College Coaches Skills Camp

Featuring Skylar Meade

After helping lead the University of Louisville to a NCAA Super Regional championship and the program’s first bertah in the College World Series as a senior in 2007, Skylar Meade has joined Jim Schmitz’s staff as the pitching coach.

Meade battled through rotator cuff and labrum injuries from March of 2005 to February of 2007, but still made the most of his senior season. Despite starting just seven games, the left-hander won nine games and limited opposing batters to a .247 average.
 
He pitched in four of the Cardinals’ 11 NCAA Tournament games, earning the win in the game-three blowout of Oklahoma State in the Super Regionals that sent UL to the College World Series. He worked an inning and two-third of scoreless relief. He also tossed 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief in Louisville’s CWS victory against Mississippi State.
 
The Cardinals’ run to Omaha was an impressive feat. Louisville had to beat Missouri twice on consecutive days in Columbia to win its regional. Meade started the second of those two games against Mizzou despite pitching three innings of relief two days earlier. He worked a scoreless first inning and the offense took care of things from there, scoring eight times in the bottom half of the frame en route to a 16-6 victory. Louisville also eliminated perennial power Miami during a successful stay in Columbia.
 
Meade finished his career with a 16-7 record, including a 5-1 mark in conference action.
 
A Louisville native, Meade was a member of the program during a time of great transition. The Cardinals moved into a stadium and conference during his career (2003-07). Louisville went from one of the northern-most teams in Conference USA to one of the southern-most squads in the Big East when it changed leagues prior to the 2005-06 school year. Meade says the move from Old Cardinal Stadium (the long-time home of Triple A affiliates) to the state-of-the-art Jim Patterson Stadium was just as important.
 
Meade’s collegiate career featured some transitions as well. He was recruited as a first baseman and outfielder, who could also pitch. He says by the beginning of his junior year, however, he had become strictly a pitcher.
 
Six members of the 2007 Louisville senior class were selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft and another signed a free-agent contract. Meade says he had a couple offers from independent league teams, but his shoulder would not allow him to continue his career on a professional level.
 
Instead, Meade knew it was time to begin pursuing his career ambition to be a college head coach. The current EIU pitching staff certainly doesn’t have to search long for a guy who less than a year ago was facing some of the most stacked lineups in the country on a national stage. Meade’s age (he turned 23 in September) could also help when working with EIU’s suddenly youthful roster.
 
Meade was recommended to Schmitz by Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell, who led the Cardinals to the CWS in his first year. Schmitz and McDonnell are both former assistant coaches at the University of Mississippi, although their tenures in Oxford did not overlap.
 
Meade says he was familiar with a couple gentlemen who also have offices in O’Brien Stadium. EIU women’s soccer coach Tim Nowak was an assistant at Louisville during Meade’s collegiate career, and EIU football defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni is close friends with McDonnell.
 
Meade’s favorite professional baseball team is the Chicago Cubs. His officemate and new colleague, assistant coach Sean Lyons, also happens to be a big Cubs fan.

Meade earned a bachelor’s degree in sports administration from Louisville and is currently pursuing a master’s in kinesiology and sports studies at EIU.