Chris Schuster is leaving Ethel after 25 years as the Tigers' baseball coach to accept the same position at Central Holmes Christian School in Lexington.
His fondest memory of the past quarter of a century on the diamond is a song. “Every time we won, we played the same song, 'Another One Bites the Dust, ' (by the English rock group Queen). We played that song over 300 times. That's the song we played when we were shaking hands.”
His teams won 395 games.
Schuster said the opportunity to continue coaching at Central Holmes Christian School is a “win-win for me. God was looking out for me. I can't thank Chris Terry and the family at Holmes enough for the opportunity they are giving me.”
Chris Terry is the Central Holmes headmaster.
Making the move even sweeter is the opportunity to hook up with Tony Terry (Chris Terry's brother), who is moving to Central Holmes as softball coach after 422 victories and three 4A state championships at Kosciusko. Terry will be Schuster's assistant in baseball and Schuster will assist Terry in softball. They can do both at an MAIS school where softball is a fall sport.
“It's a great opportunity for me to coach with not only one of the best coaches in Mississippi, but he is a friend as well.”
Schuster has softball experience. In addition to coaching baseball at Ethel, he was slow-pitch softball coach for 10 years, as well as a football assistant for six years.
Schuster is a Nebraska native who graduated from the Kearney branch of the University of Nebraska in 1995 with a degree in elementary education. He played collegiate baseball.
Ethel is the only place he has been since graduating. His baseball teams won six district championships and had 21 consecutive winning seasons.
This year's team was a pleasant surprise to Schuster. The Tigers were undefeated in Region 5-1A for the third consecutive year and reached the South State final before losing to defending 1A state champion Resurrection Catholic. It was the third year in a row that Resurrection ended Ethel's season.
“I was very happy with their effort. We beat a couple of teams that on paper were probably better than us.” That includes Taylorsville, the team Ethel beat to reach the South State final.
“We won with heart, fundamental defense, good pitching and scoring runs when we could.”
