Baseball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 901-678-5041
Hired on June 29, 2004, Daron Schoenrock became the 16th Head Coach in the long history of baseball at the University of Memphis. Coming off of a seven-year stint as the top assistant and Pitching Coach at three Southeastern Conference Schools (Kentucky 1998, 1999, Georgia 2000, 2001, and Mississippi State 2002, 2003, 2004), Schoenrock immediately began putting his fingerprints on the program including enhancing recruiting efforts to a more national scope, building the Bullpen Club to increase revenue to aid the program’s growth, and launching a season ticket campaign to increase attraction of fans to see the Tigers compete in the ever competitive baseball environment of Conference USA.
After getting off to a tough campaign in his first season (2005), Schoenrock and his staff brought in a recruiting class the led to the 2nd largest record turnaround in NCAA Division I Baseball in 2006 with a 32-28 record, which included a 2-2 finish in the C-USA Tournament. The 2007 campaign saw the Tigers finish 36-27 with a 3-2 performance in the C-USA Tournament, which included a win over then #2 ranked Rice to push the Tigers into the semifinals of the tournament. The Tigers were selected as an at-large team to the program’s first NCAA Regional birth (Nashville Regional at Vanderbilt) since the 1994 season and that momentum launched plans for facility enhancements to the “Nat Buring Field.”
“Starting over” with a group of talented freshmen in 2008 the Tigers gained a commitment of a lead gift from FedEx to renovate the facility into what is now known as FedExPark. Plans were developed during the 2008 and 2009 seasons and found the Tigers without a “home park,” as they played their entire 2009 season on the road, which included all C-USA weekend series at USA Stadium in Millington.
Memphis moved into FedExPark just one week prior to the 2010 campaign finished with a 21-32 record, which set the tone for a five-year run (2011-2015) of 30+ win seasons, which included a 37-21 record in 2015. In 2013, Schoenrock was named the C-USA Coach of The Year, an award voted on by his coaching peers in C-USA. Schoenrock has led the Tigers to eight 30+ win seasons, second only to Bobby Kilpatrick’s fourteen 30+ win seasons in his 21 years at the helm.
In 2017, Schoenrock led efforts to enhance FedExPark with a Team Meeting Room (The Al Brown Meeting Room) and on-site coaches offices to give the coaching staff better access to players and their development. This facility enhancement led to the renaming the baseball building “The Babe Howard Training Facility,” spearheaded by a lead gift from Ray and Laura Rosas (daughter of the late Babe Howard). The Tigers now enjoy a state-of-the-art baseball building to call home. Schoenrock is actively involved in the next facility renovation plans, which include converting to an all-turf field, new scoreboard, and seating enhancements, all slated to begin in the summer of 2022.
Schoenrock launched his coaching career in 1985, when he served as the graduate assistant/Pitching Coach under David Mays at his Alma Mater, Tennessee Tech University, after he enjoyed a four-year career as a mainstay in the Golden Eagles’ pitching rotation (1981-1984). Schoenrock then moved on the Murray State University to serve as the Pitching Coach under the late Johnny Reagan (ABCA Hall of Famer) in 1986 and 1987. In the summer of 1987, Schoenrock joined future mentor Brian Shoop as the Pitching Coach of the Bryan Packers (collegiate summer team, Starkville, Mississippi). Schoenrock then accepted the Head Coaching position at Lincoln Memorial University and enjoyed two seasons there (1988, 1989) and was named the 1989 Tennessee Valley Athletic Conference Coach of The Year. This success led to “re-joining” Brian Shoop as his top assistant (when Shoop left his assistant coaching position at Mississippi State to become the Head Coach at Birmingham-Southern College) in the summer of 1989. In their eight years together in Birmingham, the Panthers enjoyed remarkable success with an overall record of 322-139 over those eight seasons and a trip to the NAIA World Series in 1995.
Schoenrock gained his first appointment into the ever-tough Southeastern Conference (SEC) with a move to The University of Kentucky in the summer of 1989 to join ABCA Hall of Famer Keith Madison as his Pitching Coach/Recruiting Coordinator. At Kentucky, Schoenrock tutored a youngster Brandon Webb, who went on to win Major League Baseball’s National League Cy Young award in 2007. Another mainstay on those Kentucky teams included future Major League infielder Andy Green (former manager of the San Diego Padres). Kentucky earned berths in the SEC Tournament in each of Schoenrock’s two years in Lexington.
