Schutz Returns As Wawasee AD
SYRACUSE — A familiar face officially returned to 1 Warrior Path Tuesday night as Cory Schutz was named the new athletic director at Wawasee High School.
“For 17 years, this was a phenomenal place to be,” Schutz remarked during Tuesday’s school board meeting in the school’s Warrior Room. “The kids were amazing, the staff was great and the administration is excellent. I’m very excited to be back here.”
Schutz, who has served as the athletic director for Eastern High School the past two years, spent 17 years in Wawasee’s system. That stint included serving as the school’s assistant athletic director from 2011-2014. In addition to his time as an educator and administrator, Schutz did more than his fair share of coaching.
Throughout his tenure at Wawasee he served as the head softball coach for 12 years and an assistant coach for football, volleyball, baseball and girls basketball at various points. There is a bit of irony to Schutz’s return as the first hire he will make will be to fill the head coaching vacancy in the softball program, a position that’s been open since the end of May.
But the first order of business for Schutz will be to settle back in at a place that he is already very familiar with.
“It’s like coming back home,” offered Schutz in an interview following the board meeting. “I lived in my parents house for 17 years then moved out and went to college. I was here for 17 years and the connections I made in this community are still here, they’ve not gone anywhere. The chance to come back and be near friends, who are basically family, is very exciting.”
Schutz was able to gain experience as an AD at Eastern, but his role will be a much different one at Wawasee.
“Running the department down at Eastern has been educational,” Schutz said. “It’s a different situation because it’s a much smaller school. The resources are a lot different, I wore a lot more hats there then I’ll have to here.”
He wasn’t kidding. Schutz did a little bit of everything as the face of Eastern athletics, everything.
“I painted the football field down there. I don’t know if I’ll have to do that here, but I hope not,” said Schutz with a laugh.
Making a hire that has experience inside the walls at Wawasee certainly is not a bad thing. Athletic programs as a whole have hit a bit of a rough patch, in terms of participation and success, in recent years. Schutz knows what struggles the department faces and, while he understandably does not have every answer on day one, he has an idea of where to start fixing the problem.
“We’ve got to really work on getting our feeder programs in line,” Schutz stated. “Our high school coaches need to be involved with our lower level coaches and making sure that the right skills are being taught across the board and that the kids are excited. The more kids that come out, the better options that we’re going to have.
“Now, as much as I want to win in every sport, that’s not our main focus. That’s a great end goal, but we’ve got to teach these kids how to be young men and women of character so that, when they leave these halls, they’re ready to survive in society and be successful.”
Schutz graduated from Ball State with a degree in marketing and also earned a business education degree from Illinois State.