The 2024 campaign for the Southeastern Blackhawks marked Head Coach Justin Schulte’s 19^th season at the helm for SCC and his 26^th as a head coach at the collegiate level.  The 2024 season was not without its share of highlights.  On March 30^th Schulte won his 1,000^th game as a collegiate coach with a 7 to 2 win over Southwestern Community College.  The Blackhawks went on to win 43 games, tie for a share of the ICCAC regular season championship, finished 2^nd in ICCAC Region 11 tournament and received one of the 1^st 2 at large bids ever to the NJCAA Division 2 World Series.  The Blackhawks placed 9 players on the All Region 11 team including 1^st teamers Kooper Schulte and Sam Skarich.   They also produced the ICCAC Defensive Player of the year and National Gold Glove winner Cole Smith.   Smith was the 3^rd consecutive defensive player of the year for the Blackhawks, and 10^th in the last 17 years.   The Blackhawks also placed 42 out of 51 players on the Academic All Region 1^st or 2^nd team.  The Blackhawks continued their trend of finishing among the national leaders in many offensive categories including 3^rd in the nation in hits, 7^th in runs scored, 4^th in hit by pitches, and 9^th in total bases and RBI’s.  Defensively the Blackhawks were 3^rd in the nation in assists, 4^th in putouts and 3^rd in total chances.  They had the national leader, Kooper Schulte, in assists and Sophomore Caleb Wulf, the all-time hits leader for the Blackhawks, finished 6^th in the nation in RBI’s. 

The 2023 season was the highlight of Schulte’s career.  The Blackhawks won 49 games, a school record, on their way to an ICCAC Region Xl title, a North Plains district title and a trip to Enid, Oklahoma at the NJCAA Division 2 World Series.  The Blackhawks capped off their season with a run to the national championship game where they lost a tough 8 to 6 game to finish 2^nd in the country.   The season had many highlights, including 11 All Region players, 2 All Americans (Cole Yearsley and Casey Perrenoud), the ICCAC pitcher of the year (Casey Perrenoud), and the ICCAC and National Defensive Player of the Year (Jose Sallorin).  The Blackhawks were among the national leaders in many categories as well, defensively leading the nation in fielding percentage, total chances, assists and putouts.  Offensively the Blackhawks finished 2^nd in the nation in runs scored, led the nation in hit by pitches, and finished third in the nation in doubles, RBI’s and hits.    

Schulte has led the Blackhawks to 746 wins in his 19 years (18 full seasons), including 12 40-win seasons, 3 trips the NJCAA Division 2 World Series and 11 appearances in regional 11 championship game.  All told, Schulte now has 1,022 wins in his coaching career, the most of any coach in the state of Iowa over the last 26 years.

Before coming to Southeastern, Schulte spent 7 years as the head man at Mount Mercy beginning with the 1999 season.  The year prior to Schulte’s arrival, the Mustangs won just 8 games during an 8-30 season. That would quickly change with Schulte running the show. In his first year, despite having no athletic scholarships or a baseball field to call their own, he led Mount Mercy to 32 wins and a berth in the regional tournament.  Schulte amassed 276 wins for the Mustangs from 1999-2005, making him the all-time winningest coach in program history. During that span, Mount Mercy went to 6 regionals, had four 40-win seasons, 36 All-Conference players, 14 All-Americans, 44 Academic All-Conference players, and 6 Academic All-Americans.  In honor of his achievements, Coach Schulte was inducted into the Mount Mercy Hall of Fame in September of 2019.

Following the 2005 season at Mount Mercy, Schulte returned to Southeastern to resurrect a program that had only four players on the roster when he arrived in August of 2005.  Despite the thin roster, Schulte managed to construct a team that would go on to win 33 games in his inaugural season with the Blackhawks.  At the time, it was the second most wins in program history. Schulte has turned Southeastern into a perennial top 20 program nationally.  Schulte owns 18 of the top 19 winningest seasons in program history.

Schulte credits much of his success to the quality, talented people that have dotted his rosters throughout his tenure.  The Blackhawks have had over 350 Academic All-Region players under Schulte’s tutelage and annually carry a team GPA over a 3.0, earning them numerous national academic honors.

