NASHVILLE - Head Coach Jeff Forehand and Lipscomb Baseball would like to announce the addition of former Bison Tyler Drabick as the program's new Director of Player Development, replacing Robert Zeigler, who was promoted to pitching coach.
"Tyler was a great player during his time here, but most importantly, a better person," said Forehand. "He will be a great addition to our staff. Tyler is hard-working and accountable on and off the field. He is a guy who knows what it takes to compete at this level and will help our pitching staff develop. We are all excited to have Tyler on staff!"
For the past two years, Drabick has been coaching at all levels, both as a coach and as a trainer. Drabick has worked at Walsh University under Tim Mead as an assistant coach. Most recently, He was the director of player development and a varsity baseball coach at Jackson High School in Canton, Ohio, with Frank and Bill Gamble.
He was responsible for over 300 athletes, from youth to varsity and collegiate players, whom he would train on his own. His focus with those players was programming, maximizing velocity, movement pattern correction, understanding workload management, and overall player performance.
The Canton, Ohio native has been fortunate enough to craft his coaching style from the people who taught him, like MLB All-Star Tim Hudson (Auburn, University), Butch Thomason (Auburn, University), Ron Polk (Mississippi State/Cape Cod), Mike Birckbeck (Kent State), Jeff Duncan (Kent State) Jeff Forehand (Lipscomb), and Greyson Crawford (Lipscomb, New York Yankees).
Drabick had a six-year collegiate playing career, starting at Kent State, where he spent 3.5 seasons as a Flash before transferring to Lipscomb for one season; he then finished his collegiate career at Auburn University. Drabick graduated from all three institutions with an undergraduate degree in Business Communications and master's certificates in business Leadership and Supply Chain Management. He attended and finished in Omaha, Nebraska, at the collegiate World Series with the Auburn Tigers in 2022.
"I am beyond excited to be back in Nashville, coaching alongside two great men, Jeff Forehand and Bryan Ryman, who made my time at Lipscomb special and made me a better man," commented Drubick. I am extremely happy for Rob and his promotion, and I can not wait to see the things we can do together with this special staff. Go Bisons!"
Opening day for the reigning ASUN Regular Season and Tournament Champions will begin the 2024 season at Ken Dugan Field against Ohio University on Feb. 16, at 3 p.m. CT for the first game of a four-game series. For more information on Bisons Baseball, check lipscombsports.com or follow the team's social media accounts (@lipscombbaseball on IG and @BisonBaseball on X).
