Chris_Pollard
Chris Pollard
American baseball coach
Chris Pollard is an American baseball coach and former pitcher, who is the current head baseball coach of the Duke Blue Devils.[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) and Appalachian State Mountaineers.
Pollard in 2014 | |
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | Duke |
| Conference | ACC |
| Record | 374–271 |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | Durham, North Carolina |
| Alma mater | Davidson '96 |
| Playing career | |
| 1993–1996 | Davidson |
| 1996 | Sioux Falls Canaries |
| 1996 | Salinas Peppers |
| Position(s) | P |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1998 | Durham Braves |
| 1999 | Davidson (asst.) |
| 2000–2004 | Pfeiffer |
| 2005–2012 | Appalachian State |
| 2013–present | Duke |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 2003–2004 | Pfeiffer |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 759–577–2 |
| Tournaments | NCAA: 16–14 ACC: 8–4 SoCon: 10–14 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 2x Conference Carolinas: (2003,2004) SoCon: 2012 ACC: 2021 | |
| Awards | |
| Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year: 2004 SoCon Coach of the Year: 2012 | |
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]
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]
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 | 66–57 | |||||||
| 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 | 107–119 | |||||||
| Duke Blue Devils (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2013–present) | |||||||||
| 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 | 39–23 | 16–13 | 3rd (Coastal) | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2024 | Duke | 35-17 | 16-13 | (Coastal) | |||||
| Duke: | 374–271 | 154–177 | |||||||
| Total: | 759–577–2 | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
Collegiate summer baseball
Coastal Plain League
| Season | Team | Record | Standing | playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Durham | 24–23 | 4th | |
| Total | 24–23 | |||
- "Duke Names Chris Pollard Head Baseball Coach". goduke.com. June 15, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
- "Chris Pollard". goasu.com. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
- Doug Doughty (June 4, 2012). "UVa baseball falls in regional". Roanoke Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
- Steve Behr (June 16, 2012). "Duke hits home run with Pollard". Watauga Democrat. Archived from the original on May 14, 2013. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
- Jack Daly (June 18, 2012). "Duke's new baseball coach embraces the challenge". News and Observer. Raleigh, North Carolina. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
- Andrew Beaton (June 14, 2012). "Pollard hired as next baseball coach". dukechronicle.com. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
- "Duke hires Appalachian's Pollard as baseball coach". Winston-Salem Journal. June 14, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
- "2012 Southern Conference Baseball Media Guide". Southern Conference. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
- "2013 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Standings". D1Baseball.com. Jeremy Mills. Archived from the original on May 26, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
- "1998 Statistics". CoastalPlain.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2012. Retrieved January 22, 2013.