When he first became a bat boy with his brother, Loren Hibbs knew he had found a sport he loved. The Wellington, Kansas native grew up at the baseball fields of the Wellington Recreation Department. His first job was cutting the grass at the fields.
“Dad got off work, we’d have dinner, we’d run to practice and do whatever we could before the sun went down,” Hibbs said. “Then go home, take a shower and get up and do it all over again.”
An alum of Wellington High, Hibbs was a tri-sport athlete in school. He played football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and ran track in the spring.
His high school was baseball-less. Instead, he played summer ball for the American Legion – the same program he was a bat boy for when he was eight years old. Hibbs thought that he would be playing football or basketball in college, but the idea of playing for Wichita State’s baseball program changed his mind.
“When (Coach Stephenson) offered me an opportunity to be there, it just felt like a place where I could go and develop because I was so far behind as a player,” Hibbs said. “It was the best decision I ever made.”
Rather than going to a more popular baseball program like Arkansas, Hibbs had the chance to help vitalize a program. During his three seasons as a Shocker, Hibbs was part of history. The 1982 team was the first in school history to make the College World Series, and Coach Hibbs still talks to some of those teammates today.
“Probably every other week, I talk to a former teammate I had,” he said. “It was just a great environment to be around.”
After a brief stint with the Everett Giants (an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants), Hibbs returned to his alma mater, becoming the first full-time assistant coach that worked with position players in the history of the Shockers’ program. During his time as an assistant, he was a part of a national-championship winning team in 1989, as well as four teams that went to Omaha in a five year span.
“You can just tell I’m really proud of (the Omaha runs),” Hibbs said. “And also really proud of what we did at Charlotte.”
Hibbs was only 30 when he flew out to Charlotte, North Carolina to interview for the head coaching position at UNC Charlotte in 1993, and he was hesitant at first.
“Nobody’s ready when they’re 30 to be a Division I coach,” he said. “When my dad said, ‘I think you’re ready,’ then I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s go do it now.’”
When he interviewed, Hibbs saw the program as one he could help build up and leave after a few years.
“They never won a conference ever. They’ve never been to the NCAA tournament,” he said. “It was some place I felt like I could go for three to five years, get it cleaned up and get a better job.”
Hibbs was the head coach of the 49ers until 2019.
During his time in Charlotte, the 49ers won seven regular season conference championships, four conference tournament titles and appeared in the NCAA tournament five times – all feats the school hadn’t accomplished until the man from the midwest took over. He is the winningest head coach of all time for the program.
Charlotte also went 107 games without losing two straight.
Hibbs is one of the few coaches that can say they held their position for 27 years. And while he loved the program and the players at Charlotte, he wanted to ensure his three kids had stability.
“My kids got very comfortable there,” the father of three said. “I didn’t want to just start bouncing from job to job.”
At the end of the 2019 season, Hibbs was at a point where he could have retired if he wanted, but his love for the game, and a phone call from an old friend, kept him in it.
While at the National Junior College tournament in Colorado, Hibbs’s cell phone rang. It was a call from Eric Wedge. Hibbs coached Wedge at Wichita State for three seasons, including the team’s national championship run.
He wanted his former position coach to come back home and be a part of his team.
Wedge had agreed to become the next head coach at his alma mater, and wanted an advisor. He wanted someone with experience.
Hibbs did not want to be in an office.
“I said, ‘I really don’t want to not be a head coach,’” Hibbs told him. “‘If I’m going to coach, I really want to be the head coach.’”
Wedge quickly hopped on the phone with the athletic director at the time, Darron Boatright. The two worked out a way for Hibbs to still be involved with the team.
“He says, ‘We’re going to create an assistant athletic director position for you,’” Hibbs said. “‘You’ll come as an administrator, and you can serve as an advisor every day to Wedge.’”
Hibbs and his wife Lisa talked the offer over, and they took the leap. Hibbs was heading back home.
After four years as an advisor, Hibbs was asked to put his coaching hat back on for the Shockers in mid-December of 2022 after Coach Wedge stepped away due to a personal matter.
It was a decision Hibbs had to make quickly.
And it was for an interim position.
“(The athletic director) gave me three hours to make a decision,” Hibbs said. “So what do you think I’m gonna do? I’m there.”
Hibbs had developed a relationship with the players already, and wanted to create a smooth transition for them.
“We had a meeting, and the players were really happy and really excited,” he said. “We put together a plan real quick before they left with our players, because they could have gone in the portal.”
Not a single player on the roster entered the portal over winter break.
Hibbs and his coaching staff had four weeks after break to practice with the team. Head coaching responsibilities weren’t the only ones he carried, however.
Because his assistant athletic director position was created just for him, there wasn’t enough money to fill that role. Instead the responsibilities of the job were split up.
“We had to take on responsibilities within our staff, so I divided up those responsibilities so we were one full-time person short,” Hibbs said. “I wasn’t happy, but that’s the way it was.”
At one point in the 2023 season, the Shockers were ranked in the Top 25. They swept conference rival East Carolina. It seemed like they were on the ups and returning to their 1990s glory.
However, Hibbs felt something was off.
He had a weekly radio spot, and as the team got better, more fans showed up asking the same question:
“What’s going on?”
Hibbs had not been given an answer as to whether or not “interim” would be removed from his title. He and Kevin Saal, the athletic director, met to discuss how the uncertainty might impact recruiting.
“Kids would come to my office like, ‘Hey, Coach, my advisor’s telling me you’re not going to be here next year,’” he said. “‘You guys aren’t gonna be here?’”
Hibbs and Saal sat down a few days after the conference tournament, and the athletic director decided to go in another direction.
The Hibbs family also went in another direction: southeast. The family relocated to Florida after the long season. Coach Hibbs had several head coaching opportunities after that. Two schools called him right away. He turned them both down.
“It wore me out,” he said. “‘I told them both, ‘I don’t even want to interview because I’m not going to be able to give the best version of myself.’”
It wasn’t until the Kettleers came calling that Hibbs considered putting the skipper hat and uniform back on.
“I asked my wife, who’s my best advisor, and she said, ‘Yeah, let’s go ahead and try it,’” he said. “It’s gonna be fun. I’m so excited. I’m really pumped.”
To see the new coach – and his team – in action, check out the Cotuit Kettleers schedule.
