'Remarkably fulfilling': Longtime high school and college baseball coach Jerry Rashid retires

Jerry Rashid's almost five decades of coaching baseball has come to an end.

Rashid announced his retirement from Eureka College on Friday, ending a 46-year coaching career that spanned both the high school and college game. His last day with the Division-III program will be Oct. 16.

“It’s just time,” Rashid said. “It’s just getting harder and harder to continue at the pace I want to continue.

“I’ve been blessed to have a great career. I really never set any goals, to be honest with you, as a coach, other than have our teams compete, play hard, be fundamentally sound. Those were my goals for any team I’ve ever coached.”

Jerry Rashid profile:'Hanging his hat' on longevity, camaraderie, competitiveness

Rashid says recruiting and field maintenance, as well as not having an assistant, provided difficulty for him to keep up with the demands of maintaining and continuing to build Eureka. Plus, he was looking to undertake some new things that coaching baseball didn’t previously allow.

The Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Famer, who was hired as the Eureka College head coach in July 2017, has never enjoyed the warm weather of Major League Baseball’s preseason.

“I want to go to spring training in my life,” said Rashid, who turns 69 in January. “I have not been to one ever. Selfishly, I could never go.”

Rashid will also become a first-time grandfather later this year and wants to be available to help whenever he can.

“These are all things I just think are moments in my life that I kind of want to be now,” he said.

Growing the Eureka College program

In six seasons with the Red Devils, Rashid won 70 games and had teams qualify for the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament for three straight seasons (2021, 2022, 2023). This past spring, Eureka won their first SLIAC Tournament victory in program history.

One of the biggest contributions Rashid made was to the renovations made to Henry Sand Field. He spearheaded an effort to level the field, install a 16,000 square-foot sod infield, a new warning track and an outfield windscreen. While he coached there, the school also got a new scoreboard, PA system, 50 permanent bleacher seats behind home plate, freshly painted dugouts, two new batting cages and a new backstop wall with netting.  

“A tremendous amount of pride,” Rashid said of the facility facelift. “I give so much credit to the amount of volunteerism and the donations, so many people to help really build a quality facility. I don’t want to say it was rock bottom, but the facility was really, really close to rock bottom. Now, it’s enough that we can host tournaments. Visiting fans come in and say how amazing the place is compared to what it was.

“The competitiveness of our program has increased astronomically. … Those are really huge points of pride for me as a coach and for our players. They carry themselves very well and it’s attributed to them.”

800 wins as a high school coach

Rashid's prep stops at Princeville, Bergan, Notre Dame and Illinois Valley Central resulted in 807 victories over 39 seasons. Those teams collected 18 conference championships, 17 regional titles, four sectional crowns as well as five Sweet 16 appearances.

Three of his IVC's teams (2006, 2008, 2010) won IHSA state trophies highlighted by the 2006 Class A state championship. Six of Rashid's former IVC players were selected in the MLB draft including current New York Yankees pitcher Zach McAllister.

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In recent weeks, Rashid made headlines when he took to social media after losing his state championship ring. He has since secured the prized piece of jewelry after an extensive search of Eureka College as well as a few places in Peoria.

According to Rashid, he had been handing out hats to new players in the Eureka program when the ring must have slipped off his finger and ended up in that hat box. One of his players found it under a dozen or so hats in the cardboard container.

“There’s that big ole silver rock sitting at the bottom of the box,” Rashid said. “It made my heart warm.”

As for his future of coaching, Rashid isn’t ruling out anything. There’s always a possibility of him coming back to volunteer if the right situation presents itself.

But he will definitely be taking some time away from the sport for now.

“I love baseball,” Rashid said. “I love coaching, but I just kind of want to take a break from it all right now. … I’m very content and stress-free leaving.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.