Dave Schrage

Dave Schrage in an American baseball coach and former outfielder, who is the current head baseball coach of the Butler Bulldogs.[1] He played college baseball at Creighton University for head coach Dave Underwood from 1980 to 1983. He then served as the head coach of the Waldorf Warriors (1988–1990), Northern Iowa Panthers (1991–1999), Northern Illinois Huskies (2000–2002), Evansville Purple Aces (2003–2006), Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2007–2010)[2][3][4] and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits (2012–2016)[5][6]

Dave Schrage

Current position
Title	Head Coach
Team	Butler
Conference	Big East
Record	99–72
Playing career
1980–1983	Creighton
Position(s)	OF
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1984	St. Thomas (FL) (Asst.)
1985–1986	Creighton (Asst.)
1988–1990	Waldorf
1991–1999	Northern Iowa
2000–2002	Northern Illinois
2003–2006	Evansville
2007–2010	Notre Dame
2012–2016	South Dakota State
2017–present	Butler
Head coaching record
Overall	831–878–2
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
MVC Coach of the Year: 1995, 1997

Playing career

Schrage played four seasons as an outfielder at Creighton from 1980 to 1983, earning all-conference and Academic All-American honors. He hit .400 or higher in both his junior and senior seasons.[5]

Coaching career

After completing his degree at Creighton, Schrage accepted a position as a graduate assistant at St. Thomas, working for Paul Mainieri in 1984. The following season, he returned to Creighton as an assistant coach before coaching the Queensland Rams club team in Australia. He earned his first head coaching job at Waldorf, then a junior college in 1987. After three seasons and a 61–66 record, Schrage moved to Northern Iowa. He would remain with the Panthers for nine seasons, improving the team's win totals from 2 to 18 during his tenure and earning a pair of Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year awards. He would be honored as the only person to be named All-Conference and Coach of the Year in baseball by the MVC at their Centennial Celebration.[5] From 2000 to 2002, Schrage served as head coach at Northern Illinois. He took over a team that recorded only 4 wins the previous season and guided them to 24 wins in his first year and a winning season in his second. He was named runner-up for the National Coach of the Year Award by Collegiate Baseball.[6] Schrage then moved to Evansville, where he led the Purple Aces to 130 wins and a regional final in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. Schrage then earned what he called his dream job, succeeding Mainieri as head coach at Notre Dame.[7] Prior to coaching a game, his wife Jody died from cancer.[8] Schrage was not able to continue Mainieri's success with the Irish, and was fired after four years. He was hired to coach the Jackrabbits in the summer of 2011.[5] After coaching the Jackrabbits to a 136–144–1 record over the past 5 seasons, on July 5, 2016 he was hired to be the head coach of Butler University within the Big East conference.[1]

Head coaching record

Below is a table of Schrage's yearly records as a head baseball coach.[9][10][11][12][13]

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Waldorf Warriors (Iowa Community College Athletic Conference) (1988–1990)
Waldorf:		61–66
Northern Iowa (Mid-Continent Conference) (1991)
1991	Northern Iowa	13–44	1–9	3rd (Gray)	Mid-Con Tournament
Northern Iowa Panthers (Missouri Valley Conference) (1992–1999)
1992	Northern Iowa	22–34	2–17	8th
1993	Northern Iowa	12–39	1–20	8th
1994	Northern Iowa	24–32	5–16	T-7th
1995	Northern Iowa	24–32	12–20	T-7th
1996	Northern Iowa	26–32	13–19	6th	MVC Tournament
1997	Northern Iowa	32–23	18–8	2nd	MVC Tournament
1998	Northern Iowa	26–30	9–22	8th
1999	Northern Iowa	28–26	13–17	7th
Northern Iowa:		211–292	74–148
Northern Illinois Huskies (Mid-American Conference) (2000–2002)
2000	Northern Illinois	24–33	11–15	3rd (West)	MAC Tournament
2001	Northern Illinois	28–27	10–17	T-5th (West)
2002	Northern Illinois	23–32	11–14	5th (West)
Northern Illinois:		75–92	32–46
Evansville Purple Aces (Missouri Valley Conference) (2003–2006)
2003	Evansville	24–31	12–20	9th
2004	Evansville	28–32	12–20	T-5th	MVC Tournament
2005	Evansville	35–22	12–12	4th	MVC Tournament
2006	Evansville	43–22	16–8	1st	NCAA Regional
Evansville:		130–108	52–60
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Big East Conference) (2007–2010)
2007	Notre Dame	28–28	11–15	7th (12)	Big East Tournament[lower-alpha 1]
2008	Notre Dame	33–21–1	16–10	3rd (12)	Big East Tournament[lower-alpha 2]
2009	Notre Dame	36–23	15–12	5th (12)	Big East Tournament[lower-alpha 3]
2010	Notre Dame	22–32	10–17	9th (12)
Notre Dame:		119–104–1	52–54
South Dakota State Jackrabbits (Summit League) (2012–2016)
2012	South Dakota State	18–33–1	7–14	6th (7)
2013	South Dakota State	35–24	16–10	2nd (6)	NCAA Regional
2014	South Dakota State	28–29	11–11	2nd (5)	Summit Tournament
2015	South Dakota State	33–23	17–11	2nd (6)	Summit Tournament
2016	South Dakota State	22–35	13–17	4th (6)	Summit Tournament
Butler Bulldogs (Big East Conference) (2017–present)
2017	Butler	31–20	7–10	5th
2018	Butler	34–20	9–8	3rd
2019	Butler	26–26	6–11	6th
2020	Butler	8–6	0–0		Season canceled due to COVID-19
Butler:		99–72	22–29
Total:		831–878–2
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

1. The top 8 finishers of the Big East's 12 teams qualified for the tournament in 2007.
2. The top 8 finishers of the Big East's 12 teams qualified for the tournament in 2008.
3. The top 8 finishers of the Big East's 12 teams qualified for the tournament in 2009.

Personal

Schrage's wife Jody passed away on January 9, 2007.[8] They had two daughters, Kaitlyn and Brianne.[7][14]

See also

• List of current NCAA Division I baseball coaches

References

2. "Dave Schrage Bio". Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
3. Sean Stires (June 14, 2010). "Schrage Fired At Notre Dame". College Baseball 360. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
4. "Dave Schrage Will Not Be Retained As Notre Dame Head Baseball Coach". Notre Dame Fighting Irish. June 14, 2010. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
5. "Dave Schrage Bio". South Dakota State Jackrabbits. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
6. "SDSU hires former Notre Dame baseball coach Dave Schrage". Brookings Register. Brookings, SD. August 11, 2011. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
7. Marlen Garcia (May 10, 2007). "Notre Dame coach Dave Schrage stays strong". USA Today. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
8. "Notre Dame baseball coach's wife dies". ESPN. January 9, 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
9. "Yearly College Baseball Standings". BoydsWorld.com. Boyd Nation. Archived from the original on June 5, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
10. "MAC Tournament History" (PDF). MAC-Sports.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
11. "2014 The Summit League Baseball Record Book" (PDF). TheSummitLeague.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
12. "2014 Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Record Book" (PDF). MVC.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
13. "2014 The Summit League Baseball Standings". D1Baseball.com. Jeremy and Cynthia Mills. Archived from the original on June 9, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
14. Jacob Boyer (July 29, 2008). "Baseball in the blood". Wednesday Journal. Retrieved November 12, 2013.