Payton Lobdell joined the HIU coaching staff in 2024 as a pitching coach. He enters his third season with the Royals with the new title of Director of Pitching Execution and Programming.
Coach Lobdell is an alumnus of Hope International where he earned his Bachelor's in Political Science in 2017.Â
In his first season with HIU, he helped the Royals to the 2024 NAIA national championship.
With over 13 years of coaching experience, Lobdell also has had roles as the Irvine Vaqueros junior varsity assistant coach (2018-19), and the Marina Vikings Freshman Head Coach (2020) and Varsity Pitching Coach (2020-21).
The owner of Backyard Bullpens since 2020, he played three years of Independent Pro Baseball in the Frontier League and was named a Frontier League All-Star in 2018. He was a pitcher at HIU, and played as well as for Cypress College and Georgetown College.
