That was until last year.

Scheffler is currently coaching baseball at the junior high level in Springfield, where he also coached during the past junior high football and basketball seasons.

Scheffler’s final year at Springfield as one of the school’s premier three-sport athletes came without much excitement and fanfare. During that school year, the Sanborn native saw his basketball career end a win shy of making the state tournament for the second time in his prep career. He and his teammates weren’t a win shy of state because they lost a game, however, but because the season was shut down ahead of a Section 2A title game with New Ulm Cathedral due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With that came uncertainty around his senior year of high school baseball as lockdowns began, which ultimately ended up leaving athletes around the country without a spring sports season. Scheffler was thankfully able to continue playing baseball in the summer and eventually at Ball State University, finishing a four-year run with the DI Cardinals with a .315 batting average, 19 homers and 117 RBIs in 188 games played.

Submitted photo Coaches Dillon Schultz, far left, and Decker Scheffler talk to their players during a junior high basketball game this past winter at Springfield.

After graduating Ball State with a physical education and health degree last year, Scheffler returned to Springfield as a student teacher last fall before assisting with the junior high football team. Scheffler, the 2019 All-Journal Football Offensive Player of the Year, said he knew he’d be assisting with football in some way, he just didn’t know until where and how much until a position opened up at the junior high level.

“I was asked if I wanted to do the junior high job by our [varsity football] head coach Adam Meyer and I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely, I’ll do that,'” Scheffler said. “So that’s how I got introduced to the football part of it, I did that with Colton Minkel, he’s a teacher at Springfield as well, and I absolutely loved doing junior high football this past fall.”

With the winter season approaching, Scheffler wasn’t sure if he’d be helping out in basketball at any level. But getting a former player that scored 2,299 career varsity points involved was too much for Springfield Athletic Director Paul Arnoldi to ignore. Arnoldi was also filling in as a basketball coach in junior high and was interested in getting Scheffler to step in for him, which Scheffler did at the seventh-grade boys level alongside Dillon Schultz, who coached the eighth-grade boys.

“He had been on me a little bit [before] winter asking me if I would do it, and I knew I was going to be helping out with baseball, too, so I didn’t know if I wanted to do all three seasons,” Scheffler said. “But I told him if he couldn’t find anyone else, I’d happily do it. So that was a yes, so I did that, too, and I also enjoyed that.”

Scheffler then turned his attention to the sport he ultimately was most passionate about: baseball. While he didn’t get his senior year of baseball with Springfield, he did get to play for the 2016 Class A champion Tigers varsity baseball squad as an eighth-grader and finished his junior year as the 2019 All-Journal Baseball Player of the Year.

Submitted photo Decker Scheffler started his official coaching career this past fall as a junior high football coach at Springfield.

He went on to have a strong collegiate career with Ball State before returning to the diamond to pass on his knowledge to the next generation of Springfield sluggers alongside Jim Eckstein, who coached Scheffler in junior high.

“There was an opening at junior high and [varsity head coach] Brandon Wilhelmi asked me if I wanted to do that,” Scheffler said. “And we were kind of talking back and forth if I wanted to do the junior high level or help him out at the varsity or JV level a little bit and I told him whatever worked better for him or whatever was easiest for him to do, to just let me know and I would gladly help out.

“Now I’m at the junior high level with Jim Eckstein. As you can tell, I’ve gotten plenty of experience with these seventh- and eighth-graders throughout this year, so I’ve gotten to know them really well, but it’s been awesome.”

Going from a DI college back to Springfield to teach and coach junior high students has given Scheffler a full-circle experience of sorts. After playing three sports while attending school in Springfield, Scheffler has been happy to give back to his old stomping grounds.

“I really enjoyed and had a great time my years here at Springfield,” Scheffler said. “I was lucky to be a part of a lot of different, successful teams in all three sports. Then I went and played [baseball] for four years [at Ball State]. I think it was being around my head coach and the assistant coaches and seeing how they handled their everyday business being coaches.

Submitted photo Decker Scheffler gets a hold of a pitch during a DI college baseball game as a member of the Ball State Cardinals. Scheffler finished his college baseball career in the spring of 2024 with a career batting average of .315.

“Obviously it’s a little bit different being a high school, junior high or JV coach than it is being a college coach because that’s what those guys are doing every day of their life and there’s no recruiting involved in any of this. But as soon as I saw how they were doing it, I knew I wanted to at least be a baseball coach of some sort.”

Scheffler said after playing baseball at a high level in college, he’s trying to coach his junior high players at an advanced level. He does know, however, that there is a happy medium involved.

“Even at this junior high level, sometimes I catch myself and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to remember this is junior high, I don’t need to go this far,'” he said. “But I’m bringing some of the stuff that I learned and a lot of drills that I did at college, and I’m bringing that to a junior high level and I’m trying to develop these kids and these age groups, but I’m also trying to have them enjoy coming here every day. …

“We’re trying to be as competitive as we can and win some baseball games as well. But the main goal is develop these kids, get them ready for the ninth- through 12th-grade level, the JV, varsity level, but also have them have fun every day so we can keep up these numbers throughout their future years as well.”

Scheffler said that even being on board for the Tigers’ state title run in 2016 as an eighth-grader, he still was close with his teammates, including the upperclassmen on the team like Sam Baier, Jaden Mickelson, Kale Meendering and Joe Pieschel. Scheffler said getting along with teammates regardless of their age or differences is important and it’s something he sees from his current crop of players.

“That’s one thing I’ve noticed being with these [junior high] kids through three different sports, they may not all play the same sports, some may play football, but some wrestle, some play basketball,” he said. “But even being inside of the school substitute teaching and student teaching, I’ve seen how close these kids are, and that’s good to see.

“Off the field, on the field, they’re with each other, they walk down here [to practice] together, they’re spending the weekends with each other, and I think that’s important, just staying close with each other and getting a tight-knit group and having a good culture with each other, because that is ultimately very important when you’re trying at the varsity level to make playoff runs and tournament runs and state championship runs and such.”

Scheffler will continue to stay at Springfield as he will become the school’s full-time physical education teacher for grades 6-12 next school year.