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Schmidt looking to cap quarter century as T-Birds' head baseball coach with a bang this spring
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights' Ryan Schmidt has accomplished about everything a coach can accomplish in his 25-year run as the T-Birds' head baseball coach.
Now the Heights veteran just wants to add a few more highlights before bringing his long tenure to an end later this spring.
The 54-year-old Schmidt, who has coached the T-Birds to a pair of Class 5A state championships as Heights' head coach while also having a hand in two other state titles as an assistant under Craig Cox, will retire as a coach and teacher at the end of the current school year.
"It's time to maybe turn it over to younger guys to come up and bring their energy,'' said Schmidt, who has coached multiple players who went on to play professional baseball.
"We still have a lot of energy as a coaching staff and I love our coaches, but I just kind of made up my mind that after 25 years as a head coach and 31 years at Shawnee Heights and 31 years in the baseball program it just felt right.''
Schmidt said the thing he'll miss the most is the relationships he's built with his players and assistant coaches, including longtime assistant Derek Pomeroy.
"I've always let our coaches coach and I couldn't do it without coach Pom,'' Schmidt said. "His knowledge is incredible and every relationship is what I'll miss, but especially with the coaches.''
The goal now is to end the '24 season with one more trip to the 5A state tournament at Wichita State's Eck Stadium.
"Absolutely, that's our main goal,'' Schmidt said. "That's what we want. We want that this year for these guys.''