Chris Pritchett enters his second season as the head coach of the UBC Thunderbirds baseball program.
In his debut campaign, UBC went 39-22 with an appearance in the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round, and had three players selected in the 2016 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, while another signed as a free agent.
Pritchett joined the Thunderbirds from the Boston Red Sox organization. He spent four years crisscrossing Canada as a Red Sox international scout. Before that, Pritchett served as hitting coach for the Vancouver Canadians, but his connection to the C's and Vancouver goes back even further.
After an All-American career at UCLA, Pritchett was drafted in the second round by the California Angels in 1991. The first baseman arrived in Vancouver to play for the AAA Canadians four years later. Pritchett played 466 games in a Canadians uniform, collecting 467 hits. After establishing himself with the C's, Pritchett would get the opportunity to play 61 games in the Major Leagues, between 1996-2000.
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After retiring in 2003, Pritchett returned to UCLA, and completed his Bachelor of Arts degree. He also went on to study Performance Enhancement at the National Academy of Sports Medicine and received a Masters in Exercise Science.