Ritch Price is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

coach and former player. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

at Linn–Benton Community College (1975–1976) and Willamette (1977–1978). He then served as the head baseball coach of the

Menlo Oaks The Menlo Oaks are the athletic teams that represent Menlo College, located in Atherton, California, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Golden Stat ...

(1983–1986), the De Anza Dons (1987–1994), the

Cal Poly Mustangs The Cal Poly Mustangs are the athletic teams representing California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. The university fields twenty-one teams and compete in NCAA Division I; they are primarily members of the Big Wes ...

(1995–2002) and the

Kansas Jayhawks The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division I. The Jayhawks are also a mem ...

(2003–2022).

Coaching career

Price took over as head coach at Cal Poly for the 1995 season, which was to be the Mustangs first at the Division I level. In his second season, he led the team to a winning record. He accepted the head coaching position at Kansas on July 2, 2002, and has led the Jayhawks to two NCAA Tournament berths and their first

Big 12 Conference baseball tournament The Big 12 Conference baseball tournament (sometimes known simply as the Big 12 tournament) is the conference championship tournament in baseball for the Big 12 Conference. Going back to the original format abandoned in 2005, the tournament cons ...

title in 2006. Kansas had made only two NCAA appearances prior to Price's arrival. Price announced his retirement on May 22, 2022.

Head coaching record

The table below shows Ritch Price's record as a head coach at the Division I level.

Personal

Ritch Price graduated from Sweet Home High School in

Sweet Home, Oregon Sweet Home is a city in Linn County, Oregon, United States, with population 8,925 at the 2010 census. Built near the site of a prehistoric petrified forest, Sweet Home experienced substantial growth during the construction of the Green Peter a ...

before attending Willamette University. He has three sons, all of whom have played for him at Kansas. His eldest, Ritchie Price, was head coach at

South Dakota State South Dakota State University is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest and most comprehensive university and the oldest continually-operating university in South Dakota. The ...

from 2008 to 2011, before returning to Kansas to again work on his father's staff.

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form ...

believes that the Prices were the first father–son duo to serve as head coach of two Division I programs at the same time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Ritch Living people Linn–Benton Roadrunners baseball players Willamette Bearcats baseball players High school baseball coaches in the United States Menlo Oaks baseball coaches De Anza Dons baseball coaches Cal Poly Mustangs baseball coaches Kansas Jayhawks baseball coaches Year of birth missing (living people) People from Linn County, Oregon