A Favorite Son Comes Home to CMU Baseball

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – It's not about what happens to a man, but how he reacts to it, and what he learns from the experience.

Jake Sabol was cut from his high school baseball team as a junior in 2005.

On Thursday, the 34-year-old Detroit-area native was introduced as Central Michigan's 22^nd baseball coach, taking over the storied program for which he pitched from 2007-11.

"We've got the 4^th of July weekend and this room was full of people who love this program, which is pretty special," said Sabol during a meet-and-greet at the Chippewa Champions Center on the CMU campus.

"To me, that's what it's all about, being somewhere where winning is important, but also the investment in the program … That's what you want as a coach."

And he is what CMU wants, a favorite son with maroon and gold in his blood with a proven track record as a head coach, first during a three-year stint at Division III Alma College from 2016-18 and then at Division II Northwood from 2019-23.

He succeeds Jordan Bischel, who left CMU some two weeks ago for Cincinnati after taking the Chippewas to a combined four Mid-American Conference championships and three NCAA Tournaments during his five years in Mount Pleasant.

The parallels are many. Sabol took over at Northwood for Bischel when the latter was named the Chippewa skipper prior to the 2019 season.

"We had a national search and we wind up finding the best man 25 miles away just like we did with coach Bischel five years ago," said the legendary Dave Keilitz, the program patriarch who, along with Zyzelewski Family Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics Amy Folan, led the coaching search and ultimately made the decision to turn the program over to Sabol.

"Just a quality individual and a great, great coach," Keilitz said. "What he did at Alma and then at Northwood following coach Bischel was really remarkable. When it was all said and done, both Amy and I felt this is our guy."

"I came here as a freshman 63 years ago and played under coach (Bill) Theunissen and every year since that time we've had an outstanding program. To get Jake, a CMU guy, back here, means a lot to us. There's no doubt in our minds how well he'll do."

Finding Motivation
But some two decades ago, Sabol was an unlikely success story when he was cut from the team at De La Salle Collegiate, a high school baseball power in suburban Detroit's Warren.

"Do I feel like I was good enough to play? Certainly," Sabol said. "But in the end, certain things go certain ways and it's water under the bridge and it only helped me get to where I'm at now."

He made the team as a senior, then came to CMU as a walk-on in 2007. He developed into a weekend starting pitcher under then-coach Steve Jaksa and eventually played a critical role as the Chippewas won two MAC West titles and the overall MAC regular season championship in 2010.

Sabol received the Chippewa Award, symbolic of the player who best represents the Central Michigan baseball program, in 2011.

"He just wanted to be really good," said Jaksa, himself a former Chippewa pitcher who led the program from 2003-18. "And it's hard; it doesn't just come to you. You've got to work hard at it. He was 6-4 and 175 pounds and he had to grow into that body, and he had to work hard and he had to wait. A lot of people don't wait and waiting can teach you a lot.

"He is a character, character young man who believes in the important things that kids need to know and that he believes in them. I love him. I loved how he played; I loved the kind of teammate he was. He kept getting better and better and once he got good, he wasn't going to let you beat him.

"He was like, 'you're not going to beat me now because it took me too long to get good.' He's the same with coaching, he went from Division III to Division II and now, Division I."

Gallery: (6-29-2023) Coach Jake Sabol - Press Conference

From CMU to Pro Ball to Coaching
Sabol earned a bachelor's degree in sports management from CMU in 2011, finishing his career on the MAC Honor Roll. He earned his masters of business administration from Northwood in 2015.

He was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 2011 and spent parts of two seasons in the organization with the Gulf Coast League Tigers and the Connecticut Tigers in the New York-Penn League.

Sabol's playing career came to an end in 2012 with the Traverse City Beach Bums, and he then started working as a scout with the Toronto Blue Jays. He cut his coaching teeth as a pitching coach at Alma and then Northwood, where he worked under Bischel in 2015.

He took the head coaching job at Alma in 2016, and found immediate success. In three seasons, he guided the Scots to two of their three winningest seasons in the 118-year history of the program (28 victories in 2016; 24 in 2018). The Scots reached the MIAA Tournament twice under Sabol, marking the first time in program history that the team qualified for the event.

Sabol took over at Northwood in 2019 when Bischel came to CMU. In four full seasons (2020 was abbreviated to 15 games because of COVID-19), he led the Timberwolves to a 140-90-1 record including a 77-35 conference mark, and four NCAA Division II Regional appearances. Sabol's combined record at Alma and Northwood was 207-149-1, a .581 win percentage.

He guided Northwood to Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships in 2023, the Timberwolves' first year in the league after moving over from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

A Burning Desire
That desire to improve, certainly partially triggered by his experience in high school ball, has remained.

For that, he credits "a lot of reflection and people in my corner who really supported me and saw something in me that at certain times I didn't always know was there," he said. "The support system has been phenomenal and that's always huge.

"When people have success you always look at the people around them – my family, my parents, my coaches and teammates and the players– just incredible people that I've had around me who put me in situations to know that, hey, maybe I am capable of doing this kind of stuff."

A key element, he said, was staying in the moment and focusing on the task at hand, be it at Alma or at Northwood.

"I couldn't' worry about the next-best thing or I was going to lose sight of what I was trying to accomplish there," he said. "That was always something that ran through my mind.

"Even though you look ahead, and you have dreams that you hope one day become reality, I think it's important to be in those moments and try to be really good at that time."

Taking the Reins
Sabol fully recognizes the position that he now finds himself in in taking over at his alma mater, where baseball is important. He also knows the responsibility that comes with the territory.

"That's what's exciting about it, but that's also what's nerve-wracking about it," he said. "It's the program you played in and you want nothing more to have success for the people who have gotten you to this moment. And a lot of those are going to alums or coaches or former teammates. They love that, they love seeing the success we've had here the last four or five years under (Bischel)."

That is as evident today as it was in the fall of 2006, when he arrived in Mount Pleasant as a freshman walk-on.

"Right away, I saw how (veteran teammates) attacked their business, I saw in the clubhouse all the championship team pictures were on the wall and the history was so pronounced and you could see it," he said. "Right away, I was like, this is a bigger deal than I thought it was."

Sabol's journey has taken him from wide-eyed walk-on to key contributor on championship teams, and then to professional baseball and then the coaching ranks.

Now, he's back, in Mount Pleasant with a lot more wisdom, but with the same internal drive.

"In some ways it shouldn't be a surprise at all that the experience that he's had has brought him home to be a leader for us," Folan said. "He knows how to recruit Michigan, he's had success everywhere he's been. He's got a high bar here and he knows that, but I think he looks forward to that.

"The passion (with CMU baseball) isn't just on the field and going to the games, it's the facilities and the character and there are a lot of families here who have put their heart and soul into it. It's a special place and special people and they care about baseball. When you come here you notice all the baseball fields around the area. The fact that it's produced somebody of Jake's character and quality isn't a surprise."

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