ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa.-- Dr. Owen Lee Wright,  former Elizabethtown College men's soccer and baseball coach and teacher, recently passed away. He passed away on January 30, 2023 and was 89 years old. 

Owen L. Wright OBITUARY 

Wright, enjoyed a remarkable career as a collegiate head coach in two sports, highlighted by an NCAA Division III national championship at the University of LaVerne in baseball and numerous national tournament appearances in both baseball and men's soccer at Elizabethtown.

In 21 seasons, Wright's Etown soccer teams compiled a 234-90-26 overall record and won nine Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) championships, including six straight from 1962-67. He guided the Blue Jays to seven appearances in the NCAA Atlantic Coast Regionals and three tournament championships. When national playoffs began in 1974, Etown earned seven NCAA berths and finished third in the 1976 Division III playoffs. Wright's accomplishments coaching baseball were nearly as impressive. His Etown team won 258 games and four MAC titles and reached the NCAA Mideast Regional tournament in 1983. While still at Etown, Wright obtained his Ph.D in Physical Education from the University of Oregon in 1971. In 1991, he was inducted into Elizabethtown College Athletic Hall of Fame.

During his 21 seasons with Etown, Wright coached current Blue Jays men's soccer head coach, Skip Roderick. Roderick then took over for Wright in 1983 when Wright moved to California to coach soccer and baseball at the University of LaVerne until 1998. In 1998, Wright retired from coaching. Wright coached an estimated 1,260 students in soccer and 525 in baseball at Etown.

In addition to his coaching achievements, Wright chaired the National Rating committee for soccer from 1979-82 and, along with his wife, Pat, created the national rating system for women's soccer. He also headed the National Soccer All-America committee from 1993-97 and the NCAA Soccer Rules committee from 1980-86.

Wright, a 1958 Bridgewater College graduate, and Bridgewater, Va. native is a member of the Bridgewater, Elizabethtown, and LaVerne athletics Halls of Fame. Wright also received the Joseph A. Whitmore Outstanding Service to Student-Athletes Award in 2008 from Elizabethtown.