by Brad Parrott
San Antonio Christian Beacon
| At 34-14, Sherman Corbett has UTSA on track to post its first 40-win season this year. |
SAN ANTONIO -- Sherman Corbett is not quickly provoked in life or on the baseball field. For his exemplary Christian conduct off the field and his patience even on those occasions when he disagrees with umpires’ calls on the field, the UTSA head baseball coach has been named the 2008 Fellowship of Christian Athletes Zebras Coach of the Year.
San Antonio area referees and umpires will present the Zebras award to Corbett at the 2008 FCA Celebration Dinner at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 12 at The Bright Shall. Corbett will be honored along with other outstanding Christian high school and college athletes and coaches. Charlie Ward, the 1993 Heismann Trophy winner from Florida State and former NBA point guard, will be the guest speaker at the annual FCA dinner.
It’s rare when Corbett raises his voice or shows any sign of a temper. But there was that night in 2001 when the former Texas A&M and major league pitcher made his first collegiate coaching appearance back in College Station only to be tossed from the game with the Aggies.
"My mother was at the game and all our friends from Grace Bible Church in College Station," Corbett said. "I’m sure they thought, ?What’s happened to him?’"
Corbett comes from a highly-respected family in the San Antonio area. His father, Raymond Sr., served as an administrator in the Schertz-Cibolo Independent School District for nearly 25 years. His brother, Raymond Jr., was a high school All-American and all-state catcher at Clemens High School and played for seven years in the Cincinnati Reds organization. He currently is area scout for the New York Mets.
"We lived in a house on the campus of O’Henry Middle School where my dad was principal," Corbett said. "My brother and I were the only kids in school who had keys to the gym and library. Of course it also made it convenient for my dad to put us to work in the school."
After leaving O’Henry, Corbett’s dad served as assistant superintendent of the Schertz-Cibolo ISD for two years. He retired in 1984 because of poor health. Shortly after his retirement, O’Henry was renamed Raymond D. Corbett Sr. Middle School. The elder Corbett passed away on Father’s Day in 1986. In 2001, all three Corbetts were inducted into the Schertz-Cibolo ISD Sports Hall of Honor.
The youngest Corbett earned all-city honors at Clemens as both a football and baseball player. He was recruited to play middle linebacker at Rice and TCU, but chose to play baseball at Texas A&M. In three seasons as an Aggie, he compiled a 14-11 record on the mound and lead the team in saves in 1983. Corbett was selected in the third round of the 1984 Major League Baseball draft by the California Angels.
Corbett made his big league debut against the Baltimore Orioles on May 29, 1988, and picked up his first win against the Chicago White Sox on July 30, 1988. The left-hander went on to play three more seasons in the Angels organization before spending 1992 in the Detroit Tigers system and 1993 in the Chicago Cubs system. He retired in 1994 and returned to A&M to earn his master’s degree in business administration.
That’s where UTSA Athletics Director Lynn Hickey became acquainted with Corbett. She was the Aggies’ women’s basketball coach and Associate Athletics Director. Her husband, Bill, was an A&M assistant baseball coach. Corbett worked with pitchers in A&M camps while attending graduate school. He later became a teacher and assistant baseball coach at A&M Consolidated High School in College Station.
| Sherman Corbett is the winningest coach in Roadrunners baseball history with 245 victories. |
Hickey hired Corbett as UTSA's head baseball coach in 2001 even though he had no head coaching experience.
"I called her to tell her that I’d be interested if they needed an assistant to coach the pitchers," Corbett said. "She said, "Why don’t you just apply for the head coach’s job.’"
Hickey first was impressed by Corbett when he returned to school to earn his MBA after playing major league baseball.
"When you considered all the things that he had done as a player, the respect that the A&M coaches had for him and his values as a person, he was a natural fit," Hickey said. "He also was a local kid who had made good. His family was well respected in the community. To bring Sherman back to San Antonio had a lot of merit."
Corbett inherited a UTSA program that had not posted a winning season in five years. He and Associate Head Coach Jason Marshall, a former A&M and minor league player, have built the Roadrunners program into a winner during the past eight seasons. Their break-through season was 2005 when UTSA lost the first 11 games of the season but came back to win the Southland Conference Tournament and advanced to NCAA Regional play for only the second time in school history.
Corbett is now the winningest coach in school history. He led the Roadrunners to 36 victories in 2007 including a league-record 24 wins in Southland Conference play. After winning the school’s first Regular Season SLC Championship, Corbett was named the 2007 SLC Clay Gould Coach of the Year. Heading into May, this year’s Roadrunners are on top of the SLC West Division once again and are on pace to post their first 40-win season in school history.
It’s been seven years since Corbett was tossed out of a game by the umpires. "It’s a tough, thankless job to go out and call games," he said. "I want to be respectful of the job that they’re doing."
The respect is mutual.
That’s why Corbett is the 2008 FCA Zebras Coach of the Year.