Chris Pollard
American baseball coach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chris Pollard is an American baseball coach and former pitcher, who is the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers.[1][2] He played college baseball at Davidson for head coach Dick Cooke from 1993 to 1996 before playing professionally in 1996. He then served as the head coach of the Pfeiffer Falcons (2000–2004), Appalachian State Mountaineers (2005-2012) and Duke Blue Devils (2013-2025).
Pollard in 2014 | |
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | Virginia |
| Conference | ACC |
| Record | 13–3–0 (.813) |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | Durham, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Davidson '96 |
| Playing career | |
| 1993–1996 | Davidson |
| 1996 | Sioux Falls Canaries |
| 1996 | Salinas Peppers |
| Position | P |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1998 | Durham Braves |
| 1999 | Davidson (asst.) |
| 2000–2004 | Pfeiffer |
| 2005–2012 | Appalachian State |
| 2013–2025 | Duke |
| 2026–present | Virginia |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 2003–2004 | Pfeiffer |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 817–617–2 (.570) |
| Tournaments | NCAA: 20–17 ACC: 13–6 SoCon: 10–14 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 2x Conference Carolinas: 2003, 2004 SoCon: 2012 2x ACC tournament: 2021, 2024 | |
| Awards | |
| Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year: 2004 SoCon Coach of the Year: 2012 | |
Playing career
Pollard is from Amherst County, Virginia, and[3] attended high school at Virginia Episcopal School and college at Davidson College and played for the Wildcats baseball team for four years. He pitched in the competitive Southern Conference, and ranks third all-time at Davidson in wins. He also ranks highly in the Davidson record books for strikeouts, appearances, starts, innings pitched, complete games and shutouts. As a sophomore, he earned wins over #1 ranked Georgia Tech and #25 ranked Western Carolina. He also earned the win in both games of a double header against Georgia Southern as a junior. After graduating in 1996, Pollard played in the independent Western League and Northern League before beginning his coaching career.[1][2]
Coaching career
Pollard began his coaching career as an assistant at Davidson. After one season, he became head coach at Division II member Pfeiffer, which he rebuilt over five seasons. In his final season, the Falcons set a school record for wins with a record of 41–14 and their second consecutive Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference championship. Pollard was named conference Coach of the Year, and was also rewarded with the head coaching position at Appalachian State, a Southern Conference rival of his alma mater Davidson. Pollard spent eight seasons with the Mountaineers, claiming the school's first conference championship since 1987 in his final 2012 campaign. ASU's at-large trip to the 2012 NCAA tournament ended just one win shy of a Super Regional. Pollard was named head coach at Duke shortly after the end of the tournament run.[4][5][6][7]
Head coaching record
Below are tables of Pollard's yearly records as an NCAA and collegiate summer baseball head coach.[4][8][9]
NCAA
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pfeiffer University Falcons (Conference Carolinas) (2000–2004) | |||||||||
| 2000 | Pfeiffer University | 20–28 | 10–15 | 8th | |||||
| 2001 | Pfeiffer University | 21–26 | 11–12 | 6th | |||||
| 2002 | Pfeiffer University | 26–23–1 | 11–14 | 8th | |||||
| 2003 | Pfeiffer University | 33–17 | 16–10 | 3rd | |||||
| 2004 | Pfeiffer University | 41–14 | 18–6 | 1st | |||||
| Pfeiffer University: | 141–108–1 (.566) | 66–57 (.537) | |||||||
| Appalachian State Mountaineers (Southern Conference) (2005–2012) | |||||||||
| 2005 | Appalachian State | 10–42 | 5–24 | 11th | |||||
| 2006 | Appalachian State | 24–31 | 9–18 | 8th | |||||
| 2007 | Appalachian State | 33–26 | 14–13 | T–4th | |||||
| 2008 | Appalachian State | 32–27 | 14–13 | T–6th | |||||
| 2009 | Appalachian State | 33–21 | 15–13 | 6th | |||||
| 2010 | Appalachian State | 38–18–1 | 14–14–1 | 7th | |||||
| 2011 | Appalachian State | 33–27 | 15–15 | 6th | |||||
| 2012 | Appalachian State | 41–18 | 21–9 | T–1st | NCAA Regional | ||||
| Appalachian State: | 244–210–1 (.537) | 107–119–1 (.474) | |||||||
| Duke Blue Devils (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2013–2025) | |||||||||
| 2013 | Duke | 26–29 | 9–21 | 6th (Coastal) | |||||
| 2014 | Duke | 33–25 | 16–14 | 3rd (Coastal) | |||||
| 2015 | Duke | 31–22 | 10–19 | 6th (Coastal) | |||||
| 2016 | Duke | 33–24 | 14–15 | 3rd (Coastal) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2017 | Duke | 30–28 | 12–19 | 4th (Coastal) | |||||
| 2018 | Duke | 45–18 | 18–11 | 2nd (Coastal) | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2019 | Duke | 35–27 | 15-15 | 4th (Coastal) | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2020 | Duke | 12–4 | 2–1 | (Coastal) | Season canceled due to COVID-19 | ||||
| 2021 | Duke | 33–22 | 16–17 | 5th (Coastal) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2022 | Duke | 22–32 | 10–20 | 7th (Coastal) | |||||
| 2023 | Duke | 39–24 | 16–13 | 3rd (Coastal) | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2024 | Duke | 40–20 | 16–14 | 3rd (Coastal) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2025 | Duke | 41–21 | 17–13 | 7th | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| Duke: | 420–296 (.587) | 171–192 (.471) | |||||||
| Virginia Cavaliers (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2026–present) | |||||||||
| 2026 | Virginia | 16-4 | 4-2 | ||||||
| Virginia: | 13–3–0 (.813) | 2–1–0 (.667) | |||||||
| Total: | 817–617–2 (.570) | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
Collegiate summer baseball
Coastal Plain League
| Season | Team | Record | Standing | playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Durham | 24–23 | 4th | |
| Total | 24–23 | |||