Tim Chambers started the baseball program at the College of Southern Nevada in the late 1990s to fill what he felt was an obvious void. The Las Vegas area had some of the best youth and high school baseball in the nation, yet players had to go out of state to play in college.
Some stopped competing because they couldn’t afford it — baseball scholarships are few and rarely are full rides. Others went out of state, but their families couldn’t watch them play.
Chambers changed that.
His Coyotes quickly became a power, filling the stands at the Henderson campus for weekend series and making a splash nationally. They produced big-leaguers, won the 2003 Junior College World Series and, most important, gave Las Vegas kids somewhere to compete.
Chambers, widely considered one of the city’s best baseball men, died Sunday night, his friends said. He was 54.
“Sad to hear the passing of my junior college coach, Tim Chambers. Thank you for all you did for me and helping my career. Wouldn’t be where I am without your help,” Chasen Bradford, a Seattle Mariners reliever, posted on Twitter.
Bradford, of course, wasn’t the only big leaguer Chambers mentored. In 2010, the Bryce-Harper led Coyotes returned to the JUCO World Series in the last of Chambers' 11 seasons at CSN before leaving for UNLV.
From 2011-15, he posted a 157-132 record with the Rebels and was the 2014 Mountain West coach of the year when the Rebels won the league title and advanced to the NCAA Regional.
He spent more than 30 years teaching baseball to Las Vegans, starting with a long run at Bishop Gorman High, where he grew the program into a perennial local power. Along the way, he built some strong relationships, including with Anthony Marnell III, who donated $2.75 million to UNLV to build a baseball clubhouse. Another former player, who remained unnamed, gave money to build the stadium at CSN.
The clubhouse was part of Chambers’ vision to take the UNLV program to new heights. It’s a small part of his legacy of how one man helped develop the area’s baseball scene.
“I’d like to thank Tim Chambers, who, when he took this job five years ago, was determined to get this thing up and going, and now it’s happened,” UNLV manager Stan Stolte said at the clubhouse dedication in 2016.
Chambers is survived by his wife, Kimberlie, and two daughters, McKenzie and Chase.
Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21
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