Dave Schrage is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach and former

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

Creighton University Creighton University is a private Jesuit research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate and undergra ...

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 The Northern Iowa Panthers are the athletic teams of the University of Northern Iowa. The university is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference and competes in NCAA Division I (Division I FCS in football). History The school's mascot is t ...

(1991–1999),

Northern Illinois Huskies The Northern Illinois Huskies are the athletic teams that represent Northern Illinois University (NIU). The Huskies are a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The athleti ...

(2000–2002),

Evansville Purple Aces The Evansville Purple Aces are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of the University of Evansville, located in Evansville, Indiana. The Aces athletic program is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference and competes at the NCAA's Divis ...

(2003–2006),

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

(2007–2010)

South Dakota State Jackrabbits The South Dakota State Jackrabbits are the 19 intercollegiate teams representing South Dakota State University that compete in the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I (for football: Football Championship Subdivision). SDSU ...

(2012–2016) and the

Butler Bulldogs The Butler Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent Butler University, located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Bulldogs participate in 20 NCAA Division I intercollegiate sports. After leaving the Horizon League following the 2011–12 seas ...

(2017–2022).

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.

Coaching career

After completing his degree at Creighton, Schrage accepted a position as a graduate assistant at St. Thomas, working for

Paul Mainieri Paul Mainieri (born August 29, 1957) is a former baseball coach and second baseman. He played college baseball at LSU, Miami-Dade CC and New Orleans before pursuing a professional baseball career. He then served as the head coach of the St. Th ...

in 1984. The following season, he returned to Creighton as an assistant coach before coaching the

Queensland Rams Queensland Rams compete in the Claxton Shield Baseball Championship in Australia. The Rams were one of the founding teams of the Claxton Shield in 1934 and competed as ''Queensland'' until 1988. Between 1988 and 1999, the Claxton Shield was awar ...

club team in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. 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 Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

. 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 The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

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. From 2000 to 2002, Schrage served as head coach at

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...

. 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 ''Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'' (also known as ''Collegiate Baseball Magazine'' and ''Collegiate Baseball'') is an American publication based in Arizona that considers itself the "voice of amateur baseball" which has been published for over 40 ...

. Schrage then moved to

Evansville Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in S ...

, 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. Prior to coaching a game, his wife Jody died from cancer. 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. 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 Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...

within the Big East conference. Retired from coaching on 5/21/22

Head coaching record

Below is a table of Schrage's yearly records as a head baseball coach.

Personal

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schrage, Dave Living people Butler Bulldogs baseball coaches Creighton Bluejays baseball coaches Creighton Bluejays baseball players Evansville Purple Aces baseball coaches Northern Illinois Huskies baseball coaches Northern Iowa Panthers baseball coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball coaches South Dakota State Jackrabbits baseball coaches St. Thomas Bobcats baseball coaches Waldorf Warriors baseball coaches Year of birth missing (living people) Baseball coaches from Illinois American expatriate baseball people in Australia Sportspeople from Chicago