However, they didn’t just shine in the classroom.  Schulte has coached 15 All-Americans, over 140 All-Region players, and has seen every single player that had the desire to play at the 4-year level in his program earn opportunities to play at four-year universities. Over 70 of those players signed with Division 1 Universities and 25 former Blackhawks have been drafted or signed by pro affiliates.   That list includes Dakota Bacus who made his major league debut with the Washington Nationals in 2020. Yhoxian Medina, an All-American with the Blackhawks, also had a long pro career that ended in Triple-A in the Cleveland Indians organization and included a couple of invites to Spring Training with the big-league club as well as 2018 graduates Pedro Garcia who has made it to Triple A with the Cincinnati Reds and fellow 2018 teammate Jason Matthews who has made it to Triple A with the Chicago White Sox. 

 He has also produced the conference player of the year four times (2011, 2015, 2017 & 2018), the conference pitcher of the year seven times (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 & 2023), the conference reliever of the year 10 times & the ICCAC defensive player of the year Ten times (2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2022, 2023 and 2024).

Under Schulte, SCC has traditionally ranked extremely high in the ICCAC and nationally in many offensive, defensive, & pitching categories. Offensively, they rank near the top in runs scored, hits, doubles, batting average, hit by pitch, on base percentage, and fewest strikeouts. Defensively, SCC also has led the ICCAC in defense 7 of the last 12 years finishing in the top 3 in the league all 12 years and led the country in defense in 2018 and 2023, while finishing 3^rd in the country in 2022,  6^th in 2024 and 8^th in 2021.  The Southeastern pitching staff has led the league in ERA 6 of the of the past 11 seasons, finishing 2^nd on 2 other occasions, and walked the fewest number of hitters in the conference in 3 of the past 4 seasons. They also rank near the top nationally in strikeouts, finishing in the top 5 in the country 4 of the last 11 years and led the nation in 2014.

Schulte has also had the major benefit through his career of having quality assistant coaches surrounding him.  His tenure has included the likes of Chris Ramirez, who was the first assistant Schulte hired at SCC.  Ramirez then went to Texas A&M Corpus Christi as the recruiting coordinator before getting his first head coaching job at Division 2 Illinois Springfield where he was named national coach of the year in 2018.  Ramirez is currently the Head Coach at Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina.  His staffs have also included Jeff Stanek who went on to be the recruiting coordinator at Morehead State, Nick Puccio, current hitting coach/recruiting coordinator at Penn State University, Tony Cougoule, who is currently the Triple A pitching coach in the Chicago Cubs organization.  PJ McIntee who went on to Morehead State before becoming the recruiting coordinator at Division 2 power Minnesota State.  At Mount Mercy, Schulte coached and hired Travis Hergert, who is the pitching coordinator for the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Prior to starting his head coaching career at Mount Mercy in 1999, Schulte got his start in coaching as the pitching coach at Southeastern in 1995.  In his three-year span as the pitching coach for the Blackhawks, they produced four All-Region pitchers and set a school record for ERA in 1998. He also helped set the school record in wins during the 1998 season, a record that wasn’t broken until 2009. 

Schulte has also spent time coaching at the High School level, getting his start as an assistant coach at Benton Community in the summer of 1994.  He returned to Benton Community in the summer of 95 and the Bobcats were state runner ups in both seasons.  Schulte returned to the high school ranks at New London as an assistant coach from the summer of 2019 thru the summer of 2022, culminating in state tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022.  The Tigers won the Class 1A state title in 2022. 

Schulte’s playing career also included a stop at SCC where he was a shortstop and pitcher before he went on to pitch in the Big Ten at the University of Iowa in 1994 and 1995.  Justin graduated from Norway High School in Iowa in 1990 where he was part of three state championship teams and a state runner up. 

Coach Schulte is married to wife Tara and they are the parents of two daughters, Kenadi and Kaylor and their son Kooper who will be playing at the University of Iowa in the fall of 2024.