From Washington University Athletics
Washington University in St. Louis Director of Athletics Josh Whitman announced the hiring of Pat Bloom as head coach of the Bears' baseball team. Bloom is the 13th baseball coach in program history.
Bloom arrives on the Danforth campus after spending the past 12 seasons as the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He is the all-time winningest coach in school history, compiling a 393-175 (.692) overall record. Bloom led the Pointers to four World Series appearances and eight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) conference titles.
He put together an impressive stretch at UW-Stevens Point that included back-to-back Division III World Series appearances in 2006 and 2007 and five straight WIAC Tournament titles from 2005-2009. Bloom led his team to their best national finish of third place in 2007.
"We are extremely excited to welcome Pat Bloom, one of the most successful coaches in Division III baseball, to the Bears Athletics family. In more than a decade at the helm, he has developed the Pointers into the one of the nation's premier baseball programs. Pat's record at UW-Stevens Point speaks for itself, but even more importantly, he shares our athletic program's values," Whitman said. "Pat's intensity and competitiveness are unmistakable, but his commitment to the academic and personal development of our students is second-to-none. We have full confidence in Pat's leadership and look forward to a new era of Bears Baseball under his guidance."
Bloom's teams have appeared in the NCAA Division III Top-10 rankings in nine of the last 11 seasons, including No. 2 in 2011 and 2014. In 2015, Bloom led UW-Stevens Point to its 10th NCAA Regional in 11 seasons, as the Pointers posted a 33-14 overall record. It was UWSP's ninth 30-win season in the past 11 seasons. The team also won the WIAC Tournament for the 11th time in the tournament's 18 seasons.
During the 2013 season, Bloom led the Pointers to the most wins in school history with a 41-11 record, and finished fourth in the NCAA Division III World Series. UWSP also took home a fifth-place finish in 2010 in its third finals appearance.
The accomplishments under Bloom include the best finish in school history when the 2007 team finished third at the World Series with a 34-17 overall record. In 2006 the Pointers finished fifth in NCAA Division III with a 35-18 record.
"I would like to thank Director of Athletics Josh Whitman and Deputy Director of Athletics Chris Peacock for their collective efforts and confidence in entrusting me with the opportunity to be the next baseball coach at Washington University," said Bloom. "The combinative excellence in academics and athletics at WashU is as good as it gets, and I am humbled to have the opportunity to work with and learn from talented colleagues who have worked hard to build upon the rich tradition of Bears Athletics."
Bloom is a four-time Midwest Region Coach of the Year (2006, 2007, 2010, 2013), and earned Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year in 2008. He also captured the WIAC Coach of the Year honor in 2005 as the Pointers set the single-season wins record with a 38-11 record before losing the regional title game to eventual national champion University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
During his tenure at UWSP, Bloom coached 10 All-Americans, seven WIAC Player of the Year winners and five WIAC Pitchers of the Year honorees. He also mentored five professional players, including Major League Baseball All-Star Jordan Zimmermann.
Bloom graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from UWSP in 2001, and received a master's degree in sports studies with concentrations in sport behavior and performance and sport organization from Miami University (Ohio) in 2003.
A native of Tomah, Wis., Bloom played two seasons at Carthage College before completing his final two seasons at UWSP. As a relief pitcher, he was a member of two conference championship teams at Carthage and one WIAC title team at UWSP. Bloom also played on Carthage's 1997 Division III World Series team.
Following his playing career, Bloom spent one season as UWSP's pitching coach and two years as a graduate assistant in the Miami athletic department.
"We are going to have very high goals for our program and for the overall academic, athletic, and personal development of our student-athletes," Bloom added. "There is a collective commitment to excellence at WashU, and we are going to be relentless in our pursuit toward achieving a level of national prominence that is on par with our other outstanding Bears programs. I am excited to be a part of the vision for the future of WashU Baseball, and I cannot wait to get started."
Bloom inherits a WashU program that finished the 2015 season with a 34-16 record, tying the program's single-season wins record. The Bears earned a share of the UAA Championship, and advanced to the NCAA Regional for the ninth time in school history. WashU has an overall record of 1,268-956-9 (.570) in 70 seasons as a varsity program.