600 and
Counting
March 28, 2014 - by Daniel Paulling '08
After surviving cancer, Tars baseball coach Jon
Sjogren earned his 600th win and enjoys the chance to keep
coaching.
When he first entered the profession, Rollins College baseball
coach Jon Sjogren focused on reaching milestone wins. But after
23-plus seasons and a bout with cancer, his perspective has
changed.
"You see how little it means," says Sjogren, who won his 600th
career game March 6 against the University of the Sciences after
also earning his 400th and 500th wins with Rollins. "It means a lot
because you've had a lot of players play for you. You had a lot of
opportunities to impact lives. But those numbers just mean an
opportunity to pause and look back and reflect on those things. The
illness and recovery and what it did to my family and the people
close to me, there's no comparison."
The Tars' best season under Sjogren came in 2010, when they
went 41-19 and made the Division II playoffs. The program hadn't
won 40 games since 2004 and reached that mark just four times
ever.
But after a 41-19 season in 2010 with a junior-filled team and
a summer spent on the road recruiting, Sjogren's tongue went numb
while eating breakfast with his father in November 2010.
He received the diagnosis four days after Thanksgiving: Stage
IV throat cancer.He received the diagnosis four days after
Thanksgiving: Stage IV throat cancer. He began chemotherapy two
weeks before Christmas.
Sjogren didn't ask his doctors, but the survival rate is about
60 percent.
"My twin daughters and my wife were my biggest concerns," he
says. "What was going to happen to them? It wasn't easy for
anybody. It was one of the things you feel guilty about."
Because of his family, Sjogren wouldn't consider the thought
of dying. In his first meeting with one oncologist, the doctor
mentioned death, which led Sjogren elsewhere.
The oncologist he chose told Sjogren that he'd be fine if he
did everything he was told. Sjogren turned to his wife and made the
decision to go with that oncologist because he felt he was being
coached.
Sjogren underwent four week-long chemotherapy sessions. Next
came radiation from April to June 2011, which caused him to miss
part of the spring season. Sjogren credits his assistant coaches
and local alumni who filled in on the coaching staff and players
for helping the team to a 27-26 record.
"It was quite tough," says Mike Howard '12, a pitcher during
that season who is now a graduate assistant coach on the Tars
staff. "To lose our leader, the guy who's here every day putting
in the hours no one else wants and making sure his players get what
they need to get better, it was really startling."
Sjogren's cancer went into remission in December 2012, and he
returned to coach last season. He says the time away caused him to
miss two years' worth of recruiting, which impacted the current
team. The Tars went 24-23-1 last season and are 12-14 with an 0-9
record in the Sunshine State Conference.
Their conference also happens to be one of the best in the
country. Five SSC teams are ranked by Collegiate Baseball: Tampa
(1), Lynn (5), Nova Southeastern (15), Florida Southern (16), and
Florida Tech (26).
If you don't show up and play your best game, you're going to
get beat. If you do show up and do play your best game, there's no
guarantee you're going to win either. "There are no off days in
this league," says Sjogren, who has a 244-209-2 record over
eight-plus years at Rollins. "Everybody is talented. If you don't
show up and play your best game, you're going to get beat. If you
do show up and do play your best game, there's no guarantee you're
going to win either.
"From a competitive standpoint, it's fantastic. It's what you
want."
With so many talented teams, every minor mistake-a walk or a
ball thrown to the wrong base-could mean the difference between a
win and a loss. Sjogren admits that he doesn't recruit against the
other teams in the conference, meaning he has to put more work into
developing his players.
The chance to work with players-to help them develop their
skills and build relationships with them that lead to him being
invited to their weddings years later-is what he enjoys most about
the profession. It has been since he accepted his first head
coaching job in 1991 for $3,500 a year at Bryant University.
"If you look at our roster and the players that are producing,
the way we're growing from within the program, I think it's exactly
where we want to be," Sjogren says. "Our record isn't indicating
that right now. We're really looking forward to watching the
players in our program grow.
"I much rather see our guys progress and get better. The
winning stuff takes care of itself."
