Ryan Schmitt Turns Interest to the Outdoors
April 22, 2020 | Baseball
Feature
By SCOTT RICHEY
srichey@news-gazette.com
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The last time Ryan Schmitt can remember having a spring without baseball was, well, before he had even started playing.
Considering that was when he was 5 years old, Schmitt has known nothing but baseball in the spring for the last 17 years.
The cancellation of the Illinois baseball season last month in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic then threw the 5-foot-9 right-handed reliever a curveball.
Particularly with how abruptly the season ended. One day the Illini were practicing for their next series against Southern Illinois, and the next they were dealing with the end of baseball for the season.
The end of baseball period, as it turns out, for Schmitt. While the NCAA approved legislation providing spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility and Illinois said it would welcome its seniors back for another season, Schmitt has decided to move on to the next stage of his life.
The Hartland, Wis., native has an internship starting as soon as the school year is complete. That Schmitt had already thought about a life after baseball following this season also made his decision, while not easy, perhaps more palatable to make. Even if the circumstances of a canceled season put that decision in front of Schmitt sooner than he would have liked.
"I hemmed and hawed a lot about it," Schmitt said. "Obviously, you want to play baseball as long as you can. Being a college baseball player 3 1/2 years playing-wise was so much fun. The friends and memories I made along the way, there's nothing that will ever match that.
"What really did it for me was I came into this year being a senior knowing that there wasn't a very good chance I was going to get drafted. I had kind of come to terms that baseball was going to be done for me after this year. Yeah, it happened much sooner than I would have liked it to, but that's just kind of what my thought process was. I had already kind of made peace with the fact I wasn't going to have baseball."
Schmitt's internship with Acme Tackle Company based in Fort Atkinson, Wis., ties in with how he's spending his new-found downtime. When it wasn't a baseball, Schmitt grew up with a rod and reel in his hands on a lake, in a tree stand or blind hunting. Outdoor sports were a passion passed down from his dad, Brian, and something Schmitt didn't get to as much of in the spring with baseball responsibilities.
"I fish as much as I can," Schmitt said was now on his schedule along with wrapping up school for the year and spending time with his family. "I get to go turkey hunting this week for the first time in probably five years. We have a bunch of lakes by my house. I actually live in an area of Wisconsin that's nicknamed 'Lake Country.' There's probably 20 or 30 lakes within a 10-minute drive. I've got a kayak I take out all the time. I just try to get out there and do it as much as I can."
Schmitt decided to turn his passion into a career during his time at Illinois. He arrived on campus intent on becoming an architect. The rigors of architecture school at Illinois and playing high level baseball began to grind on him, however, prompting thoughts toward a career path change.
"I had this epiphany one day like, 'I love the outdoors so much. Why don't I pursue something in that?'" Schmitt said. "I started looking at what I could do there. I'm a super creative person, so the sales and marketing aspect of it is something I could be really good at. I just pursued that and made that my dream."
Not that finding a way into an outdoors career was easy. Schmitt started his internship hunt by looking for internship or job opportunities on the websites of outdoors companies whose products — whether it be clothing or equipment — he had used. Little luck there, he put together an e-mail that he sent out en masse.
The response was mostly the same. No internships available. Except for the e-mail he sent to Acme Tackle. Back home in Wisconsin on Christmas break — conveniently close to the Acme Tackle rep who contacted him — Schmitt was able to get an early face-to-face meeting for lunch. An internship in Acme Tackle's sales and marketing division followed.
"It just couldn't have worked out any better," Schmitt said. "I have a lot of chance to grow with that company and a good chance to be hired full time after my internship. After baseball, it was my dream to work in that industry. To have that opportunity so soon, I wasn't going to pass that up."
Schmitt landing at Illinois was almost as fortuitous. He wasn't recruited all that heavily early in his career at Arrowhead High School and wound up committing to Western Kentucky. Then the entire Hilltoppers' coaching staff that recruited him was fired, he decommitted and his recruitment took off. Former Illinois pitching coach Drew Dickinson saw Schmitt pitch in a tournament in Atlanta, set up a visit for the next week in Champaign and Schmitt knew he'd found his college baseball home.
"I remember different people telling me how competitive he was and how much he just liked to compete, liked to be on the mound," Illinois coach Dan Hartleb said about Schmitt's recruitment. "Those things showed. Had some arm issues early in his career and kind of worked through those. He got himself in better shape, and he's been a guy we used in later innings as kind of a setup man. He's had some very bright spots and helped us win a lot of games. … He's a guy that's grown and instead of being in the background, stepped up as one of the older guys that was going to make sure things were going the correct way."
Schmitt appeared in 71 games during his Illinois career. He made two starts as a sophomore, but primarily worked out of the bullpen. He finished with a 5.24 career ERA, an 11-8 record and 75 strikeouts in 99 2/3 innings pitched.
"I don't even have words for it, man," Schmitt said about his time at Illinois. "I look back on it, and it was amazing. The buzz the Illini have in Champaign is something you can't find many other places. When I look back and think about my time there, I always come back to that. How special people thought of the Illini. How the community treated the Illini. How meaningful it was to be an Illini and wear that 'I' on my hat and across my jersey every weekend in the spring the last three years."
