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Chris Bartley |
Head Men's Basketball Coach Assistant to the Athletic Director cbartley@wpi.edu 508-831-5760 |
Now in his ninth year at the helm, Chris Bartley has built WPI into one of the top programs in New England. A three-time NEWMAC Coach of the Year, Bartley has led WPI to six straight NEWMAC regular season championships as well as NEWMAC conference tournament championships in 2005 and 2006.
During the last six seasons, WPI has compiled an impressive
131-33 record (.798 winning percentage) which includes trips to the
NCAA Tournament the past five seasons and the ECAC Semifinals
in 2004.
Further, WPI has captured six consecutive Worcester County Tip-Off
Tournament Championships and have won the prestigious Milwaukee
School of Engineering and Williams Tournaments. Over the
last five seasons, the WPI program was ranked #1 in the
Northeast Region and garnered multiple top 25 national rankings by
D3hoops.com. The Crimson and Gray won NCAA Tournament
contests in 2005, 2006 and 2009, including reaching the Sweet 16 in
2005. The last three years, the Engineers have proven to be a
national success story, as they have garnered three consecutive
at-large Pool C bids.
In addition to his own NEWMAC Coach of the Year selections in 2004, 2005 and 2008, his players have been honored with many awards. Ryan Cain won the prestigious Jostens Award in 2007 as the top Division III student-athlete in men's basketball. Cain also garnered All-American and All-New England accolades throughout his career and was the NEWMAC Player of the Year in 2005 and 2007 and the Rookie of the Year in 2006. Other NEWMAC Players of the Year include Mike Prestileo in 2004 and Antoine Coleman in 2008.
In 2004, WPI was 20-8 and reached the ECAC Tournament semifinals while being voted "The Most Improved Team in New England" by the New England Basketball Coaches Association. Before Bartley arrived in 2001, WPI had suffered through 27 straight losses.
Constructing quality programs has been a trademark for Bartley as all three colleges he has coached earned the Most Improved Team in New England Award within three years of his arrival. Previous to WPI, he played a major role in building programs at Babson and Wentworth. As top assistant at both schools, he helped lead each to NCAA and ECAC post-season tournament berths while implementing a nationally-recognized defensive system.
From 1994-97, Wentworth skyrocketed from a 2-23 record to seasons of 19-8 and 20-8, including regular-season and conference tournament championships and an NCAA Tournament berth in 1997. As full-time assistant men's basketball coach and recruiting coordinator at Babson, he helped lift that program from a 9-16 record and 5th place NEWMAC finish in 2000 to an 18-11 record and second-place regular-season finish in 2001. That Babson team then made trips to the NEWMAC finals and ECAC New England semifinals in 2001.
A graduate of UMass-Lowell, Bartley was a successful head coach at Medford High School from 1997 to 1999, posting an impressive 41-5 record and winning two Greater Boston League championships. He earned recognition as the Boston Globe's Division I Coach of the Year in 1998 when he led his team to the North Sectional title and a trip to the Boston Garden for the State Semifinals and Eastern Massachusetts championship.
Bartley is on the Board of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization of Central Massachusetts and his teams are involved in numerous community service projects. In April of 2008, Bartley received the Denise Nicoletti Trustees' Award for Service to Community during the university's annual Honors Convocation. Established in 2003 in memory of WPI's first tenured female faculty member in electrical and computer engineering, it is presented to a member of the faculty or staff in recognition of passion and action in serving the needs of a community.
The awards don't stop there. In the spring of 2006, the team was honored at the State House for this work with Big Brothers. In 2005 the team was the proud recipient of the prestigious Edwin Coghlin Community Service Award for outstanding work with the Big Brother organization and the Elm Park Community School of Worcester. Also in 2002, the team received an award for their participation in the Worcester Neighborhood Clean-Up project.
Coach Bartley is also a frequent speaker at basketball camps and
clinics throughout New England.