First-year coach and MLB veteran Lyle Overbay brings big-league wisdom to Tumwater

From the age of 2, Lyle Overbay loved to play sports, any sport, except one — ice hockey.

“I just couldn’t skate,” Tumwater High School’s first-year baseball coach said, laughing.

Overbay reached Centralia High School with his all-around athleticism intact. He played football for the adrenaline rush of running out onto the Tiger Stadium field under the Friday night lights. He stood well over 6 feet, so turned out for basketball as well.

Then, he had an epiphany.

“Everyone dreams about playing in the big leagues, but it’s a dream,” he said. “When I got to high school, though, I realized I could practice baseball all day long. I could take ground balls, I could hit. I could do anything baseball-related and not get tired of it.”

His love for the game led to a spot on varsity as a freshman.

“I don’t think I took that varsity uniform off for a day or two after I got it,” he said.

After helping Centralia to the 1993 Class 3A state championship as a sophomore, he eventually headed to the University of Nevada and built a case for a career as a professional. He holds the Wolfpack career record for runs batted in with 257 and ranks second in hits and runs scored.

An appreciation for what good coaching can do started to grow as well.

Going into his senior year, Overbay connected with a student assistant coach, Justin Drizos, who had just been released by the Tampa Bay Rays and was hoping to be picked up by another major league organization. The two left-handed hitters spent hours in the batting cage together.

“That was the start of it all, really,” Overbay said. “It was the first time I had a left-handed batting coach. I think I hit 80 points higher than I ever had.”

The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Overbay in the 18th round of the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft. Two years later, he made his big league debut, four years later he was a starter and remained an everyday player for the bulk of his 14-year career with the Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers.

Along the way he learned the value of quality coaching from baseball lifers like Ty Van Berkleo, Brian Butterfield and Lee Tinsley. He felt the discomfort of missing his wife, Sarah, and their growing family of six children, for months at a time.

After spending the 2014 season with the Brewers, Overbay retired with career totals of 1,355 hits, 151 home runs and a career batting average of .266.

He wanted to coach, but having spent so much time away from his family, knew the daily grind of professional ball or the recruiting-heavy collegiate ranks weren’t for him.

“I didn’t want to keep putting that burden on my family,” he said. “Every year I played in the big leagues was like a year away from them.”

Overbay focused on coaching his own children, two of whom currently compete for Tumwater — Alex is a first baseman and pitcher on his dad’s team while Adam is a sprinter and jumper on the T-Birds’ track and field team.

Overbay had known Tumwater athletic director Tim Graham since his high school playing days, when Graham coached the T-Birds baseball team. The two occasionally had lunch together and Overbay made his batting cages available to Graham’s son, Justin, when he was home on vacations during his career as an outfielder at the Air Force Academy.

“I knew my kids would be attending Tumwater, so I told Tim I’d be willing to help out any way I could, and if the head coaching job ever opened up, I’d throw my hat into the ring,” Overbay said.

Graham knew a unique and qualified candidate when he saw one.

“It’s one thing to be a Major League Baseball player and have a great understanding of the game and what goes into playing it well,” Graham said. “But, Lyle is able to translate that knowledge in a way that reaches high school kids on their level.”

Overbay reinforced the credibility of his big league background by bringing in past and current pros to talk to the T-Birds during their COVID-19 pandemic-induced Zoom meetings.

Graham has now hired two coaches with big-time pedigrees to coach on the diamond at Tumwater — former T-Bird turned University of Tennessee star Ashley Andrews coaches the softball team. Graham sees similarities in how both she and Overbay approach their jobs.

“They are very relational coaches,” he said. “They want everyone to be able to compete at the highest level they can. They don’t want to just work with the high level kids. They’re very interested in reaching every kid in our program.”

Overbay’s players agree, citing his organization and attention to detail.

“There are lots of little things he picks up, like what pitches are coming in different counts, that you realize comes from playing in the majors for 14 years,” catcher Nate Kassler said. “There’s a lot he’s able to pass on to us.”

Austin Sheldon appreciates how Overbay put the season into perspective.

With hard-throwing pitchers like Ryan Orr, Camden Orem, Jordan Hanson, Bruce Giontoli, Sheldon and Connor Bourbon, Overbay told his team they had too much talent not to win — if they wanted to.

“He told us we could play just to have fun or we could play to win,” said Sheldon, adding that Overbay’s approach isn’t overbearing. “He’ll raise his voice to make a point, but tells us it’s up to the team if we’re going to win.”

So far, the T-Birds have done the latter, upping their record to 4-1 with a 10-0 five inning mercy rule win over Shelton on Wednesday. Their only defeat was a 2-1 walkoff loss to W.F. West that was the powerhouse Bearcats’ 44th consecutive 2A Evergreen Conference win.

Bourbon thinks the T-Birds’ success is a combination of a longstanding bond between the players and the contributions of their new coach.

“We’re a family,” he said. “We’ve been playing alongside each other since fourth grade. We have a strong connection. With Lyle coming in as our coach, it’s been a great way to learn, on the field and mentally.”

Bourbon has also helped Overbay complete a pay-it-forward from his season learning from Drizos down in Reno.

“I’m a lefty, he’s a lefty,” Bourbon said. “His experience has helped me hitting-wise.”

With Alex playing for him at Tumwater and sons Luke, 12, and Eddie, 7, also playing baseball, Overbay is content to coach high school for the foreseeable future.

He can imagine getting into coaching at a higher level … someday.

“I could see it,” he said. “It’s great to be able to travel and get paid for it, but not with commitments at home. Right now, it’s my kids, later it could be grandkids.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.