McIntyre expects his McCutcheon Mavericks to play with confidence

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Tristan McIntyre was proud to be associated with McCutcheon High School baseball even before he pulled on a Mavericks uniform.

That emotion continued as McIntyre played for Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Jake Burton and helped the West Lafayette-based Mavs win an IHSAA Class 4A state championship in his senior year of 2003.

“He had pride in the program and invested a lot of time and energy in making this one of the better programs in the state,” says McIntyre of Burton. “That has resonated down through everyone who has come through and played for him.”

As a youngster, Tristan attended McCutcheon baseball camps. Older cousins Jake McIntyre (Class of 1996) and Nick McIntyre (Class of 1999) played for the Mavs. McCutcheon was a state runner-up in 1994 and state champion in 1999.

Tristan grew up as the only child of Roger and Shirley McIntyre (now deceased) in Stockwell, Ind., which is about 10 miles southeast of McCutcheon, and got his diamond start in the PONY Baseball (which is now Shetland for 6U, Pinto for 8U, Mustang for 10U, Bronco for 12U, Pony for 14U, Colt for 16U, Palomino for 18U and Thorobred 23U). Gary Christopher was the coach.

As he progressed, the young McIntyre played for teams based at James E. Cole Elementary, Lauramie Township and then Wainwright Middle School.

In high school, McIntyre played in the Colt World Series in Lafayette. After that came Lafayette American Legion Post 11, coached by Jim Watson and Dan Yeoman.

McIntyre played three seasons for the Boilermakers (2005, 2006 and 2008). He redshirted his freshman year (2004) and because of injury missed another season (2007).

The 2008 Boilers went 21-10 in Big Ten Conference play and featured future big leaguer and current Korea Baseball Organization star Josh Lindblom as the closer.

McIntyre remembers Lindblom hitting 100 mph on the radar gun at Northwestern, the only time he’s been around someone who hit triple digits.

“We knew that if we could get the ball to him with the lead it was pretty much ‘game over,’” says McIntyre of Lindblom, a graduate of Harrison High School in Lafayette. “His stuff was just so electric.

“(New Haven High School graduate) Matt Bischoff was a starting pitcher that had really good command and could go out there and give us seven or eight innings every start (in 2008).

“We had a lefty out of the bullpen — (Hammond Bishop Noll Institute grad) Andy Loomis — who was lights out that year as well.”

McIntyre was an assistant coach at Bluffton (Ohio) University for two seasons (2009 and 2010) and on the Purdue coaching staff for six seasons (2011-16).

That means the McIntyre both played for Doug Schreiber at Purdue and coached with him at both Purdue and McCutcheon. T-Mac was a part of the Mav coaching staff the past two seasons under Schreiber.

“It’s his knowledge of the game,” says McIntyre of one attribute he appreciates about Schreiber. “He’s been in so many good experiences throughput his career. I just try to be a sponge and soak that in.

“And he’s one of the most competitive guys I’ve ever been around. As a player and a coach, it inspired you to want to work hard and compete and find ways to get guys better and find a way to win.”

With Schreiber leaving to become head baseball coach at Purdue Fort Wayne, McIntyre was recently named head coach of the Mavs and has been reinforcing the culture during fall limited contact workouts.

“We want to take a lot of pride in the opportunity represent McCutcheon and coming out here with a purpose everyday,” says McIntyre. “Ultimately, we want to be able to play the game with confidence and break the game down to a series of one-pitch-at-a-time.

“If we do that over and over again, I think we’ll find ourselves in a lot of ball games with a chance to win.”

McIntyre, 34, takes over a program that went 22-6 and played in the 4A Lafayette Jeff Sectional championship game in 2019.

The coach sees the best chance to keep having success is by limiting the extra outs and offensive opportunities for opponents.

“Stylistically, we want to take care of the baseball whether that’s on the mound or defensively,” says McIntyre, who counts Brandon Fulk, Ryan Wides, Dustin Anthrop and Jake McIntyre among his assistants with the hopes of filling a couple more slots with Schreiber and (Crawfordsville High School head football coach) Kurt Schlicher moving on.

Fulk leads the JV team and is assisted by Anthrop, who is president of McCutcheon Youth Baseball League with Fulk as vice president. Wides works with catchers and outfielders. Jake McIntyre is a McCutcheon social studies teacher.

Nick McIntyre, who is now an assistant at the University of Toledo, was a role model for a young Tristan.

“(Nick) was someone I always looked up to. No. 1, he was talented. No. 2, he was always a competitive guy,” says McIntyre. “As a kid it was fun to be around him. He’s a high energy guy and obviously knows the game.”

As coaches, Tristan and Nick have been able to bounce ideas off one another. While Tristan was a hitter and a pitcher in high school, he has moved toward the pitching side of things while Nick’s focus has been offense.

“He knows the mindset of the hitter and he’s always been very open as far as giving me tips and things along those lines,” says Tristan.

Away from baseball, Tristan and wife Andrea are the parents of daughter Clara (4). His day job is finance and operations manager at Gutwein Law in Lafayette.

“To be able to do this in general it takes the support of a lot of people,” says McIntyre. “First and foremost is my wife. She has to be very understanding and patient. Having her on-board is tremendous.

“(Gutwein) has been very gracious to me and flexible with my schedule.”

Tristan McIntyre, a 2003 McCutcheon High School graduate and a Mavericks assistant for the past two seasons, is now head baseball coach at his alma mater. He also played and coached at Purdue University and coached at Bluffton (Ohio) University. (Steve Krah Photo)

 

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Schreiber teaching baseball, life skills in first season at McCutcheon

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Ever since Doug Schreiber became a baseball coach, he has been working with young people.

