Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick announced today that head baseball coach Dave Schrage will not be retained by the university. Schrage took over the position four years ago following in the footsteps of Paul Mainieri. He struggled during his time with the Irish compiling a 119-104-1 (.533) including 22-32 mark in 2010. This news opens the door for Pat Murphy to return to South Bend or another high profile candidate to head to South Bend. You can check out the full press release below.
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Dave Schrage will not be retained as head baseball coach at the University of Notre Dame after four seasons in that position.
Schrage compiled a record of 119-104-1 (.533) with the Irish, including a 22-32 mark in 2010. He has a career record of 595-657-1 in 23 seasons, which includes a 535-591-1 mark in 20 years at the Division I level, including stints at Northern Iowa (1991-99), Northern Illinois (2000-02) and Evansville (2003-06).
"I appreciate all the contributions Dave has made over the past four seasons to Notre Dame baseball," said Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick.
"Like Dave and his staff and his players, we all would have liked to have enjoyed more success, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort or commitment.
"I will begin today to work with (senior assistant athletics director and baseball administrator) Josh Berlo to conduct a national search for our next baseball coach."
After an inexperienced squad finished 28-28 in 2007, Notre Dame improved its victory total each of the next two years (33-21-1 in 2008 and 36-23 in 2009) and earned top-25 rankings in consecutive years for the first time since 2005-06. Then in 2010, the Irish failed to qualify for the eight-team BIG EAST Conference Championship for the first time in 15 years following a 22-32 season.
In BIG EAST play under Schrage, the Irish finished 11-17 in 2007 for seventh place (0-2 at BIG EAST Championship), 16-10 for third place in 2008 (0-2 at BIG EAST Championship), 15-12 for fifth place in 2009 (3-2 at BIG EAST Championship) and 10-17 for an eighth-place tie in 2010.
Schrage was introduced July 18, 2006, as the 19th head coach in the history of the Notre Dame baseball program. Prior to accepting the position at Notre Dame, Schrage completed his fourth year at Evansville in 2006 while guiding the Aces to the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles, reaching the NCAA regional championship round and finishing 19th in the national polls. MVC coach of the year in 2006, Schrage guided the Aces in building the program victory total each season: 24-31 in 2003, 28-32 in ’04, 35-23 in ’05 and a 43-22 mark in 2006 that represents the second-most wins in Evansville history.
Schrage came to Evansville after a three-year stint at Northern Illinois. Collegiate Baseball magazine recognized Schrage as runner-up for its 2000 national coach-of-the-year award. Prior to his three years at Northern Illinois, Schrage spent nine seasons as head coach at Northern Iowa where he was MVC coach of the year in 1995 and ’97.
Schrage’s standout playing career at Creighton included all-MVC honors in 1982, after leading the conference with a .400 batting average. He raised that mark to .433 as a senior and received 1983 CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
Former Notre Dame head coach Paul Mainieri gave Schrage his first job in coaching when he hired him to his staff at St. Thomas University (located in Miami and also known as Biscayne College). Schrage spent the 1983-84 season as a graduate assistant at Biscayne/St. Thomas before returning to Creighton to work two seasons with current Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry.
Schrage coached overseas in 1987-88 with the Mt. Gravatt Eagles Club in Brisbane, Australia, and returned to direct the baseball team at Waldorf Junior College (now a four-year college in Forest City, Iowa) for three seasons (1988-90) before taking over at Northern Iowa.
A two-sport standout in baseball and basketball at Chicago’s Fenwick High School, Schrage received his bachelor of science degree in business administration from Creighton in 1983 and a master’s in sports administration from Biscayne/St. Thomas in 1987. The Chicago native was born April 29, 1961.
1 comment
Notre Dame should reach out to Boston College Head Coach Mik Aoki. BC has no facilities, northeast weather and puts no money into baseball, but despite all that Aoki has lead the program into 2 straight ACC tourneys and the schools first NCAA bid in 40 years (should have gotten in this year too)in just 4 yrs as head coach. A proven head coach that can recruit players with Notre Dame academic standards.
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