Bio

"Our goals and vision for this baseball program revolve around developing the person.  You have to stand for your core values, your non-negotiables of your life.  In our program, they are:  Education First, Serve Others Before Oneself, Leave It Better Than You Found It, Community Give-back, and Self-Accountability.  We believe that if you can live by these values, success on the field and more importantly, in life, will be the by-product. By starting with a strong foundation, we can withstand any adversity together and continue to build stronger every day." -Head Coach Chad Harris

Chad Harris was appointed head baseball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in December of 2018.  In addition to head coaching duties, Harris works with the Academic Support Programs in working collaboratively with coaches and student-athletes including one-on-one academic coaching. 

Some highlights since Coach Harris took over leading the Pioneer baseball program include having had six First-Team WIAC selections, eight honorable mention WIAC selections, and one player earn Midwest Region Player of the Year, ABCA 2^nd Team All-American, and 1^st Team D3Baseball.com All-American.  The program has also had 10 players earn WIAC Player of the Week.  For five straight years, the baseball program has earned the ABCA Academic Excellence Award for having a team GPA above a 3.0. The program has also won five games against top 10 nationally ranked programs. 

In his first season at the helm of the Pioneers, the team doubled overall wins from the previous season, set a school record in conference wins with 14 WIAC victories, made the conference tournament for the first time since 2010 and won a tournament game for the first time since 2005.  Six of Harris' players earned WIAC honors while two were also named All-Region. 

Following his first season with the Pioneers, Harris was named College Coach of the Year (2019) by the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association. 

Prior to UW-Platteville, Harris spent 17 years coaching baseball at the collegiate level.  Stops included head coach at AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Iowa (2013-15), head coach at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, (2006-2012), and assistant coach at University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas (2001-2006).  He returned to his passion of coaching full-time in the spring of 2018 and joined the staff at the University of Dubuque after serving as a volunteer assistant coach with the Spartans during the 2017 season.  

During Harris’ time as pitching coach with the Spartans, the University of Dubuque baseball team won the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference 2018 Championship (now re-named the American Rivers Conference).  The Spartans went on to win the Iowa Conference Tournament and two games in the Duluth Regional of the NCAA Division III National Tournament. During their 2018 trip into the tournament, two of Harris’ pitchers were named ABCA/Rawlings All-Central Region Team.  The 2018 Spartans squad set two new program records with an ERA of 3.58 and 292 strikeouts.

Prior to coaching at Dubuque, Harris was named the inaugural head coach at AIB College of Business (NAIA) located in Des Moines, Iowa. In the two years of that program having baseball, Harris’ teams won 49 games and led the Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC) with 30 conference wins over a two year span. The 2015 and final AIB squad won the MCC title. During his two seasons at AIB, the program led NAIA baseball teams in overall team GPA (3.55) while earning the NAIA Scholar Team Award twice, saw 17 players earn all-conference/gold glove awards, had 51 players named Academic All-Conference, and had 14 players earn the NAIA Daktronics Scholar Athlete Award. Both the 2014 and 2015 AIB teams played in the MCC Tournament championship games. Harris recruited and coached both the national Rawlings Gold Glove award for centerfield recipient and a NAIA Honorable Mention All-American. AIB dropped athletics after the 2015 season.

At Clarke University (Dubuque, Iowa), Harris transitioned a NCAA Division III program to NAIA and had the program finishing as high as second place in their fourth year in the MCC. His teams earned the NAIA Scholar Team Award in 2010 and 2011 (team G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher) highlighted with a conference leading 26 Academic All-Conference honorees over those two years. The 2011 Clarke team also had six players earn all-conference recognition. 

A native of Hot Springs, Arkansas, Harris launched his collegiate coaching career as a five-year assistant coach at NCAA Division III University of the Ozarks located in Clarksville, Arkansas. During his time at Ozarks, the program saw the team's most success in more than 10 seasons, having set numerous team records, along with individual hitting and pitching records. As recruiting coordinator at Ozarks, Harris helped guide the Eagles from a four win program in 2001 to 22 wins in 2005.

Harris earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science in 2001 from the University of the Ozarks where he played collegiately for two years with the Eagles and received Academic All-Conference honors in 2000.  Prior to Ozarks, Harris pitched for the nationally ranked North Arkansas College Pioneers in Harrison, Arkansas while earning his associate’s degree.

Harris went on to earn his Master of Science degree in Administrative Studies with emphasis in Sport Management from Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri in 2005.