Callie (Rhodes) Schaeffer grew up playing softball on her family farm in Rockingham County, near Broadway in the Cedar Run community. She said she was too shy and nervous to try new things, such as joining an organized team.
But that changed when she was 11, according to her father.
“I started hitting the ball over the roof of the chicken house, and my dad (Jim Rhodes) finally convinced me to play Little League in Timberville,” Schaeffer wrote to the AFP this month.
“The joke going around when Callie and her sister, Jenna, who also played softball at Virginia Tech, was that the reason they both were so fast was from chasing chickens around the farm,” according to Jim Rhodes, whose father bought the farm in 1946 for $25,000.
From there, after attending Plains Elementary and John C. Myers for middle school, Callie Schaeffer was a softball standout at Broadway High and then at Virginia Tech, as she set a single-season school record for steals with 59 in 2006, as she ranked nationally in that category.
Today, her personal life has her at a higher level than even Division I.
The former Callie Rhodes is married to Warren Schaeffer, a former baseball standout at Virginia Tech who in November was named the manager of the Colorado Rockies. He had been named the interim manager in May when veteran skipper Bud Black was let go by the Rockies, who finished the season with a dismal record of 43-119.
“Warren and I met at Tech through the sports department. We would often run into each other in the weight room or other places around campus. We both had history majors/minors, and we really connected over that and our mutual love for literature and books,” noted Callie Schaeffer, a 2002 Broadway High graduate.
Warren Schaeffer, 40, played baseball at Virginia Tech and was drafted by the Rockies in 2007 in the 38th round as an infielder.
The Pennsylvania native, who grew up near Pittsburgh, played in the minors for Colorado from 2007 to 2012 and reached the Triple-A level before becoming a hitting coach in the low minors with the Rockies in 2013-2014 with the Tri-City Dust Devils in the Northwest League.
Life in the minors
“We made a decision after spending six straight months apart during Warren’s first season coaching that we wanted to start a family and would do everything we could to be together as much as possible during the season,” Callie noted. “I left my job as a fifth-grade teacher in Rockingham County Public Schools (which I loved) to follow him out to the Pacific Northwest, where he began his coaching career as a hitting coach. We lived in the basement of a family we had never met before, who so graciously opened up their home and lives to us. We are still close to them to this day.”
“The next year, our son Beauman was born. Warren was on the field in Arizona when I went into labor in Pittsburgh, and he raced to the airport and ended up making it in time for his birth. I traveled solo with Beau across the country when he was just two weeks old, and we spent the next few months in a hotel room. Those first few years we lived somewhat like vagabonds,” she added.
Schaeffer began his managing career in 2015 with the Asheville Tourists, and stayed in that role through the 2017 season. He managed Double-A Hartford in 2018-2019, then was the Triple-A manager in the Colorado system in 2021 and 2022 before joining the Rockies staff in 2023.
“After he got his first managerial job, we moved to that city (Asheville), and our second child, Emerson, was born,” according to the Broadway High grad. “Warren made lots of sacrifices so that it was possible for me to stay home with our children. He often worked two jobs during the offseason, and we have shared the same car for the past 10 years. Many times over the years, we weren’t sure how we were going to make it work for another season, but the Lord was always faithful. Often out of the blue, another family would offer to host us, or share their home – or a car – with us, and we were able to get through another baseball season. So, while there were certainly many challenges, there were also so many wonderful relationships formed and experiences that baseball brought to us.”
The former Tech softball standout has adapted to the pro baseball lifestyle.
“One of the greatest unexpected blessings that baseball has brought to our family has been homeschooling our kids,” she notes. “It has given us so much freedom and flexibility during baseball season, along with the precious gift of extra time with our children. We have tent camped in national parks, driven across the country many times – stopping at interesting historical sites and museums along the way. It has also allowed our kids the opportunity to spend more time with their dad. Baseball season is long! Warren leaves home in early February and doesn’t come home again until October. In the offseason they are together every day – and he gets to take over as the math teacher.”
Sister act
The Rockingham County product had her own success as a player.
She played on a travel ball team, the Smashing Apples, that was based in Bridgewater and coached by J.D. McCurdy, the long-time head softball coach at EMU in Harrisonburg. McCurdy starred in baseball at Turner Ashby and for the Bridgewater Reds of the Rockingham County Baseball League – he went into the RCBL Hall of Fame in 2015.
“Callie was an outstanding and gifted athlete. Tenacious, resilient, and mentally tough are words that describe her play,” McCurdy noted to the AFP. “Played outfield, hit third in our lineup, and had outstanding speed in the outfield and base paths. Callie was a great leader. Micah Pugh Branson was a player on that travel team and now coaches part time at Broadway and also coached with me at EMU the year EMU won the ODAC Championship in 2010.”
Another player on that team was Jody McCurdy, the daughter of the coach who played in college at Pfeiffer University and was an all-conference player.
Schaeffer was the Valley District player of the year as a senior for the Gobblers.
While in Blacksburg, Harrisonburg native Schaeffer was teammates and good friends with pitcher Angela Tincher, an All-American who had 14 no-hitters in her college career.
Schaeffer played for the Hokies from 2003-2007. She ended up with 113 steals in her career – that is second all-time at the school to the mark of 114 held by her younger sister, Jenna, her former teammate at Virginia Tech.
“She’s very humble, so she never bragged too much about breaking my record. Plus, she probably remembers how I would ruthlessly tackle her and sit on her as a child, so that was probably at the back of her mind, too. She works in Augusta County in the mental health field and has three lively boys that love to meet my kids and play on our dad’s poultry farm in Broadway,” according to Callie Schaeffer, 42, of her sister.
Now the wife of a Major League manager, Schaeffer is eager for the 2026 MLB season. Her family spent Thanksgiving in Rockingham County; spring training for the Rockies begins in February in Arizona.
Jim Rhodes, who played baseball at Broadway High, has made several trips a year to see Schaeffer play, coach and manage in the Colorado system. He reports he saw about 300 Virginia Tech games in the combined seven seasons that his daughters played for the Hokies.
“Both Warren’s family and mine – we couldn’t have done it without them! My dad never missed a Tech game – home or away – he drove all over the country to support my sister and I. The journey through the minor leagues was never boring. We are thrilled for Warren and this exciting next step in his career. There certainly feels like a greater burden and responsibility, but I have seen the faithfulness and hard work he exhibits every day and I know this new challenge will be attacked no differently,” Callie Schaeffer noted.
Notes
- Schaeffer is the second former Virginia Tech baseball player to manage in the Majors. The first was the late Johnny Oates, who guided the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers. Oates is a member of the Valley Baseball League Hall of Fame. He played for the Waynesboro Generals in 1967 and 1968.
- McCurdy, the EMU softball coach, was teammates in the RCBL with former Bridgewater College softball coach Donnie Fulk. They both went into the RCBL Hall of Fame the same year. McCurdy went into the TA Hall of Fame in 2010. He was part of the first TA team to win a state title, in 1971. The Knights have won the state title seven times.
- Zach Agnos, who went to Battlefield High in Northern Virginia, pitched in 30 games out of the bullpen for the Rockies last season and had four saves. He played in college at East Carolina. Infielder Daniel Murphy, who played for Luray in the Valley League, played for the Rockies in 2019-2020.