Chris Pollard

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).

Chris Pollard

Pollard in 2014
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Virginia
Conference	ACC
Record	0–0
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(s)	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	805–614–2
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

Statistics overview

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	0–0	0–0
Virginia:		0–0–0 (–)	0–0–0 (–)
Total:		805–614–2 (.567)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

Collegiate summer baseball

Coastal Plain League

Season	Team	Record	Standing	playoffs
1998	Durham	24–23	4th
Total		24–23

^[10]

See also

• List of current NCAA Division I baseball coaches