The Dream Team Behind the Table: Cal and Max Keep the Comets Ticking

While the St. Thomas girls’ basketball team battled on the court Thursday night against Parkview Creve Coeur, the real show, as some claim, was happening behind the court, at the scorer’s table.

There sat two familiar faces: Cal Byrkit on the clock and scoreboard, and Max Schmidt on the official scorebook. Both are juniors at Peoria Notre Dame and proud St. Thomas alumni, now standout soccer players for the Irish. But when basketball season rolls around, they return to their old gym with scorebooks and buzzer fingers at the ready.

Cal, who once logged 14 straight games without a clock error, a feat widely believed to be a school record, runs the table with the calm precision of a NASA engineer. His signature move? A sub buzzer that lasts just a beat longer than necessary, a flourish fans have come to recognize and, oddly enough, admire.

Max, meanwhile, brings his steady hand and sharp focus to the scorebook, tracking fouls, points, and the occasional heated coach inquiry with quiet authority. Together, they’ve built a reputation as the gold standard of scoretable operations - “the best crew in the business,” according to multiple sideline sources.

Of course, there’s still debate. The duo of Drake Ziegler and Pierce Lynch remain in the conversation, though insiders note their advanced stat metrics - focus consistency, buzzer timing efficiency, and penmanship under pressure - tend to grade slightly lower.

When asked why they attend so many home games, one anonymous spectator offered perhaps the highest compliment possible: “I come for the basketball, sure, but I stay for Cal and Max. You just never know when that buzzer’s gonna sing.”

Whether it’s on the soccer pitch or behind the scorer’s table, Byrkit and Schmidt continue to prove one thing: once a Comet, always a Comet... just with a louder buzzer.