Former WKU Baseball Player Making Major League Impact

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Former WKU Baseball player and graduate assistant coach Casey Dykes is making an impact in the MLB.

Dykes just completed his first season working in the big leagues as an assistant hitting coach for the New York Yankees.

As a Hilltopper from 2009-12, Dykes posted a .284 career batting-average with 11 home runs, 27 doubles and 95 RBIs. He was a part of the last team to win a conference championship at WKU in 2009. The team advanced to the NCAA Regional Finals for just the second time in program history and the first time since 1980.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in sports management from WKU, he pursued his master's degree in athletic administration while staying on staff with the WKU Baseball team from 2013-14.

Following that, VMI hired Dykes as a full-time assistant coach in 2015, and after three years in Lexington City, Virginia, Dykes was named as the volunteer assistant coach for Indiana University in Bloomington.

The New York Yankees reached out to him following the 2019 season to hire him as a minor league hitting coach for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Triple-A affiliate of the Yankees. Dykes spent two seasons in the minors before getting the call-up to the majors after the completion of the 2021 season.

With so many quick turnarounds and changes, Dykes still reminisces on his time on The Hill:

"My biggest takeaway from Western was the people," said Dykes. "How I was treated, how I saw people treated when I was there. The community there, the coaching staff, it started with Chris Finwood, Matt Myers, Blake Allen, guys like Duane Hall and Dustin Wilson the athletic trainer, from a support staff standpoint. The academic side, that was home for me. When I got there from day one, they treated me like I was one of theirs which I thought was unique. I felt that on my recruiting visit there, it remained that way for my four years and it remained that way even when I left there. Obviously, when I was coaching there for a couple years after, but even when I moved on, I have stayed in touch with a lot of people. Built a lot of friendships and relationships through my time there. Coaching, development of players, development of men, is a lot about relationships and I think that is probably what my biggest takeaway was. Just how to communicate, how to build a relationship and that is something that really stuck with me in my time there that I still highly value in my everyday life as a coach and just as a person being around this game and being around players of all levels."

With the Yankees, Dykes coached an offense that finished fourth overall in hitting this past season, while leading the MLB in home runs with 254. The Yankees lineup featured Aaron Judge, arguably the biggest bat in the league. Judge hit for 62 home runs this past year, the most ever in the American League, breaking former Yankee legend, Roger Maris' record of 61.

With the MLB season coming in on a close, the Yankees fell just short of the ultimate goal of winning the World Series, losing to the Astros in the American League Championship Series last Monday, October 24.

In the offseason, Dykes lives just outside of Nashville and frequently comes Bowling Green to see some old friends and visit his alma mater.

How to follow WKU Baseball: For complete information on WKU Hilltopper Baseball, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program via social media @WKU_Baseball on Twitter and @WKUBaseball Instagram.

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