April Schermann never tires of the pursuit. It can be building a lesson plan for her classroom, plotting strategy for her softball team, washing the truck in her driveway or, as she said, simply “typing up a document.”
“I look for excellence in small things and excellence in all things,” said the Normal West high school teacher and coach. “Everything that I do … I just put everything I have into what I do. It doesn’t matter what the thing is that I’m doing.”
We all strive to be like that. We tell ourselves we’re like that. Schermann can look in the mirror and say it, setting her apart from the crowd.
In the past year, she has been honored with two national awards for her work as a math and computer science teacher. On the softball field, she recently earned her 500th victory as West’s head coach.
A high standard? You bet.
It’s who she is.
“I know my players know that I love school. I’ve always loved school and I value learning, not just in sports but all areas of academics,” Schermann said. “Sometimes they joke and tease me that my softball program is like an AP or honors softball program. But you know, I embrace that. I like that.”
Schermann entered the week with a 501-169 record in her 21st year and 20th season as the Wildcats’ head coach (the 2020 season was canceled by COVID).
She has guided West to eight regional championships, four sectional titles, seven Big 12 Conference championships and a runner-up finish in the 2016 Class 4A State Tournament.
Win No. 500 came on April 20.
“My dad (Dave Schermann) is very good at keeping my records. He was letting me know how close I was, as a dad would do … a proud dad,” Schermann said. “But when you hit that milestone, you have to take a moment and pause and think, ‘How did I get here? How did the program get here?’
“I definitely couldn’t have done it without the amazing players that I’ve coached and all of the assistant coaches I’ve had along the way. Many of them were volunteers. I am a paid coach and my JV coach is a paid coach. Anyone else who assists with our program is doing it strictly out of the goodness of their heart.”
A life in softball
Softball has been in Schermann’s heart most of her life. She began playing at age 5 and went on to be a standout at Peoria Richwoods High School and Illinois State, where she was a first-team all-Missouri Valley Conference infielder. She also earned All-America recognition for athletics and academics, the second Redbird softball player to achieve that double.
Her softball journey included playing against and later with Brooke Monroe of Morton on travel teams. It led to a connection that would impact Schermann’s coaching career.
“My association with April went back to when she was in eighth grade,” said Bobbie Monroe, Brooke Monroe’s mother and the former West athletic director who hired Schermann as coach. “I was coaching Brooke’s summer team and we used to play them. April’s dad coached her team.
“I followed April through high school, through college at Illinois State and had a really good relationship with her. I always had a lot of respect for her as a player and her demeanor on and off the field.”
Bobbie Monroe became the Wildcats’ athletic director shortly after coaching Normal Community to the 2001 Class AA state championship. Schermann, who did her student teaching at West, was in her first year as a full-time teacher when Monroe pitched the idea of making her head softball coach.
Schermann was an assistant JV coach at the time, with Lloyd Hulit serving as head coach.
“I’ll never forget the conversation that she had with me about what my goals were as a young teacher who was interested in coaching … my five-year goal, my 10-year goal,” Schermann said. “She was like, ‘I’m ready to give you the opportunity next year.’ I was pretty shocked by that.”
Her history with Monroe made Schermann feel “very safe and protected,” she said.
“Bobbie had always been a mentor for me and I totally trusted everything she was offering to provide and help,” Schermann said.
Monroe, now retired and living in Arizona, recalls having “no question in my mind that she was ready and it would be a natural fit for her. I sensed that she was mature enough to accept that responsibility and she never looked back.”
Schermann? How confident was she?
“When you’re 23 years old, you really don’t know what the future holds,” she said. “But I just knew that I was committed to that school. There was something special about Normal West. There’s something special about this school and this community. I’ve been very loyal and just felt so supported by everyone in that building and in this area.”
Kid magnet
Monroe was struck by how Schermann’s players “gravitated toward her,” calling the West coach “a kid magnet.”
“She knows how to reach kids,” Monroe said. “She can put herself on their level, but in a professional way. She has a lot of empathy and compassion. She is truly in it for all the right reasons.”
Schermann attended Illinois State in large part because of Melinda Fischer, the head softball coach at the time. Word was Fischer ran a tight ship that required discipline.
That could make some players shy away. Not Schermann.
“I really appreciated that,” she said. “I like being on a schedule. I like discipline.
“I would say my four years of playing softball at Illinois State were absolutely instrumental in the development of me as a person and as a future teacher and future coach. I can’t say enough great things about Melinda Fischer and what she taught me about life and balance and time management … so many things off the field.”
Schermann received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics education in 2002 and later earned her master’s in teaching and leadership.
Her classroom work led her to receive Disney 100 Teachers national recognition in 2023 and she was presented the Project Lead The Way National Computer Science Teacher of the Year award in February.
Reganne Camp will tell you Schermann is a teacher first and a coach second. Camp should know. Schermann was her math teacher during Camp’s junior year at West and her softball coach all four years.
The star senior pitcher on the 2016 state runner-up team, Camp called Schermann “an absolute inspiration.”
“Ellie Sonetz (Camp’s 2016 classmate/teammate) and I still talk about how she was the most wonderful coach and teacher that we ever had,” Camp said. “One of the biggest things she taught us was the mental training and the quote, 'Control what you can control.' It’s something that still applies to me eight years later.”
Facing tragedy
Camp went on to pitch at Seton Hall University and is a senior program manager for Amazon in Jacksonville, Florida. Camp was at Seton Hall when Sonetz’s sister, Olivia “Livi” Sonetz, died in a car accident in March 2018.
Livi Sonetz played as a sophomore on the 2016 team and was two weeks into her senior season when the accident occurred.
Camp said Schermann “not only was able to stay strong for herself, but she was having to be strong for everyone around her. To have that ability is such a function of who she is as a person, a coach, a teacher.”
“It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Schermann said. “I can still to this day see and hear everything that happened. It’s one of those things that never goes away … breaking the news to your team about what happened, hearing the sobs of the girls.
“I mean, it’s always going to be there. But I felt like we were all in it together and grieving together. I don’t think any of us will forget what happened or forget the legacy of Livi Sonetz.”
Each year, on the anniversary of Sonetz’s death, Schermann devotes time in practice to talk about what it means to live every day to the fullest and to “live for Livi.”
Her heart aches and tears well up in her eyes. But it is a message players need to hear, so Schermann delivers.
Camp had a message for Schermann, and likely, spoke for a majority of West players during the coach’s tenure.
“She still is a topic of conversation and she leaves life-impacting moments, memories and quotes on you as a person,” Camp said. “I want her to know that. She still crosses my mind as one of the most influential people ever in my life.”
