Central Michigan University Athletics
Eyeing A Milestone
5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - For Steve Jaksa, it's really never been about the wins, though there have been plenty.
Instead, it's been about molding young men who learn to play the game the right way, guys he is proud to put on the field, guys who then go on and live the right way.
"My greatest achievement will be how the guys I coached care about each other," Jaksa said.
Jaksa, in his 16th year as Central Michigan baseball coach, needs three victories to reach 500 during his tenure at CMU. His Chippewas entertain Eastern Michigan in a three-game Mid-American Conference series at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium beginning on Friday (3:05 p.m.).
When Jaksa does reach the 500 milestone, he will become just the second in program history behind Dean Kreiner, who won 516 games from 1985-98, and the sixth in MAC history to have done so.
HISTORICAL ACHIEVEMENT
It will be a place in history for the Grand Blanc native, who has spent 25 years, nearly half of his life, as a Chippewa: five as a left-handed pitcher in the 1970s, four as an assistant from 1999-02, and now 16 as the man in charge of one of the Midwest's premier programs.
He lives and breathes baseball, and he bleeds maroon and gold. His calling is to get his players to do the same. Respecting the game, respecting themselves and others, are part of the total package.
Jaksa played under legendary head coach Dave Keilitz and Kreiner, who was then an assistant. He began climbing the coaching ladder shortly after earning his bachelor's degree from CMU. Among those stops was an 11-year at Nouvel Catholic High School in Saginaw, where he led the Cougars to a pair of state titles.
He returned to his alma mater in 1999, joining coach Judd Folske's staff as an assistant. He was promoted to the head coaching post in '03.
"There is an ingrained history that has been developed, that has been embraced, that has been committed to excellence for a long time," Jaksa said of the program. "I get it. I don't take any year for granted, I don't take any game for granted. My goal is to uphold a tradition of excellence that was given to me."
CARRYING ON TRADITION
Jaksa has followed the blueprint laid out by his predecessors going back to the legendary Bill Theunissen: Play the game the right way, make the sacrifices, pay the price, be unselfish.
"For us to play for championships you have to be part of a team," he said. "Whether you bunt, or whether you hit a home run, or whether you play short or second or first or catch - you are going to do whatever it takes to help the team win."
Jaksa has twice been named MAC Coach of the Year, and the Chippewas have finished first or second in the MAC West 10 times under Jaksa's guidance. He has guided the Chippewas to the MAC Tournament championship game three times.
And he has been at the forefront as the program has grown, adapted and changed with the times.
• He was the top assistant when the baseball facility was moved from its old location next to Finch Fieldhouse to where it now sits, on the south end of campus.
• The facility includes a first-class clubhouse, sizable meeting/video room, and the brand new indoor Performance Development Center.
• The program has also added a second field just to the west of Thenuissen Stadium, which Jaksa affectionately refers to as "Chip Junior."
HONORING THE PAST, SUPPORTING THE FUTURE
Everything is done with an eye toward paying homage CMU baseball's storied past, beginning with the framed photos and newspaper clippings that adorn the clubhouse walls honoring the program's legends - the Theunissens, the Keilitzes and the myriad players who have earned All-America honors and have gone on to major league careers.
The amenities, like the on-field product in which Jaksa takes so much pride, are done to promote the university, the program and tradition.
"We had a vision of what we wanted to create here," Jaksa said. "That vision is not over. We're in the midst of it. All that stuff that we did has created a pretty good environment. There are other goals that we want to accomplish and they're shared by our administration. It's just a matter of how and when we're going to be able to do it."
When a recruit walks into the Keilitz Clubhouse, the program's strong tradition is unmistakably evident. That's how Jaksa has always wanted it, that's what he and his teammates went through more than five decades ago, and that's what all who have come and gone since come to realize.
PASSED DOWN THROUGH GENERATIONS
The names and the anecdotes come to Jaksa quickly as he warms to the subject. His computer-like memory can easily recall minute details of a game played years ago: the pitcher, the batter, the inning, the outs, the count, the pitch - curveball, slider, changeup.
It's the same when it comes to the annecdotes and the players who produced them.
• Infielder Ricky Clark inspiringly taking a hard groundball off his chest in a 2010 game as the Chippewas went on to win to the MAC title.
• Shortstop Ryan Peel finally earning a starting spot in 2005 and refusing to leave the game after taking a hard grounder to his throat.
• Former Chippewas who are now in the high school and college coaching ranks who return and tell Jaksa, and his players, how they pattern their own programs on CMU's.
• Ex-players who have gone on to success in private business who talk about goal setting, team play and leadership - traits that picked up during their playing days that they successfully apply today.
A SACRED TRUST
Jaksa holds sacred his role in passing down the traditions, so much so that he easily becomes emotional when talking about them.
"That's a 'how you play the game' and that's those teams and those players buying in," Jaksa said. "The players now won't know that, we have to each them that. They don't just come here anointed with that. This is how you have to play, a certain level of toughness, a certain level of conviction, and a connection through the years.
"This is what this guy did, this is what that guy did - even though you haven't met them, this is what they did and this is why you're here and this is what you're committed to. That culture, people watching that, they get it. They understand it."
Baseball is a game that reveres and honors, almost to a fault, its traditions more deeply than perhaps any other sport. And Jaksa is a baseball man, through and through and the loyalty to the past in the application to the present is clearly evident in the Chippewa program.
And that's a two-way street and sometimes that involved tough love. Not unlike a parent which, when you're a man in charge of three dozen 18-22 year olds, it is.
"It's never changed," Jaksa said in explaining his recruiting philosophy and what he tells parents of prospective Chippewas. "'I will take care of your son, I will not give him everything he wants, I will get on him sometimes, but it will always be about what I think is best for him to develop as a person and as a baseball player. If you can accept that from me, then this will always be the right spot for you.'"
PERSPECTIVE
With 500 win on the near horizon, the next step is supplanting the legendary Kreiner, the man who was Jaksa's own pitching coach back in the 70s, as the winningest coach of one of the Midwest's top programs.
Jaksa, who is rarely at a loss for words, pauses when he considers it. The struggle to put thoughts to language perhaps stems from the fact that, in totality, it's happened in the snap of a finger.
"You just have no idea what you can become," he said. "Your mind stops you, people stop you. Just keep going. Keep going. Keep churning. I've never ever reached all of my goals. I've been disappointed a lot of times, but I don't have to be disappointed with effort, I don't have to be disappointed with attitude. As long as the effort is there, as long as the attitude is there, then I will always take the result. You have to.
"You just try to win the next game. You really do."
