Steve Schlafke takes Dallas Center-Grimes softball back to state tourney before retirement

DALLAS CENTER — Steve Schlafke stands in the center of a huddle, turning as he speaks so every player hears his pregame speech.

The Dallas Center-Grimes coach keeps it simple. There isn’t much more he can teach the 28 athletes on his varsity roster in the minutes before the opening pitch of the regional final.

Schlafke raises his fist in the air. His players follow suit, crowding closer to their coach until he disappears in the center of the circle.

“Juicy Wiggle” blares through the Burnett Recreational Complex speakers. It’s red versus blue in the stands, Mustangs versus Perry, for a spot in the state tournament.

The song’s beat drops and the huddle breaks after a count-off.

Starting lineups and a national anthem later, it’s game on. But by the end of the state tournament, it will be game over for one person in the huddle.

After 48 seasons of high school softball – and 22 on the Mustangs’ sideline – Schlafke is retiring.

Passion to profession: Schlafke’s journey to Dallas Center-Grimes

Rattling off a list of his mentors comes easy to Schlafke.

Legendary coach Dick Rasmussen, who coached Schlafke at South Hamilton. Two of Rasmussen’s assistants, Bud Legg and Karl Greve. Garnavillo girls basketball coach Dick Bangs.

Urbandale’s Gary Page, Roland-Story's Bill Hennessy, Kingsley-Pierson's Ed Coughenour, Charles City’s Jerry Newton.

Cedar Rapids Jefferson’s Larry Niemeyer, the all-time winningest softball coach in Iowa history.

Schlafke always loved baseball, and softball fit with his favorite sport. But Schlafke credits Rasmussen and Legg with encouraging him to pursue coaching.

So, he started with youth baseball and softball. He came down with the coaching bug almost immediately.

“We practiced and played on this old field in Jewell, Iowa, and it was just a great time,” Schlafke recalled. “That’s where my love of coaching really came from.”

In between coaching gigs, he graduated from college. Schlafke coached one season of baseball at St. Mary’s in Storm Lake while applying for teaching jobs. He eventually picked up a position at Garnavillo, teaching physical education and coaching every girls sport except basketball.

Schlafke remained there for 13 years before moving to Audubon, where he coached one season of softball. And then Schlafke looked for a change of profession, going to pharmacy school at Drake.

He and his wife moved into an apartment in Adel. She worked as a part-time teacher in multiple districts while he attended classes, and the couple’s daughter was only about three years old at the time.

Schlafke found a much-needed source of extra income: a coaching contract at Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School. He remained there for 11 years.

But coaching and a job as a pharmacist aren’t always compatible.

“There was a lot of faith going on in our decisions,” Schlafke expressed. “If you want something to happen bad enough, then a lot of times things will work out.”

Schlafke found a fit – in coaching and life – in Dallas Center. He got a pharmacy job in town and joined the DCG program in 2002. His job allowed him to leave work in time for practice and games.

Everything fell into place at Dallas Center-Grimes.

So much so that Schlafke remained there for 22 seasons, with the 2024 one being his last.

Blue jeans and extra innings: Specific moments stick out in a decades-long career

Over 48 years, Schlafke has amassed a career record of 1,379 wins and 670 losses, according to the Iowa Girls Coaches Association .

But Schlafke will be the first to say: The wins never mattered as much as the memories.

It started with Garnavillo, where the kids showed up to his first practice – at a field with no fence – in blue jeans and tennis shoes.

“It was as small-town as small-town could be,” Schlafke laughed. “That’s small-town USA. It’s cliche, but Garnavillo was definitely that way.”

He remembers getting past a 100-win pitcher to make the state tournament for the first time in school history. But the details he provides are about the weather and the bus ride home, not the statistics.

There was a 31-inning game against Waterloo West.

Or the satisfaction of how his players turned around their season after a loss.

Or seeing friendships blossom through back-to-back state championship losses with ADM, first to Carlisle in 1994 and then to Clarke in 1995.

Or his first year as head coach of the Mustangs, when his daughter was an eighth-grader and DCG made it to the state tournament.

“We beat teams that we weren’t supposed to beat,” Schlafke said. “The funny thing is, my daughter never got back to the state tournament. You never know what is going to happen.”

He led Dallas Center-Grimes to five straight appearances at state from 2011 to 2015, winning three consecutive titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Again, though, Schlafke doesn’t recall the breakdown of each championship game. He does bring up the players, the makeup of the team, what made that group something special. He doesn’t let himself get too caught up in the game, at least not anymore.

“Every game is a game, you know,” Schlafke said. “I’ve learned that you can’t make any game more special than it is because every game is the same. That’s where you build up a lot of tension and a lot of stress.”

