Chris Baloga has led the Greyhounds golf program for more than a decade after being named the team’s head coach prior to the 2010-2011 season, and he has led the program in its tradition of excellence while reaching new heights on the course.
Under his direction, Loyola has won eight conference titles and competed in the NCAA Regional Championships an equal number of times.
The Greyhounds have rewritten the school record books both on a team and individual level, and they have continued to raise the bar in the classroom, as well.
A four-time Patriot League Coach of the Year and 2021 Golf Coaches Association of American (GCAA) Northeast Region Coach of the Year, Baloga led the Loyola to the Patriot League crown in the Greyhounds’ first two years of the membership in the conference (2014 and 2015) and another title in 2017. Loyola then returned to the top spot on the podium in the 2021 and 2022 seasons with some of the largest margins of victory in recent conference history.
Players who have worn the green and grey have gone on to play professionally on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Latin America, as well as to highly successful amateur careers.
Loyola won its second-straight Patriot League title in 2022 with Carlo Pizzano tying for first place as the Greyhounds took the title at The Steel Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The team moved on to the NCAA regional at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and it finished the year with school records in birdies and eagles. Brandon Berry earned PING All-Region recognition for the third time in his career after finishing his career ranked third in school history in scoring average.
The Greyhounds came back strong following the canceled 2020 championships (due to COVID), winning the 2021 Patriot League title in dominant fashion. Berry won medalist honors and Patriot League Player of the Year recognition, while Evan Brown turned in the best season in school history.
Brown broke Matt Oshrine’s school scoring record for a season and a career, helping the team to tie the school record for best final national ranking by Golfstat. Brown also became the first player in school history to earn PING All-America honors, being recognized as honorable mention, after both he and Berry were named to the All-Patriot League First Team.
Jay Mulieri, Baloga's first PING All-Region Team honoree, won the McLeod Trophy as a senior in 2012, joining his older brother, Michael, in becoming the first pair of siblings to win the MAAC individual title. That same year, Mulieri swept the MAAC Golfer of the Month awards and set a new school record with his 71.83 stroke average.
Matt Oshrine then put together one of the finest seasons for a Greyhound golfer in 2015. As just a sophomore, Oshrine swept the four Patriot League Golfer of the Month awards, giving him more than any other golfer in League history, and he won a school-record three tournaments, including breaking the tournament records at the Doc Gimmler and Middleburg Bank Intercollegiate before claiming the Patriot League Championship. He also broke Mulieri's school record for stroke average by shooting 71.72 for the year, en route to becoming the first Greyhound under Baloga to be twice named a PING All-Region performer.
As a group, Baloga's 2015 team produced the best scoring average in program history, with an average score of 292.78, while his 2012 squad combined to break, and still holds, the MAAC Tournament record by nine strokes, finishing with a team score of 4-over 868.
Recruiting wise, Baloga has continued to ensure future success in the program, as well. In just eight seasons, he's had three golfers named the conference's rookie of the year, as Bart George and Jimmy Dengler picked up MAAC Rookie of the Year accolades in 2012 and 2013, respectively, before Jeremy Wall earned top-rookie honors after finishing runner-up to Oshrine by one stroke at the 2015 Patriot League Championships.
Academically, Baloga's golfers are just as accomplished. In 2015, Oshrine was named the Patriot League Scholar Athlete of the Year for Golf, while Connor Flach joined him on the All-Patriot League Academic Team, making Loyola the lone program with more than one honoree on the five-member team. Flach then won Patriot League Scholar Athlete of the Year for Golf honors in back-to-back years - 2016 and 2017 - and was joined on the All-Patriot League Academic Team by Jimmy Dengler in 2016, again making Loyola the lone program with multiple honorees that year. Ethan Wall was named to the All-Academic Team in 2018 and Erick Alonso nabbed the honor in 2019.
Brown was recognized with Patriot League All-Academic honors in 2021, and Matthew Malits became the third member of the program to earn Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors from the conference as he garnered All-Academic recognition in 2022 along with Pizzano.
Nationally, Baloga has had six golfers earn Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar by the GCAA, with Dengler earning the distinction in 2015, making him Loyola's first national honoree since 2012 when McCormick and Ryan McCarthy became Loyola's first pair of golfers to earn the honor in the same season. Flach then earned the same honor in 2016 - and was one of just two Patriot League golfers to garner the accolade that year - before becoming a repeat honoree in 2017. He was joined by the Wall brothers, Ethan and Jeremy, among the 2017 recipients of the honor.
In addition, Baloga's squads have been named a GCAA All-Academic Team each of his eight years, while, individually, Baloga has produced six All-America Scholars, three Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year for Golf, eight Academic All-Patriot League selections and 47 Academic Honor Roll honorees.
An accomplished amateur golfer, Baloga led the Maryland Player of the Year rankings in 2010 and 2011 after finishing second in 2009 and 2014, third in 2008 and fourth in 2012 and 2022, and fifth in 2021. In September 2014 Baloga advanced to match play at the USGA Mid-Amateur at Saucon Valley. He competed in the inaugural USGA Four-Ball Championship in May 2015 at the Olympic Club, 2016 at Winged Foot, 2017 at Pinehurst, and will compete alongside William Wears in the 2023 Championship in Kiawah Island. In 2010, Baloga qualified for the USGA Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay GC.
The Maryland State Golf Team also selected Baloga to play for Maryland at the USGA Men's State Team Championship in 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2014 but he was only able to compete in 2009.
In addition to his national amateur competition, Baloga has won several amateur titles around the region. Baloga took first place at the 2010 and 2012 Washington Metropolitan Mid-Amateur Championship, the 2010 Maryland Mid-Amateur Championship, the 2008 and 2011 Maryland Amateur Stroke Play Championship and the 2008 Middle Atlantic Amateur Championship. He also qualified for U.S. Open sectionals in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 and has made the cut for match play at the Maryland Amateur fourteen times, losing in the final in 2014 to PGA Tour player Denny McCarthy.
A former Division I student-athlete, Baloga played college golf for Towson University, where he earned Colonial Athletic Association Scholar-Athlete honors all four years and served as a co-captain his senior year.
Baloga resides in Towson with his wife, Marci, and son, Hudson.
