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Baseball
• Recruited and developed 59 professional players
After spending the first 10 years of his tenure at Illinois as the pitching coach, Hartleb earned the additional title of associate head coach in 2001, coordinating many administrative duties associated with the Illini baseball program. Following the 2005 Big Ten Championship season, Jones retired and Hartleb was hired as the 10th coach in 130 years of Illinois Baseball. Hartleb has guided the Illini to the Big Ten Tournament in all four of his seasons at the helm, giving the Orange and Blue five consecutive postseason appearances and 11 in the last 14 years. Illinois currently holds the second-longest active streak of reaching the Big Ten Tournament. During his time with the Illini, Hartleb has been instrumental in recruiting and developing 47 players who have signed minor league contracts, including three in 2009, two in 2008, four in 2007 and seven in 2005, with seven former Illini reaching the major leagues. In addition, 25 former players have earned All-America honors on 43 different teams and eight Illini freshmen have been named to Freshmen All-America teams. Three of Hartleb's pitchers have been named Big Ten Pitcher of the Year and Illinois has produced four Big Ten Players of the Year, along with 28 first-team All-Big Ten selections. The Illini also have achieved a great deal of success in the classroom in Hartleb's four years as head coach, earning the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for the second-straight season in 2008, an honor bestowed on the highest-achieving schools in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR). Illinois also has ranked in the 90th percentile of all baseball programs in four of the last five seasons and posted a 3.13 team grade-point average in the Fall 2008 semester, with 27 of 35 players boasting a GPA of 3.0 or better. As the pitching coach at Illinois from 1991-2005, Hartleb produced an All-American pitcher in five consecutive seasons from 1998-02 and three of the four Big Ten Pitchers of the Year from 1998-2001. Brett Weber started the run when he earned All-America status and won Pitcher of the Year honors in 1998 and closer Jimmy Journell followed suit with All-America honors of his own in 1999. Jason Anderson picked up the streak in 2000, taking home both All-America and Pitcher of the Year honors after posting a 14-3 record that season. Andy Dickinson kept it alive with All-America honors in 2001 and '02 and Pitcher of the Year accolades in '01. But Hartleb has not simply been a pitching coach. He also has helped recruit and develop many top Illini players, including infielder Chris Basak, catchers Chris Robinson and Lars Davis, and infielder Bubba Smith. After three years under Hartleb's tutelage, Robinson became the highest-drafted position player in Illinois history when he was selected in the third round of the 2005 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Detroit Tigers. Davis nearly matched Robinson in the 2007 draft when he was taken in the third round by the Colorado Rockies, but 12 picks later overall. Hartleb has sent a number of former Illini hurlers to the professional ranks following their collegiate careers. Weber, Anderson and Jimmy Conroy all entered the New York Yankees' farm system, and Anderson has spent time in the big leagues with the Yankees, New York Mets and Cleveland Indians after spending only three years in the minors. Jimmy Journell earned his first Major League appearance with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2003, less than three months after Anderson's big-league debut. Journell was the Cardinals' 2001 Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Mitch Walk, who was the Pitcher of the Year for the class-A San Jose Giants in 2001, pitched for Illinois from 1998-2000 and advanced to Double-A Norwich in 2005. Matt Vorwald was drafted in the seventh round by the Minnesota Twins in June of 2001. Andy Dickinson was drafted by the Oakland A's in June of 2002 and advanced to the A's Double-A Midland RockHounds in 2005. Dave Mazurek and Justin Olson added their names to the list in 2003, as the former All-Big Ten closer signed a free agent deal with the Texas Rangers and Olson joined the Minnesota Twins organization. Mazurek played for the high class-A Lynchburg Hillcats, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate, in 2005, and Olson played for the Minnesota Twins' Double-A affiliate in 2006. Conroy was drafted in the 19th round by the New York Yankees in 2005 and won a New York-Penn League title with the class-A Staten Island Yankees that fall. Other pros who have pitched under Hartleb at Illinois include 1999 Chicago Cubs draft pick Tim Lavery, 1998 Anaheim Angels signee Cody Salter, 1997 Houston Astros pick Brian Hecht, 1993 St. Louis Cardinals draftee Matt Arrandale, Mark Dressen and Jake Toohey. Hartleb, a former catcher himself, also has been instrumental in creating a catcher tradition at Illinois. In addition to the recent high selections of Robinson and Davis, catchers Patrick Arlis and Aaron Nieckula had their names called during the two-day draft. Arlis was selected in the 11th round of the 2002 draft by the Florida Marlins and, four years earlier, the A's took Nieckula in the 22nd round of the 1998 draft. Following a five-year minor league career, Nieckula became the manager of the Kane County Cougars in 2006 and led the A's class-A affiliate to the Midwest League championship series. In addition to developing Illinois' batteries throughout the years, Hartleb also has helped bring some of the top recruiting classes in the nation to Champaign in recent years. Anderson turned down a sixth-round offer from the Kansas City Royals in 1997 to attend Illinois after being recruited by Hartleb, and James Morris, a 23rd-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Reds in 2005, turned down a draft offer from the Anaheim Angels in 2001 to do the same. Hartleb's 1994 recruiting class, which included the core of the 1998 Big Ten championship team, also will go in the books as one of the finest classes ever recruited to Illinois. Hartleb began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Southern Illinois University in 1989-90. A two-year letterwinner at SIU, Hartleb finished his playing career with a .305 batting average. As a senior, Hartleb appeared in 56 contests as a catcher. Hartleb transferred to Southern Illinois from John A. Logan Community College, where he was a junior college all-star catcher. At Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Ohio, Hartleb was a standout athlete in both baseball and football. He was inducted into Hamilton High School's Hall of Fame in February 2002. A 1989 graduate of SIU with a B.S. in advertising, Hartleb received his M.S. in higher educational administration from SIU in May 1996. He and his wife, Gina, were married in December 1993 and reside in Champaign with their children, Zakary David and Haley Noel.
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