C.J. Thieleke first served as a Madison College assistant baseball coach from 2005-2011. Currently, he's the hitting coach for the Schaumburg Boomers, an independent professional baseball team from the Frontier League. He's returning to Madison College to assist the team during their 2014 spring trip.
Thieleke was born in Madison, Wis. and grew up in Iowa City, Iowa. At Iowa City High School, he was a four-sport standout athlete. He received first team all-state baseball honors in his junior and senior seasons while batting an impressive .470.
In his senior season, he was named Iowa’s high school baseball player-of-the-year. After graduating high school in 1993, Thieleke received a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Iowa. In 1994, he was named Big Ten freshman-of-the-year and played second base for the Hawkeyes from 1994-96.
In 1996, Thieleke was drafted in the 32nd round of the Major League amateur draft by the Minnesota Twins and played in the organization for two years.
In 1998, Thieleke graduated from the University of Iowa with a Sports Management degree. Since then, he has served as assistant coach at Mount Mercy College, volunteer assistant with the University of Iowa, and was the top assistant coach with the Madison Mallards for two summers before being named head coach during the 2005 season.
During his six seasons as head coach, Thieleke’s Madison Mallards went 230-178. During the 2010 season, Thieleke became the fourth manager in Northwoods League history to win 200 games. His teams made the playoffs three times during that stretch.
In 2008, the team reached the Northwoods League Championship Series, falling short of a championship by just one run in game three of the series.
