Outside of its annual World Series tournament, college baseball doesn’t get a lot of national publicity. But it’s hard not to appreciate the story of South Dakota State’s Ritchie Price, who is the youngest head coach in Division I history at age 25.
Price played for his father, Ritch Price, at Kansas from 2003 to 2006. He landed at South Dakota State as an assistant in 2008 and then was hired as the interim head coach in 2009 when Reggie Christiansen resigned from the position following the ’08 season. After leading the Jackrabbits to a 26-30 record and a third place finish in the Summit League in 2009, Price was hired as SDS’s full-time head coach. Thus far in 2010, the Jackrabbits have compiled a 10-4 record, including a 3-2 win over Arkansas in Fayetteville.
But outside of SDS’s early success and the fact that he’s the youngest coach in D-I history, what’s most impressive about Price is that he took over a team that used to be D-II and one that works with a small budget, virtually no home games and facilities that hardly rival that of a junior college program. The school is also in nowheresville Brookings, South Dakota, which makes it very difficult to recruit.
But besides all of these potential hurdles, Price has found a way to breed success at SDS and knows what it takes to field a competitive team. He has coaching in his blood and if he continues on this path, it might not be long before we’re seeing the 25-year-old Price rise through the ranks and make a name for himself.
