Jim’s dandy

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.

From the moment Sam Popowcer met Jim Schlossnagle, at a Little League coaches' meeting in which Schlossnagle touted his first Christmas camp in the fall of 2001, the Rebels' baseball coach hasn't had a more ardent fan.

The Christmas application Popowcer filled out for his son, Ryan, was the first one that Schlossnagle's wife, Kami, received, and Popowcer is now the president of the Rebels' Grand Slam booster club.

"I was immediately drawn to his passion, because I'm a passionate guy," Popowcer said. "He's definitely made the difference. A young guy like that who is as passionate as he is? He's the reason I got involved."

Eight-year-old Ryan Popowcer is now one of UNLV's two bat boys.

"He reached out to the youth of Las Vegas," said Sam Popowcer, who owns a candy company. "He said he wanted to get to know the youth of Las Vegas, that he wanted to teach them and wanted them to know there's a program here they can be proud of.

"That's what struck me about the whole thing. It's been a love fest."

UNLV (32-12) hit No. 20 in one of the two major college polls this week, the second time it has been ranked so high in the past eight years.

Schlossnagle said the team's on-field success is directly attributed to the friendships and financing he has attracted off the field. He estimated that 75 percent of his time is spent raising funds to lay the foundation for a premier program.

"You have to establish a relationship, nurture that relationship and then continue to maintain it," Schlossnagle said. "Hopefully, over the course of time as your program has success, people want to help you."

In his second year as coach, Schlossnagle will have lunch with anyone who might donate a few hundred bucks to the program. He will talk with a group of a dozen Little League mothers to stir interest. Any rotary club in the Valley can get him as a guest speaker.

He is grateful for people such as Sam Popowcer. A UNLV graduate and Chicago native who has lived here for 22 years, Popowcer, 37, had never attended a Rebels baseball game until he met Schlossnagle.

"I talked to friends, and I was no different," Popowcer said. "I went to Rebels basketball games for years and years, but hardly anyone had been to baseball games. So I recruited a lot of friends, acquaintances and business owners. There's been a difference."

Schlossnagle and Popowcer have developed a tight bond, and Popowcer talks to nobody without Schlossnagle's approval.

"And if he gets a $10 bill, he brings it to me that day," Schlossnagle said. "He's been great. That's the kind of person we've been trying to tap."

His own initiative and drive fueled Schlossnagle, who upon getting the job was given a list of maybe 10 people who might be interested in helping the program by associate athletic director Terry Cottle.

Before Schlossnagle's first season, 50 people showed to a $250-a-plate First Pitch banquet at Mandalay Bay to hear Dodgers executive Tom Lasorda speak.

At Anthem Country Club in January, 150 appeared at a $150-a-plate function that featured former Mets manager Bobby Valentine.

"And we've already outgrown Anthem Country Club," Schlossnagle said. "Everyone wants to be part of a winner and, hopefully, everyone wants to contribute to a winner when they learn more about me."

Schlossnagle, 32, earned his stripes as Tulane's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for eight years, when he also learned about the finer points of fund-raising by observing head coach Rick Jones.

Jones learned from Miami coach Jim Morris when both were at Georgia Tech, and Morris learned from former Hurricanes coach Ron Fraser.

"As good a fund-raiser as there ever was," Jones said of Fraser. "If you don't have focus, the work ethic, the integrity or the consistency to do it on a daily basis, and if you're not passionate about it, it does not matter.

"Schloss has all those. It's no secret why he's turned UNLV around."

Sitting in the home dugout at Wilson Stadium, Schlossnagle said he was not initially dismayed about raising money because the UNLV budget he was first presented mirrored Tulane's -- approximately $150,000 -- nearly to the penny.

He raised an extra $15,000 his first year, then tripled that before this season. He aims to accomplish the majority of his fund-raising efforts before the first pitch of the season, to give his players the attention they require when they need it most.

After Tuesday's interview, he bolted to a room in the Lied Athletic Complex to analyze videotape with pitcher Matt Luca.

To do a first-class job, Schlossnagle would like to consistently pull in about $100,000 in extra funds.

"I have lavish taste," he said. "I like to spoil our players. I'm a big fan of that, because to whom much is given, much is expected. So I like having seven different styles of uniforms. I like giving them extra caps and jackets. I like traveling the right way.

"I like staying at a Hilton, not a Hampton Inn."

He wants the other guys to notice that when they travel, the Rebels take a bus instead of a van. When the other guys bus to a site, the Rebels fly. And when the Rebels travel, coats and ties are mandatory.

"White-collar on the outside, blue-collar on the inside," said Schlossnagle.

An Albuquerque couple traveling with the Rebels to New Mexico last year confirmed the image Schlossnagle wants his team to convey when they wrote, in a letter to the editor, that they had never been around a finer, more polite, group of young men.

"I'm really big on all those things," he said. "Being determined, organized, clean, doing things the right way and being on time, all the traditional things. If you apply them to recruiting or fund-raising over the course of time, and you hustle, you'll have success."

Schlossnagle pitched for Jones at Elon College, where he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in physical education.

During his eight seasons at Tulane, the Green Wave played in six NCAA regionals and participated in its first College World Series, in Omaha, Neb., in 2001.

After Kami, and son Jackson and daughter Kathleen, Schlossnagle awakes every day thinking about what more he can do to get UNLV to the College World Series.

"That might be raking the field or helping coach, but most of the time it's, Hey, we've got to get some money in here," he said. "I have to be able to take care of these guys, or I have to be able to go get the next guy. I'm real diligent that way, probably to a fault.

"Most of our guys would probably call me anal. Whatever. I hate dirty stuff. To me, it's all about customer service. It would bother me if you came in our dugout right now and it was dirty."

Last winter, Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling did just that. In town for an engagement, he popped by the diamond to say hello, and Schlossnagle was happy that the place was tidy for the unexpected guest.

Schlossnagle gave Schilling a couple UNLV baseball T-shirts, and Schilling promised to send an autographed Diamondbacks jersey to be auctioned at the First Pitch function at Anthem. The jersey never arrived.

"He's still a great guy," said Schlossnagle, laughing.

Schlossnagle is a Red Sox fan who hails from Hagerstown, Md., key details about someone who has no family in this area. However, he and his wife make more friends daily, and they are big fans of Las Vegas.

He is determined to become the first coach to take the Rebels to Omaha, and he yearns to be to UNLV what Rod Dedeaux is to USC, or Jim Brock is to Arizona State. Schlossnagle talks about coaching the Rebels for 20 or 25 years.

He reportedly makes about $90,000 a year and relishes the support he receives from director of athletics John Robinson and school president Dr. Carol Harter.

"As long as they're around and are committed to baseball, as long as they want to win and everybody around here wants to win," Schlossnagle said, "then I'm not going anywhere."

Popowcer is worried that an elite program will ante up for Schlossnagle's services, and Jones, the Tulane coach, said that is a distinct possibility.

"UNLV had better step up," Jones said. "I can promise you, he's one of the shining stars in our game. That is not lost on anyone. He's not a flash in the pan. Twenty years from now, everyone will look at him as one of the great college baseball coaches.

"Many will be interested in him. He does it the right way. I'll tell you this, options will be there. Everyone right now is talking about this hot basketball coach at Marquette, Tom Crean. In our business, it's Jim Schlossnagle." In our business, it's Jim Schlossnagle."

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