Andrew Checketts is an American
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 ...
coach and former player. He currently is the head coach of the
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos
The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are the intercollegiate athletic teams who represent the University of California, Santa Barbara. Referred to in athletic competition as ''UC Santa Barbara'' or ''UCSB'', the Gauchos participate in 19 NCAA Division I ...
.
Playing career
Checketts graduated from
West Linn High School in
West Linn, Oregon
West Linn is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. A southern suburb within the Portland metropolitan area, West Linn developed on the site of the former Linn City, which was named after U.S. Senator Lewis F. Linn of Ste. Genevi ...
and was named 1994 Oregon State High School Player of the Year. He then played one season at
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...
before transferring to
Oregon State for his remaining three years. In his final year with the Beavers, he posted an 11–1 record, earning conference and national honors and a 21st round selection by the
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eig ...
in the
1998 Major League Baseball Draft
The 1998 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, was held on June 2 and 3, 1998. A total of 1445 players were drafted over the course of 50 rounds.
First round selections ...
. He played briefly in the Red Sox system at the end of 1998, then played for the Independent
Tri-City Posse for one season before turning to coaching.
Coaching career
Checketts began coaching at
Riverside Community College in 2001, serving as pitching coach and helping the team to their second state championship. The next season, he moved across town to
UC Riverside where he stayed for six seasons as pitching coach and later recruiting coordinator. The Highlanders claimed their first
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...
championship in his final season and ranked highly in several national statistical pitching categories. Checketts then moved to
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
, which re-launched its program in 2008. He served as pitching coach and was also instrumental in several strong recruiting classes for the Ducks.
In his time at UC Riverside and Oregon, Checketts had 36 pitchers drafted or sign pro contracts, including nine draft picks in three years at Oregon.
Following the 2011 season, Checketts was named as the ninth head coach in
UC Santa Barbara history.
The Gauchos were coming off a sixth-place finish in the competitive
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...
and had not appeared in the NCAA tournament since 2001. He claimed 28 wins in his first season, most in school history for a first year head coach, and his pitching staff set a school record for strikeouts.
UC Santa Barbara also led the league in batting for the first time since 1984. In Checketts' first recruiting class he brought in
Dillon Tate, who later became the 4th overall pick in the
2015 Major League Baseball draft
The 2015 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft was held from June 8 through June 10, 2015, to assign amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order is the reverse order of the 2014 MLB season standings. As the Diamondbacks f ...
.
Head coaching record
Below is a table of Checketts's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.
See also
*
List of current NCAA Division I baseball coaches
The following is a list of current NCAA Division I baseball coaches. Currently, 297 programs compete at the Division I level in NCAA college baseball. Each program employs a head coach. The longest-tenured head coach is Tony Rossi, who has been ...
References
External links
UC Santa Barbara coaching profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Checketts, Andrew
Living people
People from West Linn, Oregon
Florida Gators baseball players
Oregon State Beavers baseball players
Riverside City Tigers baseball coaches
UC Riverside Highlanders baseball coaches
Oregon Ducks baseball coaches
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos baseball coaches
Place of birth missing (living people)
Sportspeople from the Portland metropolitan area
Gulf Coast Red Sox players
Tri-City Posse players
1975 births
Baseball players from Oregon
Baseball coaches from Oregon