GREEN BAY — Jordan Bischel grew up playing baseball in the Green Bay area. He played at Notre Dame Academy and after graduating high school, he went on to play at St. Norbert. Recently he was named the head coach of a Big 12 program.
“5 years ago our first team at Central Michigan, we made the NCAA tournament and we get sent to (Mississippi State) which is the mecca of college baseball and I’m standing with 12,000 people watching and I was like, “I guess I’m not at St. Norbert college anymore,"” Bischel said.
After graduating from St. Norbert in 2003, he was an accountant, while also volunteering as an assistant coach at Notre Dame Academy. After his year with the Tritons he decided it was time to pursue his passion of coaching.
“I really enjoyed it, I had a passion for it, so I was foolish enough to quit my full-time benefits, great job to just throw myself into something and I just had a passion for it,” he said. “I remember telling my parents, I said, ‘if I can just make a living and pay my bills doing something I'm passionate about I’m going to be happy.’”
He then went on to be an assistant coach at St. Norbert from 2004 to 2006.
“St. Norbert Division III it’s not for a scholarship, it’s not for glory, it's because they love what they’re doing,” Bischel said of the players and coaching staff. “I think it’s just infectious. That’s what kind of created a spark and led to me head down this path.”
It wasn’t until 2013 when he finally got his first head coaching gig at the college level.
“My first full-time job was a head coaching job at Midland University out in Nebraska and they said we’re going to pay you $32,000 a year and I thought I was rich,” he laughed. “And here we are 11 years later and I’m not sure what led to it besides I’ve been surrounded by tremendous people and I have a passion for it.”
6 years later he was named the head coach at Central Michigan. Leading them to the NCAA tournament in year one.
“Leaving those guys, it’s hard. They commit to a school, but they also commit to a coach, that’s a big part of it and that’s turnover for them and change for them and I guess what that meant to me was if I was willing to leave that, and we had a special thing going here, I knew that. That was because it was an awfully awfully special opportunity.” Bischel said.
That special opportunity came last week, when he was named the head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Who will be moving to the Big 12 conference next season.
“The potential at a place like Cincinnati with the expanded resources and the conference affiliation, that’s what made it incredibly attractive,” Bischel said. “But certainly, I’m not going to run into any better people than what we had at (Central Michigan)
As for how he’s had so much success, rising through the college coaching ranks:
“I think the guys can see what led me to this even 18 years ago. Like a passion for it. It wasn’t I don’t know what to do so I’ll coach, it was this was what I want to do. I’ve just always challenged myself that if you’re going to do this, you better do it right.”
