West Burlington, IA-On Friday March 1st, Justin Schulte achieved career number 800 win. The game was started by Ricardo Blackman and the win was recorded by Josh Hoffman. Offensively, Cole Tucker had the game tying RBI in the bottom of the 8th and Gavin Logan recorded the game winning RBI in a pinch hit opportunity.
The 800th win happened in his 21st season as a head coach in college baseball. Justin's coaching career started right out of college when he came back to serve as a pitching coach for Southeastern Community College. After three seasons, Justin took his career to Cedar Rapids to be the Head Coach of the Mount Mercy College. The season before Justin's arrival Mount Mercy had a total of 8 wins on the season. In his first season at the helm for Mount Mercy, they won 33 games. In six seasons at Mount Mercy, Justin had a career record of 276-170.
In the fall of 2005, Justin came to Southeastern Community College. The previous year the Blackhawks were able to win 16 games. In Justin's first season, they were able to win 33 games and come in third place in the conference. In the time that Justin has been at Southeastern, the baseball program has never finished below third place. In his tenure at SCC, Justin is now averaging 40 wins per season.
If you talked to Coach Schulte about his goals, he would be the first to tell you that player development and player placement is his priority. In his time at Southeastern, Justin has coached 9 All American's and countless all region and all district players. He has placed over 120 players at the Division 1, 2 and NAIA levels.
A measure of a coaches true success is how the players feel about a coach after they leave the program. Grant Spranger, former Blackhawk turned Creighton Blue Jay and now Seattle Mariner farmhand had this to say "Coach Schulte has had a massive impact on my baseball career and I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for him. I showed up on campus unsure if I belonged there and my first semester didn't go well at all. But he has a way of building a player up mentally and physically. He pushed us to our limits all fall and winter so that when spring rolled around we could play hard, day in and out. I am proud that I am a part of the Blackhawk family that Coach Schulte built. Congrats Coach"
Austin Martin, former Blackhawk turned Iowa Hawkeye said "Through the two years that I was in Coach Schulte's program, there was a sense of accountability and discipline that was instilled into his program since the first day we stepped on campus. As my career progresses and I reflect, I use those skills every single day and I don't even realize it. They became a habit in my time at Southeastern Community College, and they have simply shaped me to be the person I am today. They are skills that not only enhanced me on the field, but also in the classroom and everyday life. They will also be carried through my life as I get older and my future family begins to depend on me daily to provide for them. Coach Schulte, thank you for not only being a baseball coach, but also a life coach."
Jay Feliciano, former Blackhawk All-American turned Milwaukee Brewers farmhand had this to say "When I arrived at Southeastern I did not know anything about English. It was my first time that I was away from my family for a long time. I wanted to return to Puerto Rico but I wanted to play baseball. I adapted to the community and left the program knowing friends and brothers from all parts of the United States, Canada and Venezuela. You, Coach Schulte, prepared us not only to have knowledge of baseball or to be mentally strong, you prepared us to be good human beings and that is why I thank you, old friend, for opening the doors of Southeastern for me. Congratulations on your 800th victory, blessings for you and your family."