By Tucker Paquette
@tpaquette17
The word “homecoming” is one that is often heard in the world of sports. Players, coaches and other athletic figures are eager to go back to where their journeys began, reuniting with the people and environment that first shaped them.
For new Springfield College head baseball coach Chad Shade, there may not be a more fitting word to describe his hiring in June as the Pride’s new head baseball coach. Shade, a 2020 graduate of the college, is excited to come back to his alma mater and lead Springfield’s baseball program, one he was part of for four years.
A key part of Shade’s enthusiasm in returning to Springfield lies in the quality of the people. Between his staff, players, peers and wife Kursten, who was hired as the school’s head women’s soccer coach in July, Shade feels he has the ideal set of faces around him. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s a big believer in his team.
“Coming back here and knowing what this place was, the type of people that come through Springfield College and the type of people that are here, it was a no-brainer for me,” Shade said. “There’s a lot of history and tradition within this program that I’m looking to continue.”
Shade enjoyed a highly successful college career as a player, hitting .311 and recording 97 hits and 48 stolen bases in 84 games over his time with Springfield and one season with Kansas State (that was abbreviated because of COVID).
Interestingly, baseball wasn’t the only sport Shade played as a student-athlete on Alden Street. Along with patrolling center field on the diamond, Shade was also a quarterback for the Pride’s football team, where he racked up over 1600 rushing yards with 29 total touchdowns.
Shade greatly valued these experiences, and he believes the leadership he received from Springfield head football coach Mike Cerasuolo and then-head baseball coach Mark Simeone helped him navigate the process of playing multiple sports. He now hopes to provide similarly effective mentorship to his players in his new role.
“To be a multi-sport athlete anywhere isn’t something that is very typical, you don’t see it too much at any level nowadays,” Shade said. “The only reason I was able to do it is the support I had here, and Coach Cerasuolo and Coach Simeone working together to allow me to do both.”
After his playing days came to a close, Shade made the transition into coaching. He spent three years at Amherst College as its assistant baseball coach and recruiting coordinator and a season at Kansas State as a graduate assistant and the program’s assistant director of player development, among other coaching stops.
These experiences have given Shade his fair share of reps from a new point of view, and along the way Shade has had the opportunity to determine what matters most to him as a coach. At the top of that list is establishing a level of healthy effort and competition. As Shade gets started with the Pride, he wants his players to always be striving for improvement.
“I think the biggest thing that we’ve instilled, especially this fall, is just the level that we want to compete at,” Shade said. “Every single thing that our guys do, whether it’s on the field, in the weight room, in the classroom or in their everyday lives, I want them to compete at the highest level that they can.”
Shade is also a firm believer in the importance of players being able to motivate and challenge themselves. A consistent level of development throughout all aspects of players’ routines has been a point of emphasis for Shade and his staff.
“It’s not just competing against another person, or maybe somebody that’s higher up on the depth chart, it’s competing against yourself to be the best version of yourself,” Shade said. “Our goal is to get 1% better every single day.”
Along with this growth mindset comes a process-over-results philosophy. Shade and the Pride obviously want to win as many games as possible, but believe the best way for the team to get there is to chip away.
“I like to look at success as not just wins and losses, especially with this game,” Shade said. “Ultimately, we want to win games. But this game is so challenging, having that mindset of wanting to go out and compete every day is [crucial].”
“If we focus on the process of what we’re doing, I think those wins will start to come in the way that we want, and start to reach our goals of competing for NEWMAC championships and competing on a national level,” Shade added.
It’s been so far, so good for Shade in his early work with the team. He is already gaining a sense of comfort, while the players are fully buying into Shade and his staff’s philosophy. One emerging theme is how Shade is able to connect with his team.
“He’s an awesome leader,” said senior starting pitcher Nate Kelleher-Mochak. “We all have a lot of respect for him. He’s just one of the guys, and he’s very smart. He fits right in. He’s coached at some great places, and he’s bringing it all here.”
The value of leadership is top of mind for Shade, too. Notably, he thinks the existing culture within the program is strong, which in turn allows him to hit the ground running.
“I think we have some great leadership on our team,” Shade said. “I think [the] culture that has been put into Springfield baseball is something that I got to come in and build upon. I didn’t need to rebuild that culture, which was something for me that was really important as I stepped in, because our guys want to win.”
As Shade settles into a new role in a familiar place, his coaching mindset, leadership skills and overall excitement to be leading his alma mater have created a palpable sense of positivity around Springfield College’s baseball program.
“Even though it’s early on, I think the tone is like, he’d run through a brick wall for us, so I think we’d run through a brick wall for him,” Kelleher-Mochak said. “It’s huge as a player to have that mentality with a coach because you feel like they’ll do anything for you, [and] you’ll do anything for them.”
(Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics)
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