Ontario Blue Jays hire Schaefer
Shawn Schaefer, left, will join the Ontario Blue Jays in September, to become their assistant director of baseball operations. Photo: YouTube
May 30, 2020
Official Ontario Blue Jays News Release
The Ontario Blue Jays have hired of B.C. native, Shawn Schaefer in a full-time role as assistant director of baseball operations. He will be making the moving across the country this Summer and will join OBJ in early September.
Schaefer grew up playing for the Coquitlam Reds of the BCPBL where he played both as an outfielder and left-handed pitcher. During his time in high school, Schaefer represented Team British Columbia twice, winning a Gold Medal in 2002, and Silver Medal in 2003 at the Canada Cup. After graduating Pitt Meadows Secondary School in 2004, he accepted a scholarship to attend Midland College in Texas before transferring to the University of British Columbia and then Cumberland University in Tennessee the 2010 NAIA nationals champs.
Director of Ppayer personnel, Corey Eckstein said on bringing his fellow BC native and former opposition over to Ontario, "I'm really excited about this hire. This is a true testament to where we are going as an organization. Shawn has a proven track record in B.C. as both a high performance coach and an administrator with Baseball BC. He is versatile in so many ways. My mandate will always be to hire professionals. People who lead by example. People who invest in trust and relationships. People who put the kids first. And people who are obsessed with out working their competition. Shawn checks all of those boxes."
After completing his playing career, he immediately moved into the coaching ranks as a graduate assistant at Cumberland working for head coach, Woody Hunt before returning to British Columbia to work for Douglas College as their pitching coach from 2010-2015. Once back home in British Columbia, Shawn began working with Baseball BC as both a coach and administrator, holding titles such as head coach, grassroots coordinator, high performance general Manger, Provincial Camp Coordinator as well as taking on numerous administrative task such as social media and marketing. In addition, Shawn is a Baseball Canada NCCP Coach Developer and serves on the NCCP Review Committee to continue to ensure that coaches across Canada are knowledgable and prepared to teach youth baseball players of all ages and skills. If that wasn't enough, Shawn is also a Nationally Certified Umpire who has work several Canadian National Championships ranging from Pee Wee to the Senior ranks all over Canada.
When asked about his decision, Schaefer said, "it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. But after talking with management and learning about the direction the organization wants to go it made the decision much easier. I'm excited to get to work with coaches and athletes on a consistent basis and an organization that is known for developing athletes at the highest level."