By Tim Peeler
One of the first things NC State associate head coach Chris Hart did when he was elevated from director of baseball operations to full-time assistant and recruiting coordinator was change the way the program scouted and approached its potential recruits.
He wanted the Wolfpack to get involved earlier in the process, to identify players with long-range potential in their high school freshman and sophomore years, something longtime coach Elliott Avent was not on board with at the time.
“Looking around the country, we were behind in early recruiting,” Hart says. “We needed to go recruit kids earlier and get kids at a younger age. That was my focus. Coach said ‘I have a little bit of a tough time with that, but if you feel comfortable with it, then I’ll take the handcuffs off and you go do it.’
“We had to go out and win the best kids in the state and the only way to do that in North Carolina was to beat people to the punch. That’s what we tried to do.”
It paid almost immediate dividends, with full buy-in from the entire coaching staff. The 13 freshmen in the class of 2012 included Trea Turner, Carlos Rodon, Brett Austin, Jake Fincher and Logan Ratledge, the core of the 2013 team were sophomores on the Wolfpack’s first trip to the College World Series since 1968.
“That started in 2009, and that class ended up getting it done and knocking down the door a little bit,” Hart says.
Through the years, the former Florida State catcher and infielder who played every position for the Seminoles except pitcher and centerfield has been the first point of contact for All-America players like Turner, Rodon, Patrick Bailey, Andrew Knizner, Tommy White and the bulk of this year’s roster, which qualified for the College World Series for the third time in Avent’s—and Hart’s—career. Hart is the only other member of Avent’s staff who has been with the Wolfpack for all three trips to Omaha.
“Obviously, he’s in charge of recruiting and does all the recruiting,” Avent says. “But what he does as far as running the offense and hitting in practice and all that stuff is amazing.
“I love to watch him work.”
How dedicated is Hart to recruiting? As soon as Monday night’s decisive Game 3 at Georgia ended with an 8-5 Wolfpack victory, Hart drove the 360 miles from Athens to Raleigh to prepare for a recruiting visit Tuesday afternoon while the rest of the team came back later in the day in two NCAA-chartered buses.
“He’s dedicated to making the program better every day,” Avent says.
Hart has been Avent’s associate head coach since 2015. Three years ago, when the Pack advanced to the College World Series for the third time in its history, Hart was named Baseball American’s 2021 Assistant Coach of the Year.
Hart had a decorated playing career at Florida State, as the Seminoles advance to four consecutive NCAA Super Regionals and to the 1999 and 2000 College World Series, under the tutelage of Seminole coach Mike Martin. In 195 games, Hart hit .271 with 23 doubles, two triples and seven home runs, with 71 runs batted in.
“From the second I started playing, the goal has always been to get to Omaha and to win a national championship,” Hart says. “That’s always been my mindset. It was always about that when I played and since I’ve been here it’s been about building a team that could compete with everybody in the country.”
His success as an assistant and associate head coach comes from playing for and coaching for two of the top mentors in college baseball history, FSU’s Martin and NC State’s Avent, who have almost 3,300 college baseball victories between them.
Those relationships were vastly different, but equally important in Hart’s baseball education.
“I learned more baseball from Coach Martin than you can fathom,” says Hart of the legendary coach who died earlier this year. “His attitude was all baseball, he was always ‘I’m going to teach you baseball, coach you baseball and we’re going to win baseball.’ Everything was baseball centric.
“What Elliott has taught me is that it is a more personal game. He’ll ride over to a player’s house to check on him or invite them to his house or help them change a tire. He just connects in a completely different way. Players know how much he cares.”
Hart is also from a family that has been heavily involved in college athletics for three generations, so he has a preloaded athlete-first mentality. His grandfather, Dave Hart Sr., was the head football coach at Pittsburgh, the athletics director at Louisville and Missouri, and the commissioner of the Southern Conference.
His uncle, Dave Hart Jr., was the athletics director at East Carolina, Florida State, Alabama and Tennessee. His first cousin, Rick Hart, is the athletics director at new Atlantic Coast Conference member Southern Methodist.
Yet what sealed the deal for Avent’s decision 20 years ago to hire Chris Hart as the Wolfpack’s director of baseball operations following his five years playing career at Florida State and his one-year coaching stint at a Florida junior college was a recommendation from the most connected person in the history of NC State athletics, former basketball and baseball player and basketball assistant Eddie Biedenbach.
“I hired Chris for two reasons,” Avent says. “First, because Eddie Biedenbach told me to. Second, because he played for Mike Martin, one of the greatest college coaches of my lifetime.”
Biedenbach and Dave Hart Sr. were both from the Pittsburgh area and later connected when Biedenbach was the head basketball coach at UNC-Asheville and Hart lived there while SoCon commissioner. They formed a bond through the years.
“I told him, ‘Elliott, I can’t tell you anything about him as a coach,’” Biedenbach says. “But I did know that was a great kid from a great family and that he would be the most loyal person you can imagine for that job.
“I think that has been the case, which is a great tribute to Elliott and to NC State.”
By Avent’s count, Hart has had double-figure job offers at schools both smaller and larger than NC State, with better facilities, easier recruiting paths and great departmental support.
“He’s turned ’em all down to stay here,” Avent says. “His loyalty is one of the reasons our program is where it’s at.
“I could go on and on about Chris Hart.”
But it was getting late in the afternoon. Avent had to get his clothes washed and pack his bags for Omaha. He had a long checklist of things to do before he could even think about leaving.
At the top of it was to meet Hart and a prospective player for a late afternoon recruiting visit.Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.
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