Coach: New Notre Dame TE Commit Kevin Bauman A "Rare Breed"

A lot of high school coaches describe their star players as being like altar boys, but when Red Bank Catholic High School head coach Frank Edgerly says it about Kevin Bauman‍, he means it…literally.

“He’s a phenomenal kid, he really is,” Edgerly says of Bauman, a 2020 New Jersey tight end, who just announced his commitment to Notre Dame.

“I know you read a lot of these types of articles and every kid is going to stand up and advocate for their kid, but this kid is a rare breed. This kid came in with a lot of fanfare and a lot of attention, lives perpetually under the radar. As a sophomore and getting attention from the likes of Notre Dame and Michigan and Nebraska and becoming a national recruit quickly, this kid has actually embarrassed by the attention. And believe me, that’s a great problem to have. Too many times those things go in another direction and you have to worry about minimizing that head size.”

In addition to being an altar boy, Bauman is a standout on the field and in the classroom.

“This is a kid who is fully invested on and off the field,” his coach says. “Football is oxygen to this kid. He trains for it, he works toward it. The kid is sitting at a 3.7 GPA.

“This is a rare kid. He’s probably one of the best all-around, well-rounded kids I’ve ever been around.”

Red Bank Catholic, the same school former star Irish offensive lineman Quenton Nelson attended, is modeled after Notre Dame in many ways.

“Our colors are green and gold, there are shamrocks all over the place,” Edgerly says. “The roots are deep in a Notre Dame tradition.

“Our locker room and gym and weight room are called the Eck Center. Sound familiar? Well, Frank Eck is a graduate of Red Bank Catholic and when he passed, he left money to the school and it’s named after his father, The Vincent J. Eck Center. Our roots deep with Notre Dame beyond the fact Quenton went there.”

The 6-foot-5 Bauman was blessed with a tremendous amount of ability, but his coach gives him credit for maximizing it.

“He came in here a big kid to begin with, but what he’s done in the last year and a half since being here, he’s really transformed his body,” the coach says. “In terms of understanding nutrition and training, he really does the investment.

“A kid with that kind of size and that raw athleticism and body control, I’ve never seen a kid at this level with that natural of catch skills. Obviously, he has a big catch-radius, but he knows how to use his body, how to adjust to the ball, how to take the basketball court to the football field when he catches the ball in traffic. What’s magnified all of that is the fact that he’s transformed his body. He’s gotten stronger. He’s 235 pounds and he’s put together. His speed has increased. When you look at that combination of size, athleticism and sheer talent, he makes me look a heckuva lot smarter than I really am.”