Feature photo above: Curry and the Trojans appeared on the national radar following a regional final run in Baton Rouge in 2025. (Photos courtesy of Little Rock Athletics)
The Art of Coming Home
Daniel Ward could tell immediately that the new guy had the goods.
An outfielder for Hendrix College in Conway in 2007, Ward got the news that a new assistant coach would be joining the Warriors program. A sophomore out of Tacoma, Washington, Ward was not exactly unnerved by the news — Hendrix had struggled mightily the season before, and the liberal arts school had promoted pitching coach RJ Thomas to head coach. So when Ward was introduced to Chris Curry, his thoughts did not travel much beyond, “Maybe the new guy can help me.”
He most certainly could.
“He was just a really, really good teacher,” said Ward, now a chemical engineer in central Washington. “He was really good at breaking down the components of the game and hitting. I’d always been taught about hitting mechanics, but he brought the mental game and preparation to the forefront — just that discipline.”
The Trojans won their second straight OVC tournament title in 2026.
It is hard to believe, but Curry’s early encounters with Ward and his teammates at Division III Hendrix were the first baby steps toward a coaching career that has made Curry into one of Arkansas’ most recognized sports figures. In his 12th season as head baseball coach for the Little Rock Trojans, Curry just inked a contract extension that will likely keep him with the program until 2031. He recently closed the book on a storybook run to the NCAA super regionals one year after the program caught the country’s attention with a push through NCAA regional play.
Even by the standards of college coaching, where things are rarely handed to those starting a career, Curry’s path was a steep one. He had played collegiately as a catcher at what was then Meridian Junior College in Mississippi before getting drafted in the ninth round as a junior out of Mississippi State. What followed was an eight-year career in baseball’s minor leagues plus one season of playing independent league baseball with the Gary (Indiana) South Shore RailCats.
For somebody accustomed to professional baseball, a nonscholarship college program such as Hendrix could not have been further from what Curry had become used to. Add in the fact that Thomas could pay Curry little beyond some free orange-and-black gear, and Curry was truly starting over from scratch.
It had been the plan all along.
“I think he had realized that he wanted to coach toward the end of his career,” said Curry’s wife, Chassity.
First, Curry had to test his own convictions. He had played well enough in Indiana to snag a spring training invite with the Kansas City Royals organization and then surprised everyone with a performance that forced the Royals’ freshly hired management team to take a hard look at the career minor leaguer.
“I had a really, really good camp,” Curry said. “Actually, the best spring training I’ve ever had.”
Curry, in the twilight of his playing career, was suddenly and unexpectedly on the cusp. He had made it to the final day of camp when he was summoned to meet with new Royals General Manager Dayton Moore and Director of Player Development J.J. Picollo.
“They called me into the office and said, ‘Hey, we’ve been trying to find a way to cut you for the last three weeks, and we couldn’t because you had been playing so well,’” Curry said.
Then they cut him.
“They had a catcher who didn’t make the big league team with the Orioles, so he came back to the Royals,” Curry said. “They said, ‘He’s 21. You’re 29.’”
Then they offered him a job.
“They said, ‘However, do you want to coach with us?’” Curry said.
Little Rock won the Hattiesburg Regional this past season as a 4 seed before falling to Troy in the supers.
It was as serious as serious offers get. A job with the Royals organization would put Curry in position to climb the professional baseball coaching ladder — with a lucrative paycheck should he ever get promoted to the big league club.
Curry was flattered. He was also done. He and Chassity married in 2003, and the rigors and road trips of minor league life gave him time to think about the sort of life he wanted and the sort of husband and father he wanted to be at the end of the road. He shook Picollo and Moore’s hands, thanked them for the opportunity, and meant it. Then he walked to the parking lot, officially an ex-ballplayer. He would give away his Royals gear and catching equipment to friends and former roommates.
“He really was OK with moving on,” Chassity said. “I think he had realized that he wanted to coach, but he didn’t want to be on the professional side.”
Curry knew what awaited him if he accepted Moore’s offer — more minor league ball, more bus trips, more time away from his growing family — but Curry wanted to win, and he wanted to feel good about it.
“My quote-unquote happiest baseball times were in college,” said Curry, who played for future Southern Mississippi coach Scott Berry at Meridian and legendary longtime college coach Ron Polk in Starkville. “While pro ball was very good to me, it’s a very cutthroat environment. It’s well documented that the minor leagues are not about winning. They’re about development, and I missed the winning and college side of things.”
To be sure, Curry was choosing the tougher path. Because he signed a pro contract after his junior season in Starkville, Curry still needed to complete his college education, all while getting his foot in the door with the college game. Minor league baseball may have been a grind, but it was a grind that came with a salary, though a modest one. The Currys were a package deal in those years, with Chassity finding jobs where she could. At one stop, she worked in the ticket office of the ballpark where her husband played.
