Coaching runs in the blood for Eastern baseball coach Jim Schmitz.

While growing up, Schmitz’s father coached him in several different sports.

His father also coached the grade school baseball, basketball and football teams.

Schmitz went to Wilmington College in Ohio with no intention of being a teacher or coach.

He was there majoring in psychology and sociology while playing on the baseball team.

After graduation, Schmitz was working in a prison through a program at the school.

But when his college baseball coach resigned in 1984, Schmitz decided to take his place. “When I heard my coach resigned, it just clicked. I knew I should do it,” he said.

Schmitz said his situation was different from most coaches because he was never an assistant coach or graduate assistant-he just went straight into the head coaching spot.

From Wilmington, Schmitz took a job at Ole Miss as the recruiting coordinator.

He said this job left him little to no time to be home with his wife and kids.

In 1995, Schmitz started his coaching career at Eastern.

This job allows him more time with his family and put him back into a head coaching position.

“I really like it here at Eastern, especially all of the communication with the alumni,” Schmitz said.

One of Schmitz’s goals is to get to see the new baseball facility built and finished.

He said it would be nice to have a clubhouse for the alumni to come back and see the games.

Schmitz also wants to create a hangout area to put the history of EIU baseball.

“There is a lot of tradition here, and we need some place to put it,” Schmitz said.

Schmitz’s biggest goal for the team is to develop the baseball team into a yearly contender in the NCAA tournament.

The baseball team has had several outstanding seasons, but Schmitz wants to make it more consistent.

Outside of coaching, Schmitz said his biggest escape from everything is his family. Schmitz enjoys being able to watch his three daughters in their sporting events and horse shows.

“I am not going to work every weekend of summer and miss my daughter’s horse shows,” Schmitz said. “If I have to miss a baseball event one weekend, then so be it.”

Family is very important to Schmitz. He said his father always taught him “family is all you have.”

Schmitz wife, Kathy, also works at Eastern in the business department.

He said it makes it nice that the two can run into each other on campus and meet for lunch.

“All in all, Eastern is a great match for me,” Schmitz said. “I like coming to work every morning.”

Abby Allgire can be reached at 581-7942 or at alallgire@eiu.edu.

Baseball coach Jim Schmitz smiles proudly with the photos of his three daughters that he keeps in his office in O’Brien Stadium. (Abby Allgire/The Daily Eastern News)

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