Bio

Chris Richardson is entering his first season as Head Basketball Coach of the Lady Pioneers. Richardson joined the program as an assistant coach with the Crowley’s Ridge College women’s basketball team in early February 2023. The team finished with a 6-1 record with him on the bench. This included six consecutive wins which currently is the longest winning streak in program history. 

Before coming to CRC, Richardson was a head softball coach for three seasons at Rector High School. His career record is 33-18 with wins coming in softball, girls basketball and baseball. His last team at Rector was ranked as high as top four in the state for 2A by Scorebook Live and made the state tournament. The Lady Cougars finished as co-conference champs with an 18-6 overall record and an 11-1 conference record in 2022. The Lady Cougars never finished worse than second in the conference in the two full seasons under Richardson and he was selected twice as the all-star coach nominee for the 2A-3 Conference. 

In basketball, Richardson was an assistant women’s basketball coach at Rector for five seasons. The Lady Cougars finished in the Elite Eight of the 2A state tournament in 2022 and made back-to-back state tournament appearances for the first time in school history. The squad also finished as runner-up in the conference in consecutive seasons. 

Richardson graduated with honors from Williams Baptist University in 2013 with a double bachelor’s degree in K-12 Health and Physical Education and a Bachelor of Arts in History. He also was selected by his teammates to be a captain of the Eagles baseball team, where he pitched for four seasons. The next few years, he worked at Williams as an Assistant Sports Information Director and Assistant Softball Coach for one season while graduating in 2014 from Arkansas State University with his Masters Degree in Sport Administration. 

Richardson has also held the title of serving as the Parks and Recreation Director of Sports in Pocahontas, Ark. (2016-17). He also currently serves as a professor in the Education Department at CRC. 

Richardson is married to the Dean of Students at Crowley’s Ridge College, Erica Richardson. They live in Paragould, Ark.