From Middletown To Chi-Town: Kyle Schwarber's High School Coach Chats With Sports Mockery About His Legendary Rise

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Cubs' slugger Kyle Schwarber's old high school baseball coach, Jason Cave, with the intentions of trying to give fans a better picture of Kyle Schwarber the person as opposed to Kyle Schwarber the baseball player. Every baseball fan knows about Schwarber's ability to absolutely murder a baseball but I wanted to get Cave's insight as to why Theo Epstein tagged Schwarber as one of his "pillar players" for the Chicago Cubs and then proceeded to call Schwarber "untouchable" regarding potential trades when Schwarber's name kept popping up last season. In just over 85 big league games, Schwarber has emerged as one of faces of the franchise and was tabbed as one of the "pillar players" Epstein was looking for when he took over the Chicago Cubs in 2011. In case you're unaware, Epstein's "pillar players" are players that exude not only great baseball skill, but also have outstanding character which Epstein believed was necessary to change the entire culture of the Chicago Cubs. (Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Addison Russell are the other three in case you're wondering) Being a high school coach myself, I'm a firm believer in the impact that a coach can have on a high school athlete so I thought it'd be cool to reach out to Cave to see how Schwarber conducted himself as a regular high school kid from Middletown, Ohio before he turned into a legend in Cubs history.

"I Owe A Lot To My Upbringing."

Middletown is a city of about 50,000 people and sits about an hour north of Cincinnati. Besides Schwarber, the city has also produced famous athletes such as Jerry Lucas, Cris Carter, and Todd Bell. Chances are you've never heard of Todd Bell but if you're a true Chicago Bear fan you probably know him. He played with the Bears from 1981-1984 before he decided he was going to sit out of the 1985 season due to a contract dispute. As we all know, the Bears went on to win the Superbowl that year and because he was a greedy guy, Bell missed out on being part of the most dominant defense in NFL history. Dummy. Like many cities in the region, Middletown was built on a foundation of using steel as the economic backbone. It's a city that is still reliant on the industry and it's biggest employer, AK Steel, sees the importance of keeping the steel industry in Middletown. “The steel manufacturing industry is critical to Ohio’s economy,” U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown said in a written statement. “AK Steel’s investment in research and innovation will help ensure that Middletown continues to be a hub for advanced steel manufacturing.” The blue-collar values that came from the steel industry and the values that the city of Middletown was built upon would be the same values that were instilled into Schwarber at a young age. Growing up, Schwarber was surrounded by individuals who would constantly push him to be better. His father, Greg, was a 32-year police veteran in Middletown and Germantown, Ohio and his mother, Donna, instilled values of hard-work, selflessness, and dedication into the young Schwarber. And while having great values as a youngster is a good thing, it also doesn't hurt to have some phenomenal bloodlines either. One uncle, Tom, was a pitcher for Ohio State and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers. Uncle Mike, another pitcher, was drafted by the Indians. Uncle Dave didn't get drafted by anyone however, he did play a little tight end at a pretty good college in Indiana -- Notre Dame.

A Natural Born Leader

Cave began coaching Schwarber when Kyle was only 12-years-old. Even at that age, Cave knew that Kyle had the potential to be something special. He shared a hilarious story with me about how the coaches had to pitch to Kyle behind an "L screen" to avoid taking a Schwarber screamer off the face.

"Most 12-year-olds you can pitch to and get a pretty good idea of where the balls going to go. Not with Kyle. We had to put an 'L screen' up to pitch to him because if you weren't paying attention, he'd rifle one back at your head and because the ball was coming so fast, you had no chance to get out of the way."

Schwarber's bat has always carried some thunder but it was his "team first" mentality that always stuck out to Cave. He shared a story about Schwarber's 12-year-old travel team playing in the National Little League Tournament in Cooperstown, NY when Schwarber was called on to pitch in the championship game. He pitched here and there throughout the course of the season but also spent a lot of time behind the plate. In 'Middie Prides' biggest game of the season however, Cave handed the ball to 12-year-old Kyle to pitch his team to victory. [caption id="attachment_86436" align="aligncenter" width="640"] PHOTO: Jason Cave[/caption] And that's exactly what he did.

"That's just the type of kid he is. Kyle would do anything we asked him to do if it made the team better."

