For Austin Overn, sports were a family affair.
His father Chad always coached him as a kid regardless of the sport, along with Brian Woods, a family friend who Overn credits with helping him become mentally tough. His mother Crystal, who played college basketball at El Camino, was always the team mom. Even his grandparents, who live across the street from the Overns in Tustin, always came to support. Overn’s grandfather often coached him as well, earning him the nickname “Coach Grandpa” by all of Overn’s teammates.
“We’ve been basically just a sports family; everything sports, growing up, that’s been the main priority,” Overn said. “And I feel like kinda having sports as the main priority has gotten me to where I am today because it pushed me in every aspect possible, and I think personally, if it wasn’t for them, I would definitely not be where I am right now.”
Born and raised in Tustin, California, the sophomore outfielder for the USC baseball team grew up alongside his younger brother Taylor, who has severe autism. His mother says this made him humble and appreciate all of the talent that he was born with.
“As an individual, he’s very compassionate and he knows that Taylor could be him. It’s not Taylor’s fault that he’s the way he is,” Crystal said. “I think that resonates in the way that he respects people with disabilities or that aren’t blessed the same way God gifted him. It keeps him very humble. And I think there are a lot of people who can tell you he’s very humble.”
Chad also sees how compassionate his son is towards others.
“We’ve always said that’s one of the things we’re most proud of is how he carries himself. No matter how successful he is in life, I think he gets a broader perspective of what life is about,” Chad said. “He has just a really, really big heart. He has friends over to our house or something, ever since they were little kids, everybody comes and Austin’s the first one to be like, ‘Hey, let’s go hang out with Tay for a little bit.’”
Austin is still close to everyone in his family. Chad and Crystal visit him once a week when he is at school to get lunch and see how he is doing. Crystal also requires that Overn calls her at least once a day to chat, even if it is only for a few minutes.
Overn’s compassion pairs with a deep competitiveness, a trait that led to him playing three sports in high school.
As the young outfielder grew older, he and his parents began to see that he had the most potential with baseball. After dominating in Little League, his parents quickly realized how talented their son was. His sophomore year of high school, he realized that he wanted to make a career out of playing baseball professionally, which inspired him to work harder every day.
The work paid off, and Overn accepted an offer to play baseball at USC under then-head coach Jason Gill. Because he had also proven himself to be a talented football wide receiver during his senior year of high school, Overn successfully walked on and joined the USC football team under head coach Lincoln Riley.
“Once they said I had a spot, I was just like: ‘Yeah, I’m playing,’” Overn said of making the football team. “[It was a] ‘let me know what to do and I’ll be there’ type of thing.”
Shortly after Overn started practicing with the football team in June 2022 following his high school graduation, Gill was fired after the baseball team went 25-28 and lost seven of its last eight games. Then-athletic director Mike Bohn turned to Andy Stankiewicz, who was the head coach of Grand Canyon at the time, to revive the Trojans.
But despite playing for Stankiewicz instead of the coach who initially recruited him, there was no chance Overn would leave USC — partly because he had already started practicing with the football team.
The feeling between Overn and Stankiewicz was mutual.
After getting to know Overn, Stankiewicz was confident that he would have no trouble catching up with the team once the football season ended, especially since Austin was still taking part in fall ball when he didn’t have football obligations.
“He was great. He’s well liked. He’s got a great attitude, he’s a great worker,” Stankiewicz said. “That was never an issue. I mean, he jumped right in, and I think the guys saw how good he was, and so naturally they’re like: ‘he’s a heck of a baseball player.’ So I think he fits in really well. He’s got great relationships with everyone.”
Despite missing part of fall ball, Overn went into his freshman campaign with lofty personal goals, which included batting leadoff and starting every day in center field.
He would go on to have an impressive freshman campaign and achieved both of his goals, as he started every game in center field and was moved to the top of the batting order less than two weeks after the season started.
Overn hit .314 with a .530 slugging percentage and a .402 on-base percentage. He also set a new single-season USC record for triples with 14, breaking the previous USC record of 10 set by Grant Green in 2008. At the end of the 2023 season, he was named a Freshman All-American, an All-Pac-12 Selection and a Pac-12 All-Defensive Team Selection.
“The triples record wasn’t something I was expecting to do, but I was expecting to be the leadoff hitter and center fielder because that was my goal, and coming in you don’t wanna think, ‘Oh, I’ll bat last and play center or something,’” Overn said. “So I was shooting for the stars with that.”
Because he will be 21 in May, Overn will be eligible to declare for the MLB Draft this summer. He hopes to impress scouts by backing up his freshman statistics with a stellar sophomore campaign. However, he knows that he has a lot of work to be ready for that. In order to prepare for the upcoming season, Overn has given up playing with the football team to focus on his baseball career.
“I’d say balancing football and baseball last year was, I wouldn’t say it was a struggle, but it definitely wasn’t the easiest thing,” Overn said. “There was a point where I was bouncing around with both baseball and football, and trying to get my swing all dialed.”
Stankiewicz has plenty of confidence that Overn will continue to improve as a player and a leader with all of his focus on the basepaths instead of the gridiron.
“He’s raw and he’s coachable and he’s willing to learn and listen to [assistant] coach [Travis] Jewett on the hitting side, understand his swing, understand what he’s trying to do when he’s in the batter’s box,” Stankiewicz said. “That’s been probably the biggest challenge, is to try to get him to understand, as leadoff hitter, that using his speed to his strength is an asset.”
After spending the summer playing baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League and facing rejection from the USA Collegiate Team, Overn is ready to get back to work. Austin wants to improve and help his team make it into the NCAA Tournament and advance to Super Regionals, if not further, this summer.
He also wants to prove that USC can win on the road, something that the Trojans struggled with last year, as they posted a 8-17-1 record in road and neutral-site games, while going 26-6 at home. With Dedeaux Field under construction this season, USC will split its home games across three stadiums, which Overn sees as an opportunity for the Trojans to prove that they can win anywhere.
“I feel like if we can overcome anything that has to do with traveling, it’ll show that USC’s legit, and we can finally compete with anyone,” Overn said. “I feel like we, as a team, all know that. We just gotta prove everyone else wrong.”
After he leaves USC, Overn hopes to play professionally. However, if that doesn’t work out for him, he plans to get involved in the real estate industry, his major.
But right now, he’s locked in for the Trojans’ 2024 campaign.
With the season approaching, sophomore infielder KaiKea Harrison, who played with Overn at Trosky National, a travel ball organization that includes both regional and national teams for high school baseball players, is looking forward to seeing how his teammate will continue to thrive as the season progresses.
“I think he’s gonna hit more for power this year cause he got a lot stronger, he put on some pounds,” Harrison said. “He’s super fast, but hopefully he adds some home runs to his draft stock cause that would be cool. And I really think he’s gonna do what he did last year but better.”
Overn and the Trojans return to the field on February 16 when they take on the BYU Cougars in their season opener in Arizona as part of the MLB Desert Invitational.