WHS graduate Carter Schellsmidt commits to furthering his collegiate baseball career at Valparaiso University

Waukon High School 2023 graduate Carter Schellsmidt recently committed to furthering his collegiate baseball career by signing a letter of agreement with Valparaiso University located in Valparaiso, IN. The Crusader baseball program competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is also a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.

A five-year varsity mainstay during his high school baseball career for the Indians, Schellsmidt etched his name among the best players in the history of the program. During his senior season at the catcher position, Schellsmidt set a new single-season record for runners thrown out caught stealing with 21 such denials that also led all Class 2A catchers and ranked second among all high school catchers in the state of Iowa during that 2023 season.

Standing at the plate, instead of crouching behind it, Schellsmidt also rewrote the Waukon baseball record for hits in a career, surpassing 1996 graduate Brian Curtin’s previous record of 140 hits to set that new standard at 156 safeties for his career. He also ended up tied for third in career runs scored (86 total runs) with 1986 Waukon High School graduate Mike Sawyer and 1995 graduate Chad Curtin.

Schellsmidt was a multi-year honoree at the All-Conference, All-District and All-State levels of recognition. His final high school baseball season also saw him selected to play in the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA) All-Star Series, playing catcher for the Small Schools East squad.

While finishing up his high school career, Schellsmidt made an initial commitment to carry his baseball talents on to the next level when he signed to play at Marshalltown Community College, where he is currently in his second and final season at catcher with the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) school that plays in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC). At the time of that signing, Schellsmidt said his intentions were to continue his collegiate education and baseball career at a larger school once his two-year commitment at Marshalltown Community College was complete.

In his inaugural season with the Tigers, Schellsmidt instantly emerged as a team leader. Playing in all 52 games for Marshalltown Community College last spring, Schellsmidt led the team’s offense with a .368 batting average, a .546 slugging percentage and a .455 on-base percentage that yielded further team-high totals of 64 hits, 19 doubles and 45 runs scored, ranking second on this season’s team with his four homeruns, six stolen bases, 95 total bases and 36 runs batted in (RBI) while finishing third on the team with his six stolen bases. His 245 put-outs also paced the Tiger defense, as did his .986 fielding percentage. He also recorded a fourth-best 39 assists, and he threw out a total of 22 stolen base attempts during the season.

Marshalltown played to an overall 2024 season record of 12-40 that included a mark of 4-29 in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play. Schellsmidt was one of three Tiger players granted Iowa Community College Athletic Association All-Region honors after the season came to a close, being named to the All-Region Second Team.

Following his inaugural collegiate season at Marshalltown, Schellsmidt continued playing baseball last summer in Weyburn, Saskatchewan in Canada with the Weyburn Beavers of the Western Canadian Baseball League. He was listed as the youngest of three catchers in the Beaver line-up.

The Western Canadian Baseball League (the “WCBL”) is a Canadian summer collegiate baseball league that boasts a long-standing tradition of creating a showcase for top Canadian professional and college prospects, while at the same time offering American college players the opportunity to hone their skills in towns and cities throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan. The WCBL is a wood-bat league in the tradition of such American collegiate circuits as the Cape Cod Baseball League, the New England Collegiate Baseball League, the Coastal Plain League, the Northwoods League and the Pacific International League.

In his inaugural season in the Western Canadian Baseball League, Schellsmidt played in 31 of Weyburn’s 56 games, collecting 25 hits in 95 at-bats for a .263 batting average that ranked sixth among players who participated in at least half of the Beavers’ games this season. His 25 hits tied for 10th on this season’s squad and included one double and two homeruns that tied for fifth on last summer’s team, as he drove in 12 runs that tied for 11th place among Weyburn players this season and also scored 15 runs that were the 12th most on this season’s squad. As one of three catchers for Weyburn, Schellsmidt logged the team’s second-most innings behind the plate with 159 and two-thirds frames, recording 130 put-outs and 12 assists on the way to a .966 fielding percentage.