Those who know Chuck Shuman best describe him as a “fair and caring” man.
Whether it’s on a softball field, football field or just in casual conversation, Shuman displays “class” everyday and loves to listen and help others through life.
His integrity and leadership skills contributed to successful teams during his playing days at East High School and currently as a coach at Ellet High School. For these reasons, and many more, Shuman is the 29th recipient of the Clem Caraboolad Memorial Coach of the Year award from the Akron Beacon Journal and the Touchdown Club of Greater Akron.
Caraboolad was a highly respected teacher and coach at Walsh Jesuit and Archbishop Hoban before passing away from a heart attack on Jan. 29, 1988, at age 43.
“Oh, man, I appreciate it. Thank you,” Shuman said. “This is a prestigious award because of the legend that he held and how he handled himself and what his ideals were.
“It is an honor to receive this, but I also think there are many people in our profession that do just as much and have their heads in the right place as far as what is important.”
Shuman, who turned 68 on April 11, is married to his high school sweetheart, Janet. He is in his 33rd season as Ellet’s softball coach, and was recently named the Orangemen football coach after being an assistant for 46 seasons at three schools.
Since taking over Ellet’s softball program in 1985, Shuman has amassed a record of 612-234 and led the 1996 team to a Division I state championship.
Shuman worked with quarterbacks and defensive backs alongside head coach Joe Yost on the Ellet sidelines from 1981 through this past season before Yost stepped aside two months ago. Yost praised Shuman for “his commitment, his loyalty, his creativity and his support.”
“I believe Chuck Shuman is on a whole different level when it comes to coaching,” said Yost, who was Ellet’s football coach from 1979 to 2016.
“Obviously, his success in softball is well known with over 600 victories and what he did as an assistant coach for me is overwhelming. He is one of the hardest working coaches I have ever dealt with. A lot of people watch a lot of film and do other things, but he also made sure that our clothes, our pants and jerseys — the laundry — was taken care of.
“We have seventh- and eighth-grade football, and then there is the freshman team and the JV and the varsity, and he saw to it that all of that laundry was taken care of week after week after week. And on top of that he has been offensive coordinator.”
Advocate for education
Shuman retired as an Akron Public Schools teacher after the 2007-2008 school year with 36 years of experience. He started as a business teacher at age 22 in an APS program for boys at Camp Y-Noah. After three years there, he was an elementary physical education teacher for the next 33 years with stops at Crouse, Lane, Forest Hill, Hatton, Ritzman, Robinson, Essex and Betty Jane. He was at Betty Jane from 1985 to 2008.
Courtney Pruner Gentile, a 2005 Ellet graduate, said Shuman taught her while she attended Betty Jane. She starred in volleyball and basketball, and led the softball team to a regional final appearance.
“Coach Shu is an advocate of the game,” said Pruner Gentile, who played at Ohio State University and is now an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan. “He is passionate about every aspect of the game and that shows through in everything that he does.”
In softball, Shuman’s teams have won 27 City Series regular-season championships, 26 league postseason crowns, 23 sectional titles, nine district crowns and three regional titles. Additionally, Ellet was state runner-up in 1995 and a state semifinalist in 1997.
Sisters Tiffany McCoy Yehle and Tracee McCoy were key players on the 1996 Ellet state championship team. Tiffany was a junior pitcher, and Tracee was a freshman shortstop.
“Chuck is a legend in the Ellet community,” McCoy Yehle said. “Everybody that has either played for him in softball or in football, or been in contact with him in some way has been influenced or touched by how much he cares about Ellet kids. He puts his whole heart into giving everything to football and softball, and everything that he does, too.
“He always said you never walk a hitter because that run always comes around some way and scores. It’s a free run for them. He also kept saying, ‘Always put on a show because you never know who is watching you.’ ”
The 1996 team was led by the McCoys, Jill Hillyer, Kristen Breen, Jamie Hicks, Heather Morton, Monica Kinsey, Rachel Kostra and Jody Tobias.
“I came in my freshman year and I wanted to be a third baseman and catcher, but obviously there was a senior [Hillyer] and junior [Breen] in those positions,” Tracee McCoy said. “He told me that he was going to turn me into a shortstop. I never played shortstop before, so he saw something in me that nobody else did. He definitely believed in me right from the beginning. I appreciate that from him more than anything.
“Every time after practice, I would ask him to hit me extra ground balls and he never turned me down. He said, ‘Yep, I will stay extra.’ Chuck is an amazing guy.”