In 18 seasons as head coach at Purdue University (1999-2016) and before that in assistant stints at Ball State University, Butler University, the University of Notre Dame and Arizona State University, he taught about the game and about life to young men 18-and-over.

Schreiber, a 1982 LaPorte High School graduate and the third child born to 13-time Hall of Famer Ken Schreiber and wife Judy, is now passing along his wisdom to slightly younger athletes in his first season as head baseball coach at McCutcheon High School.

“We’re trying to teach all the things that are going to help them at the next level and for the rest of their life, too,” says Schreiber, who had his Mavericks off to strong start in 2018 (14-3 overall and 8-0 in the North Central Conference). “We’re learning. Even though we have 13 seniors (Butler University commit Kollyn All, Evan Allen, Caleb Ely, Dylan Henning, Steven Krick, Parker Lamb, Darren Lathrop, Kobe McNeely, Ben Miller, Anderson University commit Kyle Pendleton, Kaden Rice, Purdue commit Jackson Smeltz and Kelden Tyson), they’re all like freshmen a little bit because they’ve got to learn all new signs, philosophy, temperament.

“It’s all new to them.”

Schreiber, 54, has witnessed a resilient team.

“There’s days we don’t hit, but we do just enough defensively,” says Schreiber. “There’s days when we don’t play the best defense, but we hit.

“We’re a team that can beat anybody in the state, but we’re also a team that can lose to anybody. You’ve got to be attentive to detail and that’s something we could be a little sharper on.

“We’re not a attentive to detail as I want. But any coach is probably going to stay that.”

Using baseball as a platform, Schreiber has helped the Mavs grow up.

“We always talk about maturity being an important part of what we’re trying to do,” says Schreiber. “You hear it a lot. Coaches in all sports say they like some of their leaders because they’ve finally matured and become leaders.

“Our jobs as coaches — as an adult — is to help them mature. I don’t care if they’re 16, 17 or 18, I’m going expect things out of them that’s going to bring some of that maturity level. That allows them to be able to understand their coaches, teachers and other people a little better. They see the other peoples’ perspective and not always things out of their own eyes.”

With a senior-dominated lineup, Schreiber has gotten contributions from the junior class.

There are sophomores, who Schreiber says could probably play on varsity, that are getting quality reps with McCutcheon’s two junior varsity squads.

“They’re getting to be the team leaders and stuff like that,” says Schreiber. “During the end of the season, they’re going to be moved up and see what it’s like to be in our dugout with our coaches.

“We’ve got kids who are working really hard and buying in.”

Brian Eaton was McCutcheon’s head coach in 2017. When Eaton left to take the athletic director job at Clinton Prairie just before the start of the 2017-17, it created an opening at the top of the Mavericks baseball staff.

“They approached me and asked if I’d be interested,” says Schreiber. “I had to see if it was going to work within my working life as well.”

Schreiber continues to work at Purdue as associate director of Outreach and Recruitment in the Technology & Innovation department.

Sarah Schreiber, Doug’s wife, is a guidance counselor at McCutcheon.

“It’s been a lot of time,” says Schreiber. “Because you don’t have a sports information director or a grounds crew (like in college). You wind up doing a lot of it yourself, which i love to do. You just don’t have a lot of time during the day.

“There’s not as much teaching time. You have to use game time to teach as well. We don’t have meetings in the off-season on the intangibles and life skills. We just can’t dominate their time like we can in college.”

Schreiber is incorporating those things at McCutcheon, but is sometimes doing it “on the fly.”

“When the other team makes a mistake, you have to point that out as a teaching moment for our guys,” says Schreiber. “You have to take advantage of all those things. If they do something good, you point it out.”

Schreiber has been teaching his players to take pride in their home field and the art of raking the infield and grooming the mound.

“It’s not about what you don’t have,” says Schreiber. “You have to focus more on what you have.

“It might not be the very best. But we try to keep it up and maintain it. The kids do work hard and they’re appreciative and grateful.”

Schreiber is grateful for his coaching staff which includes Kurt Schlicher, Tristan McIntyre, Justin Hartman and Ryan Wides at the varsity level and Brandon Fulk, Joe Richardson, Jeremy Boden and Dustin Anthrop with the JV.

Schilcher, a social teacher at McCutcheon, serves as hitting and bench coach for Schreiber and helps him navigate through high school concepts like re-entry. McIntyre, who played for and coached with Schreiber at Purdue, is Mavs pitching coach. McCutcheon alum Hartman also works with pitchers as well as outfielders and corner infielders. Wides, who played at Noblesville, works with catchers and outfielders.

Teams from the McCutcheon Youth Baseball League have been taking turns this season shagging flies during batting practice and being recognized at home games and getting a little taste of the high school experience.

“I like when the youngsters come out because they have more energy than any of us,” says Schreiber. “We’ve got to feed off that energy.

“We want them to keep enjoying playing baseball. I want to make sure they learn the game. The more they learn it, the more they’ll like it and the more they’ll stay with it.

“Hopefully, it will become their passion. When something becomes your passion, you do learn all those little details I been talking about to be better.”

Besides McCutcheon, the NCC includes Anderson, Arsenal Tech, Kokomo, Lafayette Jeff, Logansport, Marion, Muncie Central and Richmond. The Mavs are coming off 8-7 and 16-2 conference wins against crosstown rival Jeff.

Two former McCutcheon players are currently on Major League Baseball pitching staffs — Clayton Richard with the San Diego Padres and Nick Wittgren with the Miami Marlins.

Doug Schreiber, 54, is in his first season as head baseball coach at McCutcheon High School in Lafayette. He was head coach at Purdue University for 18 seasons (1999-2016). (Steve Krah Photo)