| Daron Schoenrock |
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The 16th baseball coach in school history, Daron Schoenrock enters his fourth season at the controls of Memphis baseball. After a rocky inaugural season, Schoenrock confirmed what many in the coaching world believed to be true when he was hired--that he was one of the top new head coaches in the business and that he could turn around a once successful Memphis baseball program.
In three short years Schoenrock has done just that, taking a struggling program and reviving it back to what it once was--a winner. With Schoenrock at the helm of the Memphis program that is noted as one on the rise, it was no surprise that the Tigers were able to end the 12-year postseason hiatus and earn a berth to the NCAA Tournament in 2007. With Schoenrock on the Tiger bench, the 2007 team went 36-27, marking the most wins since 1994 and combined with the 2006 campaign represented the first back-to-back winning seasons since the 1994 and 1995 slates.
Schoenrock inherited a program that had lost its top three pitchers and 10 seniors from 2004, and struggled through a 13-42 campaign in 2005. With a well-planned goal, he wasted little time working to get the Tiger baseball program back on track, signing 25 newcomers for the 2006 season, including four four-year transfers, a National Junior College Player of the Year honoree and five major league draftees. Schoenrock brought those additions together and led the Tiger to a 32-win season in just his second campaign. The 32 wins were the most wins for Schoenrock in his three years as a head coach and the most by a Memphis baseball club since 2001. The 19-game turnaround tied for the second-best winning turnaround in the country in 2006 and also tied for the best turnaround in Tiger baseball history--tying that of the 2001 team. Along with that 32-28 mark came Memphis' first appearance in the Conference USA semifinals since the 2001 season.
Hired on June 29, 2004, Schoenrock immediately brought two talented young coaches aboard, in Michael Federico and Jerry Zulli. He has taken on the tasks of a much-needed renovation of Nat Buring Stadium, marketing season ticket campaigns, reorganizing the Bullpen Club, and revamping the Diamond Darlings program to help elevate the program's image. Schoenrock is also making a conscious effort to reach Tiger baseball alumni, having honored the 1994 team in 2005 and the 1986 team in 2006.
The difference he has made has been evident off the field as well, as in just his first semester a more disciplined baseball team recorded the program's highest GPA ever. They once again recorded a program-high GPA with a 3.12 mark in the fall 2007 semester. A mirror of its coach, his squad also has been involved in community service efforts, such as visiting children at the Ronald McDonald House, Target House and St. Jude every year since his hiring. The Tigers added Streets Ministries to its goodwill efforts this year, preparing a meal and interacting with the inner city youth in a visit to the community outreach organization in the fall of 2006.
Schoenrock came to Memphis after several successful years as an assistant coach. Before taking the post as the Tigers' skipper, he spent three seasons as an assistant coach on the Mississippi State staff--his fifth year in association with State's coaching legend Ron Polk. His primary responsibilities included coaching Bulldog pitchers, and overseeing MSU's recruiting efforts. Schoenrock also coordinated the activities of the Bulldogs' foster-parent program.
Regarded as one of college baseball's premier pitching coaches, Schoenrock has sent over 30 pitchers under his tutelage to the professional level, including Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, and Paul Maholm, who was a first-round pick (the No. 7 overall) of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Most recently three Bulldog pitchers were taken in the 2004 First-Year Player Draft.
The 2006 Major League Baseball season was special to Schoenrock as two of his former pitchers achieved national recognition. Former Kentucky Wildcat Brandon Webb won the National League Cy Young Award, while former Mississippi State Bulldog Papelbon was the runner-up for the American League Rookie of the Year honor. Both were named to the Major League All-Star Game.
Prior to joining Polk at MSU, he served as the pitching coach in 2000 and 2001 on the University of Georgia staff. In Athens, he developed a Bulldog pitching staff that, in 2001, helped boost Georgia to its first SEC championship in 47 years and its first appearance in the NCAA College World Series since 1990. He launched his affiliation with Southeastern Conference baseball in 1998 at the University of Kentucky. He served two seasons on the coaching staff of former MSU baseball staffer Keith Madison, coaching the UK pitchers and catchers and heading up the Wildcats' recruiting program in 1998 and 1999. His coaching expertise gained national acclaim during a highly-successful eight-year coaching stint at Birmingham Southern. His Panther pitchers improved their staff earned run averages each season and helped lead Birmingham Southern to the 1995 NAIA World Series.
In the summer that followed, Schoenrock earned a position as the short-season pitching coach for the Chicago White Sox's affiliate in the Appalachian League.
Schoenrock was a four-year starting pitcher under Coach David Mays at Tennessee Tech University. He earned his bachelor's degree in secondary education with a certification in biology before launching his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach there in 1985. He continued his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach under ABCA Hall of Famer Johnny Reagan at Murray State University, where he earned a master's degree in education in 1987.
Schoenrock undertook his first head coaching job back in 1988 at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. He was 25-52 in his two years as coach of the Railsplitters. Schoenrock guided LMU to its first postseason appearance in five years and was named the Tennessee Valley Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1989.
A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Schoenrock has been involved in numerous community outreach efforts, sharing his knowledge at coaching clinics and banquets nationwide and making several appearances for speaking engagements across the country, as well as in the Memphis area since taking the head coaching post at the U of M. Schoenrock also serves as a clinician for www.mycoachonline.com, a baseball instruction website, and is also active in Fellowship of Christian Athletes program. In 1995 Schoenrock authored a comprehensive textbook on pitching titled "The Total Pitching Program." He is currently serving a second three-year term on the selection committee for the ABCA's prestigious Lefty Gomez Award, an annual award given for lifetime meritorious service to baseball. This past fall, Schoenrock was selected as the chairman for C-USA baseball coaches.
Schoenrock, 47, is married to the former Carol Cawood of Harlan, Ky. Carol will also be involved in the Tigers' baseball program as she will coordinate the Tiger Diamond Darlings program. They are the parents of two sons, Erik, 16, and Bret, 5.
