Murray State's Dan Skirka and the unlikely rise from juco assistant to the College World Series

New York Times

20 hours ago

OMAHA, Neb. — Mired in a stretch of nine years without a winning season, the Murray State baseball community pondered its plight in 2018. The Racers were down. And to many constituents, little belief existed in their ability to get up.
'Over time, Murray State just kinda froze,' said Matt Kelly, an administrator in athletics at the school since 2004. 'People looked at the state of our athletic department — not just baseball — and they thought, 'We need so many things and we'll never be able to do that.' So they just didn't do any of it.'
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Four years earlier, in 2014, Allen Ward, the Murray State athletic director at the time, had fired baseball coach Rob McDonald. One of McDonald's assistants, Dan Skirka, impressed the administration with his positive attitude and work ethic even in the darkest of times.
Ward interviewed Skirka for the open head coaching job. He was 29.
'We just didn't feel like it was something we could do,' Ward said this week as Murray State and its coach, the 40-year-old Skirka, prepared for the first College World Series game in school history, Saturday at 2 p.m. (ET) against UCLA. 'It just wasn't the right time.'
Omaha suits The Racers#MCWS x @RacersBaseball pic.twitter.com/htWI5KhlFC
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 12, 2025
Ward hired Kevin Moulder. He lasted four seasons and won 44 percent of his games in charge of the middling Ohio Valley Conference program.
Skirka, meanwhile, spent the same four years at Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tenn., as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He helped WSCC win 81 percent of its games and finish as runner-up at the Junior College World Series in 2018.
The next time, Murray State administrators did not hesitate.
'I've always said the big boys get to pick coaches,' Ward said. 'We have to find coaches.'
Kelly encouraged Skirka to express an interest in the job when it came open in the spring of 2018. Friends in the coaching business told him they didn't think he had a shot. But Dave Shelton, the head coach at Walters State, believed in Skirka. In fact, Shelton said, observers around his junior college program often asked which big school was going to hire Skirka away.
'Probably the one who gives him an interview,' Shelton said. 'The reason is, he believes in what he does. And there's nothing fake about Dan Skirka.'
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Skirka nailed the 2018 interview.
'With the questions they asked and my familiarity and my experience at Walters with recruiting and winning, I felt prepared,' Skirka said. 'I thought we could win at Murray. Murray's a place where we don't focus on what we don't have. We focus on what we have.
'And if we focus on great people and develop them on the field and off the field, we can do this.'
Murray State went 24-30 in Skirka's first season and has not had a losing season since. This year, the Racers broke through by winning the Missouri Valley tournament in their third season in the league to reach the NCAA postseason for the fourth time in program history and first since 2003. They beat Ole Miss twice at the Oxford Regional — including a 12-11 victory in the decisive seventh game — as the fourth seed of four teams.
In the Super Regional, hosted by Duke, the Racers lost Game 1 but bounced back to win the next two to secure their first trip to the College World Series, alongside two teams from the SEC and one apiece from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and Sun Belt, plus independent Oregon State.
Murray State's record is 44-15 as it takes the field at Charles Schwab Field on Saturday against the Bruins. UCLA won the national championship in its most recent trip here 12 years ago, one of 124 national titles that the Bruins claim in NCAA team sports.
For Murray State, a university of slightly more than 8,000 undergraduate students in southwest Kentucky near the Tennessee border, that number is two — both in women's rifle.
'You can keep calling us the underdog,' senior third baseman Carson Garner said. 'I think that's what we like to be called. We like when people are doubting us.'
At the center of their story is Skirka, the underdog himself who played shortstop at Division II Grand Valley State in Michigan and jumped from junior college assistant coach to Division I head coach at age 33.
What the Racers have accomplished already this season in baseball, according to Ward, the former AD who's now retired and living in Murray, rates as 'maybe the greatest accomplishment in Murray State history.'
