Rob Ehlers

Rob Ehlers enters his tenth season with Central Methodist baseball as Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator in 2023.

Ehlers has been an integral part of the turnaround made by the Eagles in the past eight years, including four 40-plus win seasons.

Coach Ehlers helped lead the Eagles to their best season in program history in 2021. Central swept the Heart Regular Season and Heart Tournament Championships and won the Opening Round of the O'Fallon Bracket, sending CMU to their first-ever Avista NAIA World Series berth in school history.

Central finished the National Championship with a 3-2 overall record and a runner-up finish, falling to Georgia Gwinnett by a score of 8-4 in the championship series. CMU finished the year at No. 2 in the NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25 poll, the highest national ranking in program history.

For his efforts in 2022, Ehlers was named the National Assistant Coach of the Year by NAIA Ball.

In 2020, the Eagles jumped out to a red-hot 16-5 start and reached a program-high No. 10 national ranking before the season was abruptly ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, the Eagles wrapped up play in May during their fourth consecutive appearance in the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round, ending the season with a 35-15 overall record and picking up the No. 21 slot in the final ranking release.

In 2018, the Eagles finished with an overall record of 41-16 and ended the regular season as the Heart of America Athletic Conference regular season champions, punching their ticket to the NAIA Baseball National Tournament Opening Round.

Ehlers, a former Central Methodist baseball graduate assistant (2008-10) with the program, served as a Special Education Teacher for Gwinnett County (Ga.) School District prior coming to Central Methodist. Ehlers was an assistant baseball coach for 6-4-3 DP Cougars in 2011 of the Sunbelt Collegiate League (SCL). He was tasked with recruiting student-athletes from around the southeast, communicating with all University coaches to ensure all pitch counts were followed and developing and organizing all pitching rotations.

In 2010, Ehlers was an assistant coach with the Sunbelt Collegiate League's Atlanta Astros and helped lead the squad to a divisional title. He also was an assistant for Southern Polytechnic State (Ga.), which was ranked as high as second in the nation and reached the championship game of the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round.

As a player, Ehlers began his playing career at Iowa Western Community College before transferring to Mount Mercy (Iowa) where he earned a Bachelors degree in 2000. He received his master's degree from Central Methodist in 2010. A native of Denison, Iowa, Ehlers graduated from Denison-Schleswig High School. Rob is married to his wife, Leta.