WABASHA -- When Mike Schumacher graduated from college in 1980 and went looking for a job as a teacher and coach, he found a nice little setup at Wabasha-Kellogg. Shortly after being hired as a math teacher and junior high football coach, another gem of an opportunity presented itself.
“When they saw that I had some previous
softball coaching, they said, ‘We're thinking of starting softball.’ So I
became a softball coach,” Schumacher said earlier this week.
That was 42 years ago. Schumacher, a
graduate of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s High School and the University of Minnesota Morris,
will close the books on his softball coaching career when the current season
ends, and everyone would relish a repeat trip to the Class 1A state tournament
as a finale of his legendary career. The
Falcons opened the postseason this week with Section 1A wins over Schaeffer Academy
and Mabel-Canton by a combined score of 39-2 and will face Southland on
Thursday.
It took a while to get the program off the ground;
there was no softball field or youth softball program before the inaugural team
was assembled in the spring of 1981.
“I can still
remember some of the games back in the ‘80s when in the last inning we’d have
an eight-run lead and all of a sudden we've got a six-run deficit,” Schumacher
said. “Those kinds of things don't happen quite that drastically now. But back
then you never knew what was going to happen.
“Over the
first 10 years we won like 35 games. So either I say goodbye or I get a summer
program going and get serious. I started doing that.”
Coaching in
the summer was not new to Schumacher, who had played high school baseball and coached
summer girls softball in Sleepy Eye. Among his softball players was a young
lady who was a year behind him at St. Mary’s; he and Georgette Meyer were
married after college and have raised three kids in Wabasha.
“I married
my high school sweetheart, who was my second baseman,” he said with a smile.
Schumacher considered
several job offers in 1980, including positions in Annandale, Kenyon-Wanamingo,
Alexandria and Kimball.
“But none of
those had the combination of high school math and some football coaching,” he
said.
“When
Georgette and I were looking at where to live after college, we wanted to
either go up north by some lakes or southeastern Minnesota, and there happened
to be an opening here. For me, it was a perfect fit because it had the geometry,
the upper-level math that I wanted to teach with the exact same classes and the
exact same books I had student-taught with.”
The other
communities also didn’t have the outdoor attributes of living alongside the
Mississippi River.
“Right now
the water is up high enough that we can just take the kayaks behind our house
and we can go right through the trees from the backwaters and get anywhere we
want,” Mike said.
In 2016, Schumacher
was inducted into the Minnesota Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame and
received the Bob Mertz Lifetime
Achievement Award presented by the Minute Men group of the Minnesota Twins.
His career record of
451-418 (including 412-304 since 1991) puts him among the top 20 winningest softball
coaches in Minnesota history.
Before Monday’s playoff opener against Schaeffer
Academy, Wabasha-Kellogg activities director Tim Klingbeil looked around the Falcons’
softball complex, pointing out the fields, batting cages, a concession stand/pavilion
area and more.
“Over 42
years, he's absolutely built everything you see,” Klingbeil said.
Before that
game, a special announcement was made: The complex will be named Schumacher
Fields – in honor of Mike and Georgette -- when the 2022-23 season begins.
There are
four seniors this season -- Ella Lineweaver, Sophie Graner, Jacqueline Avilez
and Megan Solberg -- who will see their high school softball careers end as
their coach steps away.
“He's been
coaching forever,” Sophie said, “and a lot of people love him.”
The Falcons
went to state last season, as they did in 2003, 2006 and 2007. The memories
from last season’s accomplishment are still fresh.
“It was awesome
to go to state with Mr. Schumacher, specifically because we could really see
him open up with us a lot more,” Sophie said. “He was already open but he just
was way brighter than usual and more talkative and it was just a really good
experience.”
Jacqueline
said, “I don't think I've ever seen him happier than when we won that section championship
game.”
Klingbeil,
who is the seventh activities director at Wabasha-Kellogg since Schumacher’s
arrival, said, “I'm always asking for help, for wisdom, for experience. What
he's seen over the years is just tremendous. With his philosophy and his
approach, you can't argue because he’ll say, ‘You know, back in ‘87 we did this’
and ‘Back in ’92 we did this.’
“I think
every coach who coaches thinks to themselves, ‘I want to be Mike Schumacher. I
want to move to a small community and make that corner of the world better.’ ”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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