Milwaukee Athletics

Scott Doffek, the 2013 Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year and two-time Horizon League Coach of the Year, has done it all in building the Milwaukee Panthers into the success they are today in his nearly 30 years with the university.
 
A mainstay in the MKE baseball program, Doffek is set to enter his 17^th year as the head coach of the Panthers in 2023, following a 12-year stretch as the assistant head coach.
 
In that timespan, Doffek has led Milwaukee to over 750 victories, including a school-record 413 as the MKE head coach. His leadership has guided the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament on four occasions, while also claiming three regular-season conference championships.
 
Most recently, Milwaukee has played in two of the last three Horizon League Tournament Championships and, after tireless work from Doffek behind the scenes, now calls Franklin Field home – a brand-new 4,000 seat stadium located in Franklin, Wis., which includes a state-of-the-art press box, branded team clubhouse, full turf field, as well as top-notch amenities for the fans.
 
In addition to the impressive victory tally, the player-development totals from Doffek’s tenure are nothing short of monumental, starting with the national success at the professional level with 24 Panthers having been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft under his guidance.
 
Included in that special group of players is Daulton Varsho, selected with pick No. 68 overall in the 2017 MLB Draft. Varsho – who played for Doffek from 2015 to 2017 – went on to make his MLB debut with the Arizona Diamondbacks in July of 2020, marking the first Panther to play in Major League Baseball in program history.
 
It doesn’t stop there. In fact, Doffek has now coached a list of 48 players that have been either drafted or signed by professional teams.
 
When you dig deeper, the numbers are staggering with Doffek in the dugout:
-All-Americans selections: 4
-All-Region honorees: 12
-Conference Player of the Year: 5
-Conference Pitcher/Reliever of the Year: 8
-Conference Newcomer of the Year: 8
-First-Team All-Conference selections: 66
-Second-Team All-Conference selections: 70
-All-Newcomer/Freshman Team honorees: 48
 
The Panthers posted runner-up finishes at the Horizon League Tournament in 2021 and 2019, while also finishing second in the regular season standings in 2019 – finishing in the Top 25 in the NCAA in numerous categories, including batting average, hits, doubles, and runs-per-game. Two players – Jake Sommers (Round 10/St. Louis) and Trevor Schwecke (Round 13/Toronto) – were selected in the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft.
 
Those finishes give the Panthers a storied legacy all-time in Horizon League history. In total, the program has now claimed the tournament championship four times, while also taking home the runner-up trophy on six different occasions in his tenure.
 
The highlights have been building on his resume for decades, as his teams have set and reset every program game, season, and career mark in the record book along the way, reaching a national level as early as 1999. That postseason, Milwaukee upset No. 1 Rice University during the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament, as Doffek was named the 1999 Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association (WBCA) Co-Coach of the Year.
 
In 2001, the Panthers' offense ranked second in the nation after hitting a school-record .352 as a team. Together, Milwaukee saw all 10 regulars bat above .300 and five hit over .350. The squad was led by a pair of players that hit over .420, including Scott Gillitzer's then school-record .424 average.
 
In 2006, Doffek helped guide All-American outfielder Mike Goetz to a school-record .493 average on the season - the highest in the nation - in addition to hitting streaks of 32 and 27 games and team records in seven categories. Goetz went on to be drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers.
 
Doffek was named Horizon League Coach of the Year in 2009 after leading the Panthers to a second-place finish in the league standings. His team had a league-high four first team all-league selections and set a school record by going 14-1 at home.
 
The 2010 season was a memorable one, as the team won the Horizon League Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time. The squad had a memorable run to the crown, going 4-1 while riding strong pitching to the championship. The team recorded a 2.66 ERA in the five games, limiting opponents to just a .247 batting average. Eight players earned all-league honors, with Chad Pierce earning the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year award and Cameron Amsrud the Horizon League Relief Pitcher of the Year honor. The team led the league in earned run average and was second in batting, while also setting a school record with 21 wins in a row at home.
 
Following the 2012 campaign, Doffek saw three of his players chosen in the Major League Baseball Draft - the first time in program history that more than one Panther was selected - with Jordan Guth (Philadelphia Phillies; ninth round), Eric Semmelhack (Milwaukee Brewers; 12th round) and Paul Hoenecke (Los Angeles Dodgers; 24th round) all hearing their names called on draft day.
 
The Panthers claimed the Horizon League regular-season title in 2013, riding a strong offense that led the league in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, hits and RBI while also recording the second-best ERA in the conference and the lowest opponent batting average. They went undefeated at home for the first time in program history and ended the season with the longest active winning streak at home (16 games) at the NCAA Division I level.
 
Milwaukee got off to a school-record 10-4 start in 2015, posted its first weekend sweep of an SEC opponent, knocked off a nationally-ranked team for the first time since 2009, threw its first-ever no-hitter and had a conference-high nine players get recognized by the Horizon League with postseason honors.
 
The program enjoyed a record-breaking season in 2015, tying the school record along the way with an impressive total of 39 victories. The team broke records for strikeouts by the staff as well as offensive records that stood the test of time when they reset standards for stolen bases (last established in 2001) and triples (1997). The pitching staff recorded the second-best ERA in program history and the Panthers tied a school mark with 17 wins at home. And it all came in a campaign that ended just one win shy of a trip to the NCAA Tournament, falling in the Horizon League Tournament Championship.
 
Doffek saw three of his players get selected in the 2015 MLB Draft for the second time in program history when Justin Langley (Miami Marlins/16th round), Sam Koenig (Los Angeles Angels/27th round) and Mitch Ghelfi (Milwaukee Brewers/28th round) were all chosen. In addition to the three players drafted, the team also had two more sign professional contracts.
 
Before joining the coaching staff, Doffek spent five seasons (1989-93) in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system, making it to the Triple-A level with the Albuquerque Dukes.
 
Collegiately, Doffek played baseball at Waukesha County Community College, where he won the NJCAA batting title after hitting .539 as a sophomore. He was honored as an all-region and all-conference selection. Doffek attended Hartland Arrowhead High School, where he was selected to all-state and all-conference teams. He also played football for three years.

Doffek lives in Menomonee Falls with his wife, Kara, and has two children, daughter Kori and son Ty. Both children are also proud UWM graduates.

Career Record	Overall	Horizon League
2007	25-32	16-14
2008	25-36	11-15
2009	28-27	14-9 (HL Coach of the Year)
2010	33-26	17-8 (NCAA Tournament)
2011	28-28-1	15-10-1
2012	27-27	18-11
2013	29-21	14-7 (Regular-Season Champs/HL Coach of the Year)
2014	21-29	10-14
2015	39-20	16-13
2016	32-26	17-11
2017	22-32	10-18
2018	26-28	13-12
2019	35-21-1	18-11
2020	1-14	0-0 (Remainder of season canceled due to COVID-19)
2021	22-33	17-23
2022	20-30	9-18
Totals	413-430-2	215-194-1