'That’s who was gonna coach you': Schlafke synonymous with Mustangs softball

Girls – barely the height of folding chairs, donning red and white Mustangs softball t-shirts, with sun-highlighted hair tucked under visors and caps – run up and down the metal bleachers and peer through the openings in the chain link fence behind home plate.

Those girls see themselves in the athletes on the diamond.

Current seniors Macee Reiling and Aubrey Johansen were those girls once, and they grew up knowing Schlafke would be their high school coach.

“I’ve always known about his legacy,” Reiling told the Register after their 10-0 regional-final win. “He’s always had an impact on our program and, growing up, that’s who was gonna coach you.”

Reiling and Johansen have attended clinics coached by Schlafke since they were in grade school. Both athletes grew up learning from the person who would become their high school coach.

Reiling grew up wanting to be like the older players she saw Schlafke turn into champions. She wanted to impress one of the winningest coaches in Iowa history. Johansen learned a lot about softball from Schlafke. She admitted to tearing up a time or two at the end of this season.

That made Tuesday’s game bittersweet.

Not only was it Reiling and Johansen’s last game at the Burnett Complex. It was also Schlafke’s final home stand. The end of an era, for students and teacher alike.

Both athletes will continue their softball careers in college: Reiling at DMACC and Johansen at Missouri State, where she will play for Schlafke’s daughter, Kasey.

Their performances on the diamond earned them those opportunities.

But Schlafke’s impact will extend beyond their athletic careers.

“I haven’t met a person who knows the game better than him,” Johansen said. “He loves every single one of us. He’s always caring and he’s always so kind and knows what to do.”

Reiling agreed with her teammate.

“I think his biggest goal is just trying to make us better people, not necessarily better softball players.”

Final season will end in Fort Dodge

Schlafke directs his players from the coaching box. He’s calm, controlled, almost emotionless in a good way. It’s a far cry from the enthusiastic yeller – Schlafke’s own admission – who once stood on the sidelines.

Reiling leads off the second inning with a double off the fence.

Reese Burke’s bunt set up runners on second and third, Addison Lyddon sent Reiling home, and then Izabella Mulder’s sacrifice fly scored Burke.

With three balls, two strikes and two outs, Amelia Ehlert sent the ball over the center-field fence and rounded the bases for the first home run of the night.

Mulder sent another ball past the fence before the end of the game, and the Mustangs collected seven more runs before the end of the fifth inning.

In the on-field celebrations and photo-booth moments following the win, there is not a moment when Schlafke isn’t surrounded by family – real and pseudo. There are former players, assistant coaches and their families in attendance.

All of them are family to Schlafke.

But it’s time he spends his summers around Luann, their daughters and their grandchildren.

It begs the question, though, why retire after 48 years and not wait for the coveted half-centennial?

“Nothing is special about 50, any more than 49 or 48,” Schlafke sighed. “Your retirement has to come sometime. I was always looking ahead at who we have coming. I just discovered that there’s always kids coming. And I didn’t want to coach past my prime.”

There are certainly athletes in the Dallas Center-Grimes pipeline who Schlafke wants to coach. Some of those little girls in the stands could be the next Johansen or Reiling, but they won’t be coached by Schlafke.

He finishes his career alongside 13 seniors and built a program with 70 players across varsity, junior varsity and beyond. It’s a testament to Schlafke’s impact on the Mustangs.

It’s also a consequence of being one of the winningest coaches in state history, and being a coach that players want to compete under.

But over four decades later, Schlafke is as much a student of the game as his players.

And one of the best to ever coach in Iowa is still learning, and he’s honest in his advice to other coaches.

“We gotta do a better job of coaching,” Schlafke shared. “It’s the kids’ game. Love them, accept their greatnesses and accept their weaknesses. Sometimes we get so caught up in wanting to win, we forget that our kids just want to have fun.”

The game is still fun for Schlafke, all these years later.

There is a joy that Schlafke gets from being in the dugout. It’s something only coaches will understand, and it’s a part of the game that Schlafke will miss. Now he's preparing for the Mustangs to face Carlisle in a Class 4A quarterfinal on Monday.

After the tournament, it’s time to be with family.

But it won’t be a life without softball.

His daughter, Kasey, is still head coach at Missouri State, and maybe one day his granddaughter will play the sport her grandfather coached for nearly five decades.

And while Tuesday was Schlafke’s final game from the sidelines of the Burnett Recreational Complex, there’s a good chance that Dallas Center-Grimes fans will see him in the stands next summer, watching alongside those little girls with dreams of being a Mustang.

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Steve Schlafke takes Dallas Center-Grimes softball back to state tourney before retirement