In the summer of 1999, ABCA Hall of Famer and Dean of SEC Coaches, Ron Polk, came out of retirement from Mississippi State and agreed to take on the task of rebuilding the program at The University of Georgia. Polk immediately summoned Schoenrock to Athens from Lexington to aide in this rebuilding effort and after a return to the SEC Tournament in 2000, the 2001 Bulldogs won the SEC Championship. Georgia then hosted and won an NCAA Regional, defeated Florida State in an exciting Super Regional in Athens and advanced to the 2001 College World Series in Omaha to put an emphatic stamp on their two years in Athens.
With the Mississippi State job “open” again, Polk returned to Starkville in the summer of 2001 to lead the storied program and Schoenrock accompanied him there for an impressive three-year run two regionals, regional host in 2003). Notable Bulldog pitchers Jonathan Papelbon and Paul Maholm (7th overall pick in the 2003 MLB Draft) honed their craft under Schoenrock in Starkville. Schoenrock’s experiences gained under Brian Shoop, Keith Madison, and Ron Polk led to his emergence as the lead candidate for the University of Memphis vacancy in the summer of 2004 and his tenure in Memphis began.
In his 37 years as a college baseball coach, Schoenrock has coached 110 players who have gone on to professional baseball including 68 pitchers. Included in those numbers are the 39 Tigers who gained the opportunity to move to the professional ranks in his 17 years at Memphis (26 of them pitchers) including recent Major League Tigers Jacob Wilson and Sam Moll. In addition, three Tigers (Chad Zurcher, 2011 C-USA Player of the Year, Jacob Wilson, 2012 C-USA Player of the Year, and Erik Schoenrock, 2013 C-USA Pitcher of the Year) were voted by conference coaches as the Player or Pitcher of the Year.
Schoenrock’s teams continue to excel off of the field as well. His squads have posted 20 consecutive semesters with at least a 3.0 team G.P.A. and have always been very active in the community partnering with The Down’s Syndrome of Memphis in their yearly Step-Up Walk, The Forever Young Veterans Association, The Ronald McDonald House annual radiothon, and the Germantown Community Center After School Program at various Germantown elementary schools.
Schoenrock authored a tutorial book on pitching entitled “The Total Pitching Program” in 1995 and has spoken at various national coaching clinic including the prestigious ABCA National Clinic in 1999. In the summer of 1995, Schoenrock was granted a sabbatical from Birmingham-Southern College as he was hired as the Pitching Coach for the Bristol White Sox (Short-Season affiliate of the Chicago White Sox). He has served for six years on the ABCA Committee for the prestigious Lefty Gomez Award and served as the chairman of the American Athletic Conference baseball coaches from 2014-2017. He currently serves as the staff liaison for The Fellowship of Christian Athletes for The University of Memphis.
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and raised (from 1st grade through high school) in Fayetteville, Tenn., Schoenrock was an All-District quarterback and pitcher and a 1980 graduate of Lincoln County High School. He received a B.S in Secondary Education/Biology from Tennessee Tech in 1984 and a M.S. in Secondary Education/Biology from Murray State University in 1987. He is married to Carol Cawood Schoenrock, and they have two sons, Erik and Bret. Erik (former Tiger and San Diego Padres organization pitcher) is currently the Head Baseball Coach at Southwest Tennessee Community College, while Bret attends Southwest Tennessee Community College and serves as baseball manager/Director of Equipment Operations.
Major Leaguers Coached: Brandon Webb, Andy Green, Jeff Keppinger, Jonathan Papelbon, Paul Maholm, Alan Johnson, Craig Tatum, Sam Moll, Jacob Wilson
| SCHOENROCK’S COACHING TIMELINE | |
| 2005-Present: | University of Memphis (Head Coach) |
| 2002-04: | Mississippi State (Assistant Coach) |
| 2000-01: | University of Georgia (Assistant Coach) |
| 1998-99: | University of Kentucky (Assistant Coach) |
| 1995: | Chicago White Sox Organization (Pitching Coach) |
| 1990-97: | Birmingham Southern (Assistant Coach) |
| 1988-89: | Lincoln Memorial High School (Head Coach) |
| 1986-87: | Murray State (Graduate Assistant) |
| 1985: | Tennessee Tech (Graduate Assistant) |
