“Never Lose Your Hustle;” A Remembrance of Seton Hall’s “Shep”

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The value of coaches as great teachers has probably never been higher than it is in the distracted world we live in today. Colleague Dave Siroty penned this piece on Seton Hall’s longtime baseball skipper Mike Sheppard, who passed away this past week. “Shep” along with a handful of other coaches like the late Rutgers Skipper Fred Hill Sr. helped grow and shape college baseball, a forgotten stepchild in most parts of the Northeast, into a national power for over a quarter century.

Dave authored a book on four of Shep’s stars, “The Hit Men and the Kid Who Batted Ninth: Biggio, Valentin, Vaughn & Robinson: Together Again in the Big Leagues,” and also is working on Jamspals, a site that pairs kids injured in athletics with college and professional athletes who have overcome injury, an idea that came from his son Michael. Dave worked closely with Seton Hall baseball during his time in the athletic department there, and got to see Shep’s work up close. Here are his thoughts…

All of us in athletics have come across coaches who have changed our lives. Not because of their winning and fame, but because they taught us a lot even though we didn’t play for them. Even though we were colleagues, we couldn’t help but learn from them.

One of those people in my life was Mike Sheppard, Sr., the head baseball coach for many years at Seton Hall University. He spent his entire life as part of Seton Hall and his family is as tied to the school as any could be.

Shep passed away this weekend and we lost a guy who defined the word, “coach.”

I was fortunate enough to work with Shep for several years, including the 1987 baseball season when he produced one of the all-time great college teams led by eventual baseball Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, American League MVP Mo Vaughn, Red Sox/Mets infielder John Valentin, Red Sox pitcher Kevin Morton, longtime Blue Jays exec Dana Brown and Marteese Robinson, who that year led the nation in hitting at a ridiculous .529.

I was a really young sports information director back then with basketball in my blood. It’s really all I cared about so I sometimes clashed with Shep because of his hard-charging style and demand for perfection. He would yell at me from the dugout if I missed putting up a strike on the scoreboard, he would get upset if his baseball media guide was delayed or anything else that he deemed hurt his program.

And it was definitely hard to end exhausting academic years with even longer days and weekends of often bone-chilling cold Northeastern baseball – including bus trips, hours of pre-game batting practice and even longer games followed by media relations, statistics and everything else I had to do.

Fortunately I got to know Shep much better over the years including on those long bus rides. I later wrote a book about the 1987 team and got even closer to him. We talked often as I traced the lives of his players back to the lessons they learned from their coach.

Passion and loyalty. Those words defined Shep. He lived for baseball. He lived for his players. He lived for all of the athletes and students at Seton Hall.

He was a walking “life lessons” kind of guy and his “never lose your hustle” mantra has been carried on by everyone who was ever been around him.

He taught me that if you are going to do something, do it right. I watched him teach it. It rubbed off on me.

He was also the most loyal person I’ve ever met and everyone involved in his baseball program became part of his family. and his pride he took in those around him.

One of best memories I have of Shep came when Craig Biggio was inducted into the Hall of Fame. I talked a lot to Shep back then and his excitement was obviously off the charts. He was just so proud and his tears, smiles, laughter and memories of what he had accomplished in his life were brought to the forefront. And watching Craig include Shep in the entire process was amazing.

Obviously a lot in society has changed since the late ’80s and we have all adapted to new styles of communicating and behavior. Shep was definitely old-school. But as we look back at his life, we should all realize people like him are so critically important to society.

The mold us, guide us and spend their days teaching us lessons. He changed so many lives including mine.

Shep was a special guy and will be missed. RIP #17.

“Never Lose Your Hustle;” A Remembrance of Seton Hall’s “Shep”

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