The McCoys played at the University of Akron, and Tracee was a professional with the Racers.
“He was at a lot of our games when we played in college,” Tiffany McCoy Yehle said.
She was an assistant for one year under Shuman, and then was coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary for a year, Kent Roosevelt for five years and Twinsburg for four years.
Athlete becomes coach
Shuman is the youngest of five children born to Agnes and Joe Shuman, who are deceased. He remains close with brothers Bill and Joe Jr. and sisters Marty and Dory.
“They’ve been my supporters all the way through along with my mom and my dad,” Shuman said. “My mom is the one who started me going to Thanksgiving Day games when I was young and growing up and following East High School football. She was the longest tenured crossing guard in Akron. They did an article about her in the Beacon Journal. She had over 50 years of service as a school crossing guard with the Akron schools. She crossed kids in East Akron, mostly kids going to Barber, the elementary school that I went to. She was probably my biggest supporter.”
Shuman’s father coached Chuck in Little League and worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
Shuman graduated from East in 1967 and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1971 and a master’s degree in 1976 from UA. He played quarterback in football, guard in basketball and third base in baseball at East, and then started at quarterback for the Zips.
Shuman credits his former coaches for helping him succeed and getting the coaching itch.
“That is where I got my philosophy of keeping things simple,” Shuman said. “My high school football coach, Dom Patella, really believed in blocking and tackling and just doing the basics. We definitely were not fancy. And that continued on at Akron with Gordon Larson. They helped mold the philosophy that I still follow as far as trying to do the basics as well as you can and not confuse your athletes.”
An opportunity presented itself for Shuman to be the Ellet softball coach in 1985 and he took it. He coached his daughter, Carrie, as a junior and senior, and stayed with it.
“Once you get into softball, it is kind of contagious because it is a good game and you have girls that really listen, and it is a fast-moving game,” Shuman said.
Shuman has also coached his son, Kevin, in football at Ellet, and Carrie’s daughters (his granddaughters) — Amanda, Samantha and Sydnie Wolf — in softball at Ellet. Amanda graduated from high school in 2015. Samantha is a senior and Sydnie is a sophomore.
“It’s been great,” Shuman said. “It’s been totally enjoyable for me. ... They are all a treasure to me. It’s not always smooth when you have your dad or grandfather as the coach. We try to keep things in perspective at home. When it was softball, it was softball. When it was football, it was football. And then when we were home we were home.”
Carrie graduated from high school in 1986 and Kevin in 1990. Kevin later played quarterback at Kent State University.
“I have been fortunate that Janet is a football and softball wife,” Chuck Shuman said. “Without her unselfishness, my coaching career would have not been possible. Her summers, springs, falls and winters were occupied with either my coaching or following our son, daughter, and granddaughters on the playing field.”
Ellet’s John Sarver, a close friend of Shuman’s with 38 years of experience in coaching baseball and football, said he was impressed with how Shuman “learned the trade of softball” with a background in other sports.
“Chuck became very astute very quickly,” Sarver said. “He became very knowledgeable about the whole game and how to handle it. He adapted to coaching girls very quickly and became real successful with it. It didn’t take him long to be very, very competitive and then soon after that they won a state championship.”
A new opportunity
Shuman will be a first-year head football coach in 2017 after serving as an assistant at East in 1971 and 1978-1980, at Firestone from 1972-1977 and at Ellet from 1981-2016.
“Chuck is a great person who is real supportive,” said close friend Tina Wallace, who has served as Ellet’s girls basketball coach and volleyball coach for the past 30 seasons.
“When we are in a championship game or have a big game, he comes to watch and he lets his kids play other sports, which is terrific. I admire his passion and he is so calm. I never see him get angry. He is a technician. ... He is very good with kids.”
Missy Melton Jarvis was one of those “kids” who played softball for Shuman from 1987-1990, and then later coached with him for 15 seasons after playing at Butler University.
“From the time I first met him as a player, throughout my coaching career, certainly, and in my personal life, he has been an instrumental person,” Melton Jarvis said. “He helped cultivate how I felt about the game and the passion that I have for the game. He was super helpful in helping me with the transition from being a player to being a coach.”
Shuman praised Bill Lehman, Jim Noall and Kellie Cummings Smith for their work on his current softball staff. Lehman and Noall have worked with Lehman for decades.
“Chuck is a great friend, a huge mentor and someone who I would call at any point in my life for advice about anything,” Melton Jarvis said. “He is awesome.”
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps.