Local coaches head to college

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Dave Mitroff and Chuck Lowitzki both dreamed of someday coaching baseball at the college level.

Mitroff, who lived in Crystal Lake, had worked in his family’s real estate business most of his life and was uncertain such an opportunity ever would present itself.

Lowitzki, a 1997 Crystal Lake Central graduate, worked as a special education teaching assistant at Jacobs and assistant baseball coach at Prairie Ridge. He, too, wondered if a chance at coaching in college ever would come.

Now, the two are making the plunge into college baseball together. Mitroff has been named the head coach at Cornerstone University, an NAIA school in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Lowitzki will join him as the team’s pitching coach.

Cornerstone discontinued its baseball program in 1996 for gender-equity issues, but is resurrecting it thanks in large part to a donor who granted $5 million, $1.5 million of which will be used to build an artificial turf stadium.

Cornerstone will have a baseball team in 2013, and Mitroff and Lowitzki already have moved to Grand Rapids to start the program. They will be recruiting heavily in the spring and summer.

“I have to keep pinching myself,” said Mitroff, whose son David was the catcher on Prairie Ridge’s 2008 Class 4A baseball state championship team.

“They’re giving me everything, 12 full scholarships,” Mitroff said. “Ninety-five percent of NAIA schools won’t have what we have.”

Mitroff’s wife, Linda, is staying in the Crystal Lake area until their house sells. Their children are all in college, and Mitroff’s brother will handle their real estate business.

“This isn’t a mid-life crisis,” Mitroff said. “God has blessed my business or I wouldn’t be able to do this. It’s a dream come true. I always wanted to make enough money to do baseball. Now, my job is baseball. It’s a dream come true.”

Mitroff played high school baseball at Forest View in Arlington Heights. He played a year at NCAA Division I Liberty University, then finished his career at D-III Bethel College in Minnesota. He coached for several years in the McHenry County Hurricanes’ travel organization and as an assistant at Prairie Ridge the last three years.

Lowitzki played football and baseball at Central. His assistant high school coach was Glen Pecoraro, who started Prairie Ridge’s baseball program when the school opened in 1997-98. Lowitzki was Pecoraro’s pitching coach through 2006, was head coach in 2007 and hooked up again with Pecoraro when he returned as head coach in 2010.

Lowitzki also will work as Cornerstone’s assistant sports information director and in organizing study tables for athletes, in addition to his duties as assistant baseball coach. He and his wife, Kim, have two boys: Chuck (4) and Nolan (1 1/2).

“I have always dreamed of being a pitching coach at the college level,” Lowitzki said. “Dave called me in July about this possibility. I talked to Kim about it and she was on board.”

The Lowitzkis moved this weekend to Grand Rapids. The Wolves’ dugout will look vastly different this spring when Lowitzki is not there standing next to Pecoraro.

“I am eternally grateful to Pec for all he’s done for me,” Lowitzki said. “I’ll miss him and all the players. I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for him giving me a chance. I joked with him that the last time I left [Prairie Ridge] they won the state championship, so maybe this is a good thing.”