Whitman College Athletics

Seachris, who played baseball and basketball at Whitman, later divided a long teaching, coaching and administrative career between two local high schools and his college alma mater. He died in July 2002 at the age of 69.

Seachris, a 1950 graduate of Touchet High School, capped his first two years at Whitman by helping pitch the baseball team to a Northwest Conference title in the spring of 1952. It was Whitman's first conference crown in eight years. Shortly thereafter, however, a polio diagnosis forced Seachris to leave school. He eventually regained his health and returned to campus, resuming his athletic career and finishing his degree in 1958. He earned all-conference baseball honors in each of his last three seasons.

After graduating from Whitman, Seachris spent nearly two decades as a teacher, coach, athletic director and superintendent at Touchet and Prescott high schools. At Touchet, his baseball teams won 11 league titles while his basketball squads were winning 10. In three years at Prescott, Seachris won one league title in baseball, but it was his football teams that dominated the headlines, winning two league titles as well as a state championship. He was named Blue Mountain Coach of the Year in 1977.

Seachris, who earned his master’s degree in 1970 at Walla Walla College, came back to Whitman in 1977 as baseball coach and assistant professor of physical education. He remained at the helm of Whitman baseball until he retired from coaching in 1995 to concentrate on his role as athletic director, a position he had assumed in 1985. After guiding Whitman through its transition from the NAIA to the NCAA, Seachris retired in 1998 as athletic director emeritus.