Greater Allegheny’s Head Baseball Coach Honored
Greater Allegheny's Head Baseball Coach, who is also the Director of Athletics, was honored with an award from the Rotary Club of Pittsburgh. Jim Chester was named the Collegiate Baseball Manager of the Year.
"I was very surprised and humbled when I found out that I was recipient of the 2011 Chuck Tanner Collegiate Coach of the Year," Chester said. "Many programs in Western Pennsylvania had great seasons, and for our program to be recognized is a true testament to all the hard work and dedication from the players and coaches."
Greater Allegheny's Baseball team has been at the top of the charts in the PSUAC for the past couple of years; Jim Chester had a lot to do with their achievements. He coached them to back-to-back PSUAC regular season titles, along with winning the PSUAC Tournament for the first time in school's history. Greater Allegheny finished their season with a 30-13-1 record while finishing third in the USCAA Small-College World Series, which was the best finish in schools history. There were a lot of "firsts" for the 2011 Greater Allegheny baseball team and Chester proved to be a big reason for their success. Chester was also honored with the 2011 PSUAC Baseball Coach of the Year, which was his second consecutive year for earning this honor.
John Fritz, the PSUAC Commissioner, had very nice comments to say about Chester. "Jim Chester is a credit to Penn State athletics and the entire PSUAC in earning this distinguished award as Baseball Collegiate Manager of the Year. Jim's enthusiasm and positive attitude have attributed greatly to his position as an athletic director and it is rewarding to see Jim honored as a baseball coach and to be chosen from such an accomplished group of coaches.
"I can really pinpoint three moments that stood out this past season, beating Point Park 7-2; they were ranked #23 in the NAIA, winning the PSUAC Championship and having 12 players named PSUAC Academic All-Conference," said Chester about his proudest moments of the past year.
Before Chester became Head Coach at Greater Allegheny, he was the Head Coach at a NJCAA Division II, Mercyhurst North East. He changed their program around, turning their team into a threat at the top of the Western New York Athletic Conference.
"Jim has been instrumental in enhancing the entire PSUAC baseball conference in his role as chair of the baseball committee. We are all proud of this great accomplishment," commented Fritz.
"I was very lucky as a student-athlete to be part of a program that was struggling and in four years we won a conference championship. That experience completely models what happened here at Greater Allegheny," responded Chester when asked how his experience has helped him achieve the success so far with Greater Allegheny.
Collegiate manager of the Year, Jim Chester will be honored during the fifth annual Chuck Tanner Major League Baseball Manager of the Year event. Alongside Chester, will be former Pirates Manager and current Detroit Manager, Jim Leyland. Leyland was honored with the Major-League award. The event will take place on November 19th, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.