The best-known anniversary nicknames are “Diamond” (60th), “Gold” (50th) and “Silver” (25th).
Shane and Abby Byler will celebrate their fifth on Thursday, June 11. Call it their “Baseball Anniversary.”
It’s the same day Shane’s Lake Center Christian baseball team will play in the OHSAA Division VI state semifinals.
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Shane has breathed baseball for all of his 35 years. His wife, Abby, brings their 2- and 3-year-old daughters, Allie and Lainey, to every Lake Center Christian game. Of course they’ll be at this one.
Normally, it’s a sure bet the daughters would be using the field as a playground once the action cleared. This time it’s a special game at the stadium used by the Cleveland Guardians’ Class AA affiliate, the Akron RubberDucks, and they’ll have to see how it goes.
“Both of the girls were born right in the thrills of a baseball season,” Shane said. “They were thrown right into it. When they’re at a game, they can’t wait to get on the field.”
Shane played for Lake Center baseball when the program began.
The school opened in 1947 and expanded to grades K-12 much later, honoring its first graduating class in 2007.
Byler played three sports at Lake Center, continuing on in the one he loved most at Malone University.
“I was going into my redshirt junior year at Malone when Lake Center’s AD came to me and said, ‘Shane, we want you to take over the baseball program,’” Byler said. “I said, ‘Coaching is something I want to do in the future, but I’ll have to do some thinking.”
Saying yes would mean his college playing career was over.
“Right around Christmas, I decided to do it,” he said. “I became a head coach at the age of 21, in the spring of 2013.”
He is in his 14th year at Lake Center’s head coach. His Tigers will take a 23-4-1 record into Thursday’s 10 a.m. OHSAA Division VI state semifinals against Galion Northmor. Right after they finish, Berlin Hiland will face St. Henry in the other semifinal. The winners will collide at 10 a.m. Saturday. Games are at 7 17 Credit Union Park, formerly Canal Park.
In last year’s state finals, Lake Center lost a 7-6 thriller to Hiland.
Reaching a second straight final four makes Byler something of an accomplished old man.
He cracks a sagacious smile about the year he was Lake Center’s 21-year-old rookie head coach. Being “too young” didn’t enter his mind.
“It probably should have,” he said. “You think you can do anything at that age.
“I knew it was what I wanted to do. I hit it hard. I was reading every book you could read. I was going to every conference, every clinic, talking to every quality coach I could, formulating my philosophy.
“It absolutely consumed me.”
His dad, Doug Byler, grew up in Hartville before Lake Center was a high school.
“He made the long trek to Kidron Central Christian for his high school days, as a number of Hartville kids did,” Shane said. “Dad met mom when they were in high school.
“He earned a baseball scholarship at Akron, but when mom graduated a year after he did, he chased her down to the school she chose, Eastern Mennonite in Virginia.
“I’d make fun of him for that now, but I’m pretty thankful he did, because that’s why I’m here.”
Doug Byler was a four-year pitcher at Eastern Mennonite, good enough to make the school’s athletic hall of fame. He came home to Hartville after college.
“He built a house on my grandparents’ farm,” Shane said. “We had tons of room. and he put a ball field in. It was truly like the Field of Dreams, with the cornfield in the background.
“It seemed I spent every day of my life down there playing. I would always invite a bunch of friends over. I’d make them play baseball with me before we could go swim in our pool.”
The farm is still there. His grandparents are still running it. Shane’s dad has been one of his assistant coaches since he took the job.
Shane is old enough to remember Cleveland’s strong MLB run through the 1990s, but his baseball experiences came everywhere.
“My dad took me to games all over the country, high school, college, pro,” he said. “I came to Lake Center in kindergarten. The plan for a long time was to go to Lake High School and play ball over there.
“Toward the end of eighth-grade year, Lake Center High School was really developing. My family and I decided to stay there.”
He was right back there as head baseball coach after a few years at Malone.
“My goal even before I became a coach at Lake Center was to develop a small-school powerhouse,” he said. “We’d accomplish that by simply doing things the right way, in all aspects … how we play the game, how we conduct ourselves, how we treat people, everything we’re called to do.
“We ultimately want to glorify God. That’s been our driving force since day one.”
The powerhouse dream appears to be coming true. With a win in the state semis, Lake Center would improve its record across the last four seasons to 100-19-1. He recorded his 200th win as head coach in last year’s tournament.
“We lost three seniors from last year who all played very important roles,” he said. “Beyond them, we returned the core of our team.
“We would have to earn, of course, the opportunity to get back to state. In baseball, you can’t take anything for granted, and truly anything can happen.
“So, credit to our entire program for really working really hard all offseason, all though this regular season. We’ve taken on a lot of challenges and overcome a lot of obstacles, and they’ve continued to work hard. I can say they’ve truly earned the opportunity, so … very proud of them.”
The Lake Center lifer says he really does have the perfect job.
“Yes, you have hard days,” he said. “There are difficult things you have to work through or overcome, difficult conversations you have to have, even times when you deal with tragedy.
“When you look at all of it, it really is a huge part of my life.
“We’re not perfect in everything we do, but we’re trying to honor God and glorify God in everything we do.”
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Thanks, dad. Lake Center Christian’s Shane Byler living family dream
Reporting by Steve Doerschuk, Canton Repository / The Repository
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Steve Doerschuk, Canton Repository | USA TODAY Network
