Tribune notebook: A pair of area baseball legends call it quits

Tom Elliott, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·3 min read

Jun. 7—Randy Schaub let the folks at Renville County West know before the season that this was going to his last year as the Jaguars' head baseball coach.

Lac qui Parle Valley's Bart Hill let his school board know in May that he was retiring.

Combined, the two west central Minnesota coaches have 62 years of experience as head baseball coaches.

"I did a lot of crying, I'm not gonna lie," said Hill, who was the Eagles' head coach for 27 seasons.

Schaub said he started letting people know this would be his last year after 35 years as a head coach in January. He hopes that long-time assistant coach Steve Agre takes over, though that's up to the school board and the administration.

"It's time," Schaub said. "It's Steve's time.

"I've been grooming him for this for a quite a while. He's assisted me forever. It's just his time to take over."

RCW finished 4-11, seeing its season end with a 3-2 loss to Dawson-Boyd in the Section 3A playoffs. That means that Schaub ends his career with a 363-312 record. That includes 36 years as a head coach, 1 year as an assistant at Danube-Renville-Sacred Heart, one year as a junior high school and one year as a B-squad coach at Albert Lea.

Along the way, he was a head coach from 1982-85 at Villard, in 1988 at Danube and then from 1990-2022 at the various amalgamations at DRSH, Belview-Danube-Renville-Sacred Heart and finally at RCW. All the while, he was a social studies teacher.

He won't be away from the game, however. He remains a state director for American Legion Baseball's Division II program.

He's most proud of the many relationships he has built with players.

"The relationships of the players just has been phenomenal ove the years," Schaub said. "I can't say enough about the majority of really great human beings I've had the pleasure of getting to know. Many of them have been very successful in their lives.

"It's just been incredible, the relationships."

LQPV finished the season with a 14-7 record. The Eagles went 3-2 in the Section 3A playoffs, beating Lakeview 9-1, then Yellow Medicine East 7-0 before losing to Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 3-2. They came back in the double-elimination playoffs with a 15-2 victory over Red Rock Central/Westbrook-Walnut Grove before falling 12-1 to Murray County Central.

"It was going to be the last game someday," Hill said. "It didn't end the way we want it to, but MCC played well.

"It was not our day."

Hill finishes his career with a 378-211 record as head coach.

Spicer is once again host to the Hoops by the Lake 3-on-3 basketball tournament. It's the 25th anniversary of the tournament, which takes place July 2nd along the shores of Green Lake at Saulsbury Beach in Spicer.

Registration forms can be requested via email at hoopsbythelake@gmail.com. The are divisions for males and females from fifth grade through adul. The registration deadline is June 22nd.

Contact Skip Wright at 320-905-1652 or Matt Holland at 320-894-5391 for more information.