Less than two weeks after Ward hired Skirka in July 2018, the athletic director left Murray State to take the same job at Abilene Christian.
Skirka has worked for two interim ADs. In between, Kevin Saal, now the AD at Wichita State, spent four years in charge at Murray State. The rise in Skirka's baseball program came slowly. He won 24 games in 2019, 33 in 2021 after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and 30 in 2022.
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In August 2022, the school hired Nico Yantko as AD. He came from the University of Louisiana, where he served as deputy AD. Yantko played quarterback at Murray State from 2007 to 2009. He and Skirka crossed paths briefly at Murray in 2010 as Yantko completed a Master's degree.
More than a decade later, their reunion came with some difficult conversations. Skirka wanted to win. But his program was under-resourced.
He had one paid assistant coach in 2018.
Yantko listened to his concerns and took action. The AD asked all of his coaches to divide their needs into three categories — one thing they needed at that moment, one thing they needed in 24 months and one thing they needed long term but had never felt empowered to request.
Yantko went to work. For baseball, the athletic department added $750,000 over two years to its operational budget. It hired two assistant coaches and updated the weight room. It repurposed space in the football stadium to provide a meeting area for Skirka and a team room for his players.
The school provided access for baseball players to nutrition and recovery efforts.
For years, Murray State players took batting practice outside at Johnny Reagan Field in the winter. When the temperature dipped below 30 degrees, the Racers piled on layers of clothing.
Yantko and Skirka partnered to help deliver an indoor hitting facility.
'Is it what other teams here are hitting in?' Skirka said. 'No. But it's good enough for us to get better. Those little things go a long way. Little by little, every year, we just try to keep this thing rolling.'
All of it, Yantko describes as a 'strategic investment.'
'We put Dan in a position to win,' Yantko said. 'He's the type of guy I want to invest in.'
Yantko sees in Skirka a reflection of Murray State.
'We're going to be a place that punches above our weight class,' he said.
No Murray State baseball players receive cash via NIL deals. They're eligible for cost-of-attendance stipends, capped at less than $6,000 per year, and academic financial aid through the NCAA v. Alston case.
Few, if any, programs in the Missouri Valley will offer baseball players a cut of revenue-sharing dollars made possible by the House settlement. They do receive scholarships. And in upcoming years, Murray State aims to fund more than the previous limit of 11.7 — though nowhere close to the 34 scholarships now allowed under the settlement terms.
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Still, the Racers flock to praise Skirka.
Multiple players at Murray State said the coach saved their careers. Senior right fielder Dustin Mercer suffered a broken wrist early in his career. Senior center fielder Jonathan Hogart, who's hitting .339 with 22 home runs, endured an injury while at Louisiana Tech in 2023.
Both players said they considered giving up baseball before they came to understand the faith that Skirka placed in them.
'That belief in me makes me rise to the occasion,' Mercer said.
Shelton, the Walters State coach, learned everything he needed to know in a short time about Skirka. He recommended Skirka for the job at Murray State in 2018. Pick someone else at your own risk, Shelton warned.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿, @dskirka 🏆#GoRacers🏇 | @NCBWA pic.twitter.com/DloMpnkgGR
— Murray State Baseball (@RacersBaseball) June 13, 2025
'There's nothing you can say that's bad about him,' Shelton said. 'He's great with the players, great with the parents, he's a great evaluator. I don't know if I've ever met anyone who's met Dan who didn't like him.'
Shelton plans to fly to Omaha to watch Skirka and the Racers on Monday in their second CWS game against Arkansas or LSU.
Ward, the retired athletic director, has kept a close eye on Murray State through this postseason. He said he marvels at the composure shown by Skirka's players in intense moments. They never look rattled.
At times during his ascension at Murray State, Skirka said he reached out via text message to Ward to offer a message of thanks for his faith seven years ago.
'You hired a juco assistant,' Skirka said he once reminded his old boss.
'You weren't a juco assistant,' Ward replied.
'But that's what I was,' Skirka reminded Ward.
A juco assistant no more, he ranks as one of the best coaching stories ever on the biggest stage in college baseball.