The Official Athletics Site of the Fresno Pacific University Sunbirds

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Widely regarded as one of the top up-and-coming coaches on the West Coast, Chris Wright recently finished his third season as the head coach at Fresno Pacific. He has posted an overall record of 56-36, and has led the team to two 20+ win seasons in three years at the helm.
 
Prior to becoming the head coach at Fresno Pacific, Wright spent four seasons as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at FPU before being promoted to Associate Head Coach in 2009. While at FPU, he has established himself as one of small-college basketball's premier recruiters. His efforts in recruiting have helped transform the program from a bottom-tier GSAC team to a nationally prominent program.  Wright has also coached nine All-American selections and 13 all-conference selections during his tenure at FPU. Ten players that he has coached in Fresno have played professionally overseas, including James Lewis who was the program's first ever NBA D-League draftee.
  
In seven years at Fresno Pacific, Wright has helped the Sunbirds compile 139 wins and has been a part of five of the best eight seasons in the program’s history. The Sunbirds knocked off two Division I opponents, USC and the University of San Francisco in that span. As head coach, Wright has nearly knocked off two other D1 opponents, taking NCAA tournament team UC Santa Barbara to overtime and falling by one point at Pepperdine.
 
In 2012-2013 Wright led FPU to a second-place finish in the 14-team Pacific West Conference marking the team's inaugural season in NCAA Division II. The Sunbirds led the conference in scoring (88 points per game) and were the only team to defeat every other team in the league at least once. The Sunbirds finished the season strong winning 14 out of their 15 regular season games. FPU was led by former NJCAA Player of the Year, John Taylor who led the NCAA Division II in scoring at 27.5 points per contest.
 
In his first year as head coach, the Sunbirds finished the season 20-11, and narrowly missed the NAIA national tournament after playing the nation’s second-toughest schedule. Eight of the team’s eleven losses were to teams that were ranked in the NAIA’s top 10.

The recruiting classes that Wright put together as the recruiting coordinator in 2008 and 2009 paid huge dividends as FPU won 51 games and made two trips to the NAIA National Tournament in those seasons.
 
In 2008-2009 the Sunbirds won a school-record 26 games while convincingly winning the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season title and appearing in the NAIA National Tournament for only the second time in the program's history. FPU climbed as high as 6th in the national rankings before finishing 9th in the final poll. Two members of the '08 recruiting class captured post-season honors. James Lewis nabbed GSAC Player of the Year and NAIA 1st team All-American honors. Marcus West and Todd Brown were also named NAIA All-Americans.
 
In 2009-2010 the Sunbirds once again did not disappoint as they went 25-9, good enough for the second best record in school history. FPU advanced to the “Sweet Sixteen” of the NAIA National Tournament after defeating ninth-seeded Campbellsville in the first round. The Sunbirds reached as high as #3 in the national rankings and defeated four top 10 teams, along with ten teams ranked in the top 25. Both James Lewis and Todd Brown were named NAIA All-Americans for the second consecutive season.
 
Before his time in Fresno, Wright served on staff during the 2005-06 season at NCAA Division I Texas State University under Head Coach and former NBA player Dennis Nutt. He also worked from 2003-2005 as an assistant at Division II St. Edward's University in Austin, under Coach Ryan Marks, now the Head Men's Basketball Coach at Division I Texas Pan-American.

During the 2002-03 season, Wright served as an assistant at Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas. It was there that he helped produce a 10-game improvement from the previous season, while also helping the team reach the program's first-ever playoff bid.

Wright is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Learning and Development. He also holds a Master of Arts in Kinesiology from Fresno Pacific. Chris and his wife Kimi reside in Fresno.