GREENSBORO, NC – UNC Greensboro baseball coach Mike Gaski announced Wednesday the hiring of Jamie Athas and Chris Roberts as assistant coaches for the program.
Roberts spent the last four seasons as the pitching coach at NC State. While with the Wolfpack, Roberts had eight pitchers drafted in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft, including first round pick Andrew Brackman last season. He coached two All-Americans at NC State and three first-team All-ACC pitchers. He made an immediate impact upon his arrival in Raleigh. In 2003, Roberts’ first season with the Wolfpack, NC State logged a team ERA of 3.67 – the program’s best in 11 years.
Prior to joining the Wolfpack, Roberts spent two seasons at SoCon rival Western Carolina after a season as a volunteer at Flagler College in Florida. Roberts played his college baseball at Florida State, where he was a two-time All-American and played in the College World Series in 1991 and 1992. An outfielder and pitcher for the Seminoles, Roberts hit .321 as a sophomore and earned third-team All-American honors and Metro Conference Player of the Year with 14 home runs and 77 RBI. The following season, he was a second-team All-American with an 8-4 record as a pitcher and a 2.34 ERA to go along with 12 home runs and 59 RBI at the plate.
Roberts, a graduate of Florida State with played for Team USA in the 1991 Pan Am Games and was the starting left fielder for the USA Olympic squad in 1992 in Barcelona. Gaski was a part of the staff for both of those teams, giving Roberts and Gaski their first full opportunity to work together.
Roberts was selected by the New York Mets in the first round of the 1992 draft and played in the Mets organization from 1993-97. Roberts was regarded as a Top 10 prospect for the Mets and went 13-5 with a 2.75 ERA in his first season at Class-A St. Lucie, earning a spot in the Florida State League All-Star Game. He won 13 games again the following year at Class-AA Binghamton, helping the Mets to the Eastern League title.
He later had one-year stints with Oakland (1998), Colorado (1999) and Milwaukee (2001), along with a season in the Japanese Pacific League (2000). He played on the Class-AAA level with New York, Oakland and Milwaukee before retiring from his playing career at the end of the 2001 season.
Athas spent last season as an assistant at Kent State. He spent five seasons as a middle infielder in the San Francisco organization, including two years with the Fresno Grizzlies, before spending the 2006 campaign with the Carolina Mudcats, the Class-AA affiliate of the Florida Marlins. He was on the Giants’ 40-man roster during the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
A seventh-round pick of the Giants in 2001, Athas played two seasons for Wake Forest. He transferred from Providence after the 1999 season when the university folded the program. He was a freshman All-American for the Friars, hitting .325 with 42 RBI and 56 runs scored. In 2000, his first season at Wake Forest, Athas was named to the NCAA Regional All-Tournament team and finished the season with a .312 batting average and 30 RBI. His best season in the minors came in 2003 when he hit .275 for Class-AA Norwich.
Last year, Athas helped Kent State to a 33-24 mark overall and a 19-8 record in MAC play. The Golden Flashes won the MAC Tournament and adavanced to the NCAA Regional in Columbia, MO.
Both Athas and Roberts assume their UNCG positions August 1.
TRANSACTIONS
UNC GREENSBORO: Named Jamie Athas and Chris Roberts assistant
baseball coaches.
- UNCG -