Ashland baseball was very aware of the Ides of March. On March 15, the Eagles took the ball field with their long-time skipper, John Schaly, just like any other game day. But it wasn't any other game day. History was in the air.
When the dust settled, and Ashland closed out the 8-5 victory over Walsh, Schaly had win number 1,325 — the most in DII baseball history, breaking Southeastern Oklahoma State's Mike Metheny's record set in 2017.
Schaly is a baseball lifer and has been around DII baseball as a coach since 1992 when he took over at Saint Leo. He started playing T-ball when he was five, and his father was the coach. "For about my first four years. Then maybe he didn't have the patience," Schaly said with a laugh.
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He was the oldest of four boys, and his dad — the four-time national coach of the year and Collegiate Baseball's "Coach of the Century," Don Schaly — was a Division III three-time national champion head coach. The Schaly boys were always at the field, being batboys, hanging numbers on the scoreboard, and then heading to the press box to enter balls and strike. "I just grew up around college baseball on a winning team," Schaly said. "I would have loved to have been a professional player, but I wasn't that good. Coaching was the next best thing. So I knew at a young age, I wanted to stay in the game."
Speaking of his legendary father, this isn't the first time the Schaly's have made history. John picked up win 1,000 in 2015. When he did, he and Don became the only father-son duo to enter the 1,000-win club in college baseball.
"The majority of things, I learned from my dad," he said. "He really stressed fundamentals, doing things the right way. He was a big believer that in between the good teams and great teams were the little things. So I always try to stress the little things.
"We're all going to make physical mistakes. We make errors, we strike out, but we try to eliminate the mental mistakes. Know where to throw to the right base and run the bases the right way. Try to eliminate mental mistakes by understanding the game."
And understand the game he certainly has. His first stop was at Division III's Berry as head coach. He went 35-24-1 in his coaching debut and improved on wins over the next two seasons. That's more impressive when you consider that the program had gone away for more than a decade. "That was my first head job, but I started it," Schaly said. "They had baseball and dropped the sport, and they had a 12-year layoff, and I wanted to bring it back. I was the guy that got hired to bring it back. We were building a brand new field, had to order all new equipment. I had two months to get together a whole team. I learned so much getting that program started. That was just a great, great experience for me to start out my coaching career."
His next stop was Saint Leo from 1992-1997 where he added 208 wins. In 1998, he began his run as Ashland's head coach — a run that has seen one losing season in 28 years. But, leaving Georgia and then Florida to the Midwest was quite the change.
"We could be outside year-round in Georgia and Florida," he said. "But I would tell my guys in Florida, I wish we had to go indoors, maybe only for about two weeks, though. When you're indoors, now it's all about fundamentals. Whereas when you're out on the field, too many times, hitters are looking at the result. I think indoors, we have to stress fundamentals more. Now, obviously, it'd be better if we didn't have to be indoors too long."
Schaly, rooted in Ohio, was excited to be back with family. But Ashland in 1998 was not the Ashland it is now. "We've come a long way here," Schaly said. "Our field here, when I got here, the back was four telephone poles with a net around it. The right-field corner had a four-foot drop-off — if the right fielder went for a ball in the corner, you couldn't see his legs. Now we have an all-turf field. We've got great facilities now."
A long way and a lot of wins. And a lot of changes, too. "The biggest one was changing the standard of the bat," Schaly said. "The ball going from a high seam to a low-seam ball made a change — although not as drastic as the bat. Obviously, the portal is totally changing the recruiting, but we've been fortunate here. Our university, the academics here in our program, we have not lost very many. We try to have guys come in out of high school and coach them for four years. We've been able to keep the majority of our players."
That is something that separates DII from other levels. The players put the focus on student in student-athlete, and sticking around creates a family atmosphere. Look at the guys Schaly faces off against — the Chris Hank, Bob Fornelli, Tom Cantrell and Jim Gantts of the world, all 1,000-game winners and DII lifers. "I really like this level," he said fondly. "It's very good baseball, especially the top teams in the country. We can beat a lot of Division I teams. But I think we keep things in the right perspective. Our guys get their degree and get a good education and move on to a career after they graduate. Obviously, we take the sports seriously, but we also take the academic seriously as well."
Schaly laughed when asked if ol' No. 11 — Florida State's iconic Mike Martin and his 2,000-plus wins — were in his target, saying that he doesn't think he'll stick around that long. But setting this record, with so many great DII coaches spending the bulk of their careers at this level, is an honor not taken lightly by the always humble Schaly.
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Something he knows he couldn't have ever done alone.
"I've never gotten a winning hit, made a great play in the field, or got the big out on the mound to get out of a jam," Schaly reflected on his historic career. "I've just been blessed with a lot of very talented players — guys that have bought into our system, work hard, have a great work ethic, and are willing to be coached. I've been blessed with very talented players, but then so lucky, so fortunate to have the support staff. I've had great assistant coaches, strength coaches, trainers. One guy can't do it. It's impossible. But it goes to the players and my assistant coaches in particular."
