I'm in,'" said Rivets outfielder Jayce Blalock, who spent a year playing for Brewster with Sticks. "That's all I needed to hear."

Before long, Brewster had put together a summer ball club that looked remarkably familiar. While plenty of the players on his inaugural Rivets team are new to him too, he also gets to look into the dugout and see numerous faces he's known for years, sometimes as far back as eighth grade.

That's a unique position for a Northwoods League coach to be in.

"I'm one of the few managers in the league that knows exactly what I'm getting out of the majority of my lineup, from a skill set standpoint and what we're asking them to do," Brewster said.

Brewster speaking to his Sticks 17U White Sox Scout Team.

What has now resulted is a Rivets team that's filled with Brewster's influence in more ways than just his role as a coach. For a lot of the players, there's a familiarity and close connection that's been built up across years of being guided on their wide-ranging baseball pathways by Brewster.

And for Brewster, there's a sense of comfort knowing exactly what kind of players he has. But even more importantly, knowing exactly the kind of people he's spending every day at the ballpark with.

"I don't want anybody to think that we only wanted Sticks players," Brewster said. "But I've been a coach long enough to know that everybody's talented, everybody can play baseball. It's really hard to find people that are going to do right on and off the field, and who you know not only love baseball, but you want to be around every day as a coach and a player. And we knew the Sticks guys we brought in are those kinds of people."

That focus on people is what has made Brewster the coach he is. Ask his players, and nearly all of them will tell you that their trust and belief in their longtime coach, and the reason for jumping aboard with him on his latest venture with the Rivets so quickly, comes from the personal relationships he's formed, not the baseball ones.

Brewster's on-field coaching track record already spans over a decade, and the results speak for themselves. But it's the guidance and mentorship that he provides that truly leaves a lasting mark on those he shares the diamond with.

"He's more of a father figure, a mentor," said Rivets infielder and pitcher Ty Waid, who played for Brewster and Sticks for four years in high school. "His goal is to teach us stuff that not only helps us on the field, but off the field - life lessons."

And those relationships do translate to the field as well. His players step to the plate knowing their coach will always have their back, and that his belief in them that's been built up over years of watching them grow and develop will never waver.

"I love Coach Brewster because he really never gives up on you, even if you have a couple bad games. He's very loyal," Blalock said. "Even if you're going through a tough time, he knows what you can do. And he won't give up on you."

During Brewster's Sticks coaching years, the end goal was often clear: help players earn the chance to play the sport they love in college and hopefully one day, chase professional opportunities. Once they graduated from the Sticks program, his role usually shifted to that of a staunch supporter from afar.

He'd stay in close contact, constantly serving as a hype man for his guys on social media and keeping close track of the hundreds of Sticks alumni scattered across the country at various college programs and minor league organizations. But once a class of high school seniors finished up their final summer and went their separate ways - the coaching part was over.

That's what makes Brewster's newest coaching endeavor with the Rivets extra special. For the handful of Sticks players he's brought with him, it's an opportunity that he's never had before to coach them again in the midst of their college careers and be with them for a second chapter in their baseball journeys.

"It's rewarding," Brewster said. "Not only to continue to watch these guys grow and develop but also, I get to watch some of these kids that I know are super talented get to play in one of the best leagues in the country and travel to places they've never seen. I know where some of them came from, and I know this is one of the highlights of their career."

As the Rivets move through the Northwoods League's demanding, professional-like schedule, the days are long, the bus rides and travel are nonstop, and the grind of the summer season leaves little room for rest. For many players - and for Brewster - they're a long way from home.

But there's a looseness in the dugout that's cut through the grind and made things feel like travel ball all over again. For Brewster and his former Sticks players, it's a chance to turn back the clock and relive some of the best years of their baseball lives, with the same coach at the helm that's played a huge role in them.

"It feels like I'm young again, just having fun playing baseball," Blalock said. "For him to be back coaching me now and just playing ball, it feels like I'm back in high school."

Make no mistake, though, the first place Rivets are there to win, too. And ultimately, that's a goal that everybody can get behind, Sticks background or not.

"I didn't leave Sticks and my beautiful home in Texarkana to come here and not win. And I think a lot of these guys didn't turn down some of the other opportunities they had to come back and play for me to not win either," Brewster said. "Hopefully, not only these Sticks guys, but every guy on the roster can contribute to what we're trying to do here and hopefully, we'll continue to make Rockford proud."



Northwoods League Stories from June 13, 2025


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