HISTORY MAKER: Schafer surpasses Maxedon on Effingham all-time wins list

Dec. 27—Jeff Schafer can now call himself the all-time winningest basketball coach in Effingham High School history.

The 25-year girls' basketball head coach surpassed long-time boys' basketball head coach James Maxedon — who Schafer played for at Effingham — with 459 victories.

Schafer's Flaming Hearts helped him accomplish that goal against Hume Shiloh-Kansas-Oakland on Monday in the Charleston Holiday Tournament. Effingham won 60-53 over the Lady Titans.

Schafer currently sits with a 459-251 record in his career, even though, at first, he was never all that invested in coaching girls' basketball.

"Coach [Wayne] Rubach — my sophomore high school coach — was the coach when I started here. The boys had four coaches, and the girls had two, so he wanted to start a freshman program and asked me to do it, and I declined because I didn't want to coach girls," Schafer said. "I walked past the gym that first day after I told them, 'No,' and my competitive juices got flowing in me. I said, 'If you can get me hired, I'll be here tomorrow.'"

From that point, Schafer turned a program with only eight winning seasons into a competitive team year in and year out.

Schafer reflected on the hard work that came with that.

"As soon as I became the head coach, I went to the junior high and started coaching there. I tried to build it from the ground up instead of getting thrown into the fire," Schafer said. "I put my head down and went to work. The first years were tough, and we didn't win a lot, but we got motivated by different things. Part of it was the girls wanting two sides of the bleachers pulled out; the other was to become state-ranked once we started getting better.

"I got lucky and had some nice kids from the start."

Schafer started in the 1998-1999 season, finishing 5-19.

Soon after that, though, his fortunes changed.

Schafer compiled four-straight winning seasons from 1999-2003, with his first regional championship in 2003 after helping lead Effingham to a 23-5 record.

But he won't take much credit for that stretch.

Instead, he gives that mostly to Blair Hardiek.

"I just saw this little girl dribbling down the street, going between her legs and behind her back. I just pulled my car over and said, 'What's your name, young lady?'" Schafer said. "I remember her saying, 'My name is Blair Hardiek,' and I was like, 'Will you come and play basketball for me someday at Effingham?' She was like, 'Sure,' and that was the first time I met Blair.

"The kid came in as a freshman and averaged 20 points and then 25 a game for her last three years. You thought you had a good chance to win when you had her on the floor."

Once Hardiek graduated, though, that stretch suddenly ended.

Effingham finished 8-19 the next year and followed that with an 11-16 season the year after.

However, more good years were in front of him.

Schafer guided Effingham to nine-straight winning seasons following the back-to-back losing years, highlighted by a 22-9 2005-2006 season that ended with a loss to Belleville Althoff Catholic in the Class AA Super-Sectionals.

Overall, Schafer has won eight regional championships, with his last coming in 2019 with a team that went 28-7.

His most memorable year, though, was the year prior.

Schafer's 2017-2018 Effingham team finished with a program-best 31 wins in 34 games. The Flaming Hearts advanced to the Class 3A Super-Sectionals, only to lose to Breese Central, 37-31.

"That group was one special group," Schafer said. "Being partly with my daughter and all the great kids around her, she was the role player but watching these kids now and seeing what they've done in college makes you like a proud parent. That team just loved to compete, and the seniors got overlooked."

A junior at the time, Carsyn Fearday — who is now a senior at Maryville University in St. Louis and a member of its basketball team — recalled that season as a success because of her team's "strong bond" with one another.

She credits Schafer for that.

"That season was successful because we genuinely liked being around each other; we always stuck together even when we hit adversity because of our strong bond," said Fearday in an email to the Effingham Daily News. "When players respect their coach as much as we respect Coach Schafer, it makes the program more successful."

Fearday added that Schafer helped her become the player she is today, most notably due to how they each reacted to winning.

It became contagious to both of them.

"Not only did he want to win, but he wanted to win the right way," said Fearday in the email. "He has a very high basketball IQ, and his ability to adjust on the fly or make sure we were all prepared to come into a game was one reason we were so successful.

"If it weren't for Coach Schafer believing in me for four years, I wouldn't be the player I am today. I learned so much from him in four years that I will take with me for the rest of my life."

Those same life lessons are what Schafer continues to teach to this day, even though the teams are far different.

Schafer, though, prefers that.

"Every team is different; that makes it so much fun. Sometimes, things don't happen as planned, and then all of a sudden, they work out well, and you think we'll be really good this year. Then, you get an injury or bad chemistry, and it's very disappointing, but the chemistry has been phenomenal the last year and a half," Schafer said. "You love these teams that you have because I feel like they're over-achievers.

"They leave it all out there, and you know they'll give you everything they have, and that's what you coach for; trying to get the best out of every kid."

Altogether, the group that Schafer is currently coaching is a group that resembles one that he used to play on; the teams that may not wow opponents with talent but play with a fire and energy that equate to winning.

His job with these types of teams is to remain a calm presence, something that he learned from past coaches.

"One of my influencers was Coach [Ron] Felling, and that's how he made you feel," Schafer said. "My high school coaches, Coach Rubach, Coach [Monte] Nohren, and Coach Dan [Hine], were the same way; they made you feel like you could accomplish things."

Having quality assistant coaches throughout the years has also helped in that regard.

Schafer's assistant coaches this year are Aaron Witges, Megan Adkins, Lacy Althoff, and Troy VanBlaricum.

"Aaron is like my right-hand person if I talk about the present ones," Schafer said. "He focuses on the defense. It's fun to see this last year be more offensive-minded a bit, and you want coaches like that because that pushes the head coach to get better and not be complacent. Aaron does a great job, and he's more worried about building players than he is about as many wins as he has, and Troy's been with us for 15 years also, and you don't see that of a head coach for 25 and having two assistants for 15. It's unheard of in today's world. Those guys are just awesome."

"Megan played more games for me than any person I've ever coached," Schafer continued. "She played for me in junior high, and then she started for me as a freshman in high school, so I had her for five years, and she has an incredible personality to work with our younger kids. Then, Lacey came on board about three or four years ago. We got her involved, and she had some kids in the program, giving her her first chance to be around them all the time, be mom and coach at the same time, and she does a really good job, as well."

Though each assistant brings something different to the table, what they all have in common is loyalty.

Schafer said that trait is one of the most important things in an assistant coach.

"Lack of loyalty can set a program back two or three or four years if you get a bad assistant there," Schafer said. "At first, you want to fill your coaching staff, but now that I'm older, I'd rather have less. It is important that those people do what's best for the program and the kids. Their job at the lower levels is to get the kids interested in and excited about playing.

"No coach is going to do it on their own. You have to have assistants who always do what's best for the program and will stand up to you when they feel like you're not doing the right thing because we have that sometimes. They are special people and don't get the credit for all they deserve."

What all have led to, though, is a history-making legacy; one that Schafer doesn't take for granted.

Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 618-510-9231 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.