Essex County to Rename Ivy Hill Softball Field "Essex County Mike Sheppard, Sr. Field"
4/24/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The field, which has been the home to the Seton Hall softball team since it received a $1.1 million facelift in 2005, will honor one of Seton Hall and Essex County's greatest coaches and leaders. The naming ceremony is opened to the public and members of the Seton Hall community are encouraged to attend. It will take place at Ivy Hill Park on Thursday afternoon rain or shine at 12 p.m.
Sheppard has been a distinguished member of the community surrounding Ivy Hill Park for nearly his entire life. He attended Seton Hall Prep before coming to play baseball for Owen T. Carroll at the university, and was the head coach at Seton Hall for 31 seasons (1973-2003), racking up an all-time record of 998-540-11, which ranks in the top-75 in NCAA history with regards to all-time victories.
Under Sheppard's tutelage Seton Hall posted 28 winning seasons, including 22 campaigns with at least 30 victories. The Pirates advanced to the College World Series in 1974 and 1975, and won the BIG EAST Championship in 1987.
More than 80 of Sheppard's former student-athletes went on to sign professional contracts with 30 of them moving on to play in the major leagues, including Craig Biggio, Rick Cerone, Jason Grilli, Matt Morris, Mo Vaughn and John Valentin.
He was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Fame on Jan. 7, 2011, the Seton Hall University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996, and had his number 17 retired by the Pirates in 2004.
But in addition to all of his successes on the baseball diamond, Sheppard is also being honored by Essex County for his role in the community over the years. He has been a mentor to his players and an advocate for providing quality educational, recreational and athletic programs for young people of all ages for five decades.
Sheppard has been the chairman of the Essex County American Legion Baseball Program since 1983, and is the commissioner of the Atlantic Baseball Confederation Collegiate League.
Having a field at Ivy Hill Park named after Sheppard carries an additional significance for the Seton Hall legend and his family. He grew up in the area surrounding the park and it was there that he played youth sports and even met his wife, Phyllis. It played a defining role in his development as a player and coach, and as a person.
It was in the eighth grade that Sheppard would first play at Ivy Hill Park, when he first made the team at Sacred Heart Vailsburg and the team would practice at the recreational fields that sit behind Seton Hall. Back then, the field only had a backstop and four spots for the plate and bases, with no mound.
His wife and her friends would play softball at the same field where Sacred Heart practiced, and it was there that they first met and became friends, starting a relationship that has spanned 64 years.
"I have received a number of honors, but for myself, my wife and my family, we are just so proud that they are going to have a field named after me, because that is really where we started out," Sheppard said. "We did everything in that park; it was just sort of the center of activities for us."
Sheppard went on to play baseball at Seton Hall Prep and Seton Hall University, which shared a field at the time. So naturally there were times when both teams needed to practice at the same time and he would again come down to Ivy Hill Park to play.
"When I think back when I was a kid, that was my youth," Sheppard said. "I fell in love with this game of baseball and that was where it started out."
After he got out of the Marine Corp, Sheppard bought a house on Tuxedo Parkway, a street on the perimeter of the park, which happened to be the same block where his wife grew up and where SHU coach Owen T. Carroll resided. He could walk through the park to get from his house to his wife's childhood home.
"I grew up with a guy named Jim Green on Marion Avenue closer to East Orange, and was talking to him one day after he had a successful career coaching junior college baseball and I had made my way at Seton Hall," Sheppard said. "Jim said that Marian Avenue must have been one of the winningest streets in the country, but I had to correct him and say it was Tuxedo Parkway, where I moved and where Owen Carroll lived."
Before becoming the head coach at Seton Hall, Sheppard coached baseball, wrestling and football at Vailsburg High School from 1964-69, sometimes bringing the football team down to Ivy Hill to run drills.
All of his children and nephews played little league ball at Ivy Hill, a place that his family got their start athletically before branching out to other areas. All of his children attended Mt. Vernon School on the corner.
Ivy Hill Park has been a special place to Sheppard for nearly his entire life, and a field being renamed in his honor will stand as a one of the most sentimental honors the distinguished coach has ever received.