Schwarber carried those same values to the varsity baseball team at Middletown where he played from 2008-2011. In those four years, he hit .408 with 18 home runs and 103 RBIs but it was the work that Schwarber put in to make himself a better player that impressed Cave the most. Cave, who is also an officer in the Ohio Army National Guard, ran a very structured, intense practice that would run anywhere from "3-4" hours. When most kids went straight home after a grueling practice, Cave said Schwarber would go directly to a nearby facility to do speed work because he "excels off not having a skill mastered." What a mad man. The speed training paid off and can best be seen on another platform of high school athletics -- the football field. As many people know, Schwarber also excelled on the football field during his time at Middletown where he was an all-state selection at middle linebacker and had offers from numerous Division I schools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GftNbeodOh4 Being a two-sport star turned him into a very popular guy in the halls of Middletown High, but Cave kept reiterating to me how impressive Kyle was not only as an athlete, but as a person. Cave taught Schwarber his sophomore year but it was an episode during his senior year that highlighted what type of kid Kyle Schwarber was. The story was so cool, I decided to take it word for word to share. "Kyle was a Dean's assistant during his senior year which pretty much meant he had to run errands at different points of the day. For some reason I can't recall, we were having one of those "dress up days" for some event and that day was 'Cowboy Day.' The Dean sent Kyle to my room to drop something off and he showed up wearing one of those huge foam cowboy hats like they wore off of 'Dumb and Dumber.' He looked hilarious. Kyle walked in and two of my students with physical disabilities thought his hat was hilarious and asked Kyle if they could wear his big foam hat. Without missing a beat, Kyle took the hat off, put it on the students head and then proceeded to sit down and talk with them for the remainder of the class. He didn't have to do that. It's just the type of kid that he is."

"The Cubs Got A Good One In Kyle"

The kid who shared his goofy foam cowboy hat was the same kid who hit a home run that Cave said he'd "never forget." The home run was hit by Schwarber during his sophomore year at Middletown and came against the defending state champions.

"I swear to you. The ball didn't go any higher than 20-feet off the ground. It was a frozen rope. It screamed over the right field fence and completely destroyed the passenger side window of one of those old Astro vans. Everyone kind of just sat there in shock."

Although Schwarber made quite the name for himself at Middletown, he was drawing very little interest from any Division I baseball teams. Cave asked asked Indiana University baseball coach Tracy Smith, who’s wife was from Middletown, to look at the talented catcher who was not being scouted by any colleges before. Smith was shocked when he showed up to the field and didn't see any other coaches sitting in the stands recruiting Schwarber. Cave knew all Schwarber needed was a chance and that's exactly what Indiana gave him but more importantly Cave told me,

"IU got a steal when they got Kyle. I can't say enough about the quality of kid they got when they offered Him."

Schwarber played three seasons at IU before he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs with the fourth pick in the 2014 MLB draft. Theo Epstein heard about Schwarber from renowned Cubs scout, Stan Zielinski, and attended a few IU games to see what all the hype was about. The "hype" I'm referring to is the fact that Zielinski compared Schwarber to Babe Ruth in one of his scouting reports.  I'm not saying that Schwarber is anywhere near Babe Ruth right now but in only two short years, he's completely changed the look of the Cubs lineup. One guy that is not surprised by Schwarber's success is Cave. I asked him what type of guy the Cubs were getting when they drafted Schwarber three years ago and Cave said it beautifully,

"You're getting a team oriented kid who's has the team's goals always ahead of his own. He's a natural leader who will do anything it takes to help the Cubs win another World Series championship. I can this say this in all honesty-- 'he never ceases to amaze me.' "If you told him that he's as loved by Cubs fans as guys like Bryant and Rizzo, he'd be extremely grateful and humbled at that honor. It's just the way he is."

_____________________________________________________________________ After speaking with Cave I can now see why Theo Epstein fell in love with Kyle Schwarber. The amount of times I heard the words "team oriented" or "team first" during our hour-long conversation easily fell above fifteen times. Schwarber is a genuine, hard-working guy with a solid Midwest upbringing and a "team first" attitude that has helped turn the Chicago Cubs into the team to beat in the MLB. After speaking with Coach Cave, I can see where Schwarber gets some of that demeanor from. [caption id="attachment_86457" align="aligncenter" width="353"] PHOTO: Jason Cave[/caption] *Special thanks to Jason Cave for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to me. It's much appreciated.