Both Chris and Chassity are grounded in their faith. As they looked ahead to their next chapter, one that would not be easy for them, that faith became their bedrock.
“Sometimes God’s answer isn’t no. It’s, ‘Not right now,’” Chassity said. “We lean on that principle a lot in our house, to be patient and wait on God’s timing.”
The Curry family — Chris, Chassity, Caleb Christopher and Lily Marie — at Gary Hogan Field in February 2015. (Photo provided by the Curry family)
In the meantime, Curry needed an inroad. Both he and Thomas had played at Conway High School under longtime coach Noel Boucher, and Thomas and Hendrix’s athletic administration had given Curry their blessing to use the baseball facilities to give private lessons and ready himself for that spring training with the Royals.
Now, in the spring of 2007, Curry was embarking on a new life, one in stark contrast to life in the Southeastern Conference or professional baseball. He would throw some batting practice, advise Hendrix’s hitters where he could, and essentially try to make life easier for Thomas and assistant coach Neil Groat.
“I was able to help [Hendrix’s] hitters with just approach and what pitch to look for and how to handle different situations,” Curry said.
Curry did not get too far into the weeds of hitting mechanics like stride length and launch angle — he was not around the program 24/7 and left most of the X’s and O’s to Thomas and Groat — but his cerebral approach to the game would sound familiar to his players at Little Rock today.
“He used video technology,” Ward said. “It was 2007, so it was pretty early for that. He brought some of that in where he would record the hitters, and then he would show you what you look like hitting, then would compare it to a major leaguer. He broke down those details and really delved into the details.”
Life in the coaching business happens fast. Curry had a relationship with former Russellville High School baseball standouts Will and Wes McCrotty from their days as high school rivals, and they helped introduce him to then-Arkansas Tech coach Billy Goss. His time at Hendrix had given him a starting point, but he still had the small matter of 42 academic hours worth of school left to get his degree in communications.
Curry crunched the numbers and found that Tech offered the most flexibility when it came to accepting his credits from Meridian and Mississippi State. He joined the Wonder Boys program, where he coached third base and called pitches. It was more responsibility than he handled at Hendrix, and with it came actual pay in the form of a $5,000 stipend.
Just like they always had, the Currys made it work. Chassity found a job in the human resources department at a nearby hospital, and Chris, determined to earn his degree so he could begin his career in earnest, grinded away at both school and baseball.
“I did 42 hours in two semesters and a summer,” Curry said.”I would come home, we would eat dinner together for 15 to 20 minutes, and then I would go in the backroom and study. I was highly motivated because I wanted to get my degree by the summer to be able to get a paid coaching job.”
The Curry family — Chris, Chassity, Caleb Christopher and Lily Marie in June 2026. (Photo provided by the Curry family)
Once Curry’s degree landed in his hand, doors opened. The baseball team at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville was hosting a coaching clinic and needed someone to come give a talk about catching. Curry agreed, having been familiar with then-Arkansas assistant coach Todd Butler, who recruited Curry out of high school while coaching at Alabama. Butler and Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn heard Curry’s presentation and liked it, leading to a phone call in the summer of 2008. Van Horn wanted to know if Curry was interested in coming aboard as an assistant coach who could work with the catchers. The job was voluntary, which, at that point, the Currys were used to, but two years after setting foot on Hendrix’s baseball field, Curry had landed at one of the top programs in the country.
Life, as it does, moves on. Curry would eventually return to Meridian as head coach, and he still credits the program for developing him as both a player and leader. Former teammates, along with those players from Hendrix and Tech, followed Curry’s career with interest, none of them surprised at his ascent up the ladder. Two years after he first began working with Curry, Ward led Hendrix to its first-ever conference title and graduated with most of the program’s offensive records.
The call from Little Rock came in 2015. Since then, the Currys have settled in. A decade-plus at the same program is rare for Division I baseball, and Curry relishes raising the couple’s two kids, Caleb Christopher and Lily Marie, in the same central Arkansas environment where he grew up. Chassity, who never once buckled under the demands and fiscal scarcities of baseball life, remains by her husband’s side.
It is a story about patience, faith and a couple’s carefully chosen adventures in the baseball world. It is also a story about a family enjoying well-earned stability and a marriage that survived through the vagaries of a life devoted to the game.
“When you come out of stuff that’s not easy, when you come out on the other side of it, it prepares you to face things that other people would not be prepared for,” Chassity said. “Everything you think that’s going to happen doesn’t always happen. God wanted us to go from playing to coaching, and it totally changed the landscape of our life. When you go through sacrifices as a marriage or when it’s a little bit harder, it strengthens your marriage when you get to the other side of it.”
SEE THE FEATURE BELOW AND IN OUR JULY 2026 ISSUE OF AMP
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