When the Shawnee State University baseball team begins competition in the River States Conference this spring, the Bears will have a new leader at the helm. The university announced in June that Rob Ehlers had been hired as the head coach of the team.
Ehlers, a native of Jefferson Town, Kentucky, a small suburb of Louisville, joins SSU after nine seasons as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for the Central Methodist University baseball team. In the short time he has been in his role at Shawnee, he has already established clear expectations of his players both on and off the field.
“(I want to see) 100% energy and effort in the classroom,” Ehlers said, adding that he expects players to “attack whatever we are doing with that same energy, whether it be in the weightroom, conditioning or life in general”
Ehlers credits his mentor and high school baseball coach Don Lyons with leading him to coaching. Ehlers met Lyons when he moved to Iowa in his sophomore year of high school. While the two of them were watching a game together during Ehlers’ senior year, Lyons asked him what he would do in the coach’s position at a critical point in the game.
“You’re going to have to make these decisions one day,” Lyons said at the time.
The two men have remained in touch, and Lyons’ influence can be seen in the new SSU coach’s approach. According to Ehlers, Lyons is a detail-oriented coach with an honest coaching style. The success fostered by that style led to Lyons’ induction into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008.
Ehlers characterizes his own coaching style as “energetic, organized, follow a plan, execute a plan, understand that every player understands their role and what we are trying to do every day.” He also wants to lead his players in a way that will have an impact not only on their athletic performances but also on their broader experiences.
“I try to show them love,” he said. “I try to show them that I care about the bigger picture and not just fielding a ground ball today, but that everything we do reflects life.”
Ehlers said that he wants to see SSU’s baseball program expand and improve in the coming years. He sees the expectations he is establishing now as a foundation that gives players something to aspire to when the season begins.
Ehlers identifies his primary coaching strengths as defensive strategy and an ability to take in the bigger picture. For example, he said, his focus is not on how many times a player takes a ground ball, but how a player is taking the ground ball and if they are doing it right.
