4CA Coaching Achievement Award
An annual award which honors members of the California Community College Coaching profession who show exemplary participation, dedication and contributions to their chosen sport. The recipient coach exhibits leadership and high ethical values in addition to providing an outstanding role model for student-athletes and future professionals.
Chris Pedretti
Head Coach
Chris Pedretti has been Merced College head baseball coach for 34 years. His Blue Devil teams have competed in post-season play 21 times. They have won four conference championships (1983, 1985, 2009, & 2011). In 2009, Chris was selected Northern California Coach of the Year. Chris Pedretti stands among a select group of former and current CCC baseball coaches that have won more than 700 games (794 and counting). He is the only current and former Blue Devil Coach with at least 700 wins in a single sport. Chris has been the Central Valley Conference baseball coaches Representative to the state’s Baseball Coaches Association (CCCBCA) for the last 30 years. Twenty-three of his Blue Devil players have signed professional baseball contracts, including three-time National League All-Star relief pitcher Brian Fuentes, and current Major League pitcher Doug Fister.
Chris graduated from Turlock high in 1975. He was the starting second-baseman of the 1976 and 1977 state champion teams at Merced College. His sophomore season, he was named the MVP of the state division II JC’s and was also selected to the coaches All-America squad. After Merced, he accepted a scholarship at San Jose State, where he was team MVP & All-Conference for his senior season, 1979. After graduation, he coached a year at SJSU. He returned to Merced as an assistant to Butch Hughes. He spent the 1981 season in Italy as a player-coach for the San Martino B.A. Red Devils. He earned a teaching credential from Cal State Stanislaus in the spring of 1982 while coaching sophomore baseball at Turlock High. He was brought back to Merced College as adjunct head coach in the fall of 1982. He was awarded a masters degree in counseling from the University of San Francisco in 1989 and hired full-time as head baseball coach and academic counselor in 1990.
Chris currently coordinates the Athlete Academic Success Program at MC. He took the 2013 spring semester as a sabbatical, visiting more than 20 California community colleges and universities, learning how various schools allocate resources in support of the academic success of their athletes. He presented his findings to the MCCD Board of Trustees, which in turn made the Athletic Academic Success Program part of the school’s Student Success Program. His work has registered. Merced College athletes currently have one of the highest graduation and transfer rates of any cohort on the MC campus.
Chris and his wife Michelle, an elementary educator for more than 35 years, recently celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary. They have four children, all college graduates. Mikella (UC Berkeley), Joel (Merced College, University of Oklahoma), Tynan (Merced College, Univ. of Hawaii, CSU Stanislaus), and Alessandria (Merced College, UC Berkeley). His son Tynan has joined Chris on the current Blue Devil baseball coaching staff.