Chris Shanahan enters his third season as a Rivier University baseball assistant coach in 2024. Shanahan returned to Rivier in 2022 after a short stint as an assistant coach back in 2008.

Shanahan has extensive experience coaching at all levels of competition including being the head coach at Northern Essex Community College. He was most recently an assistant at NECC from 2019-2021. Shanahan also worked at Daniel Webster as an assistant coach. 

As head coach at Northern Essex, Shanahan had a 59-55 record in 3 full seasons. In his final year, the team finished with an overall record of 30-9 and finished 3rd at the Junior College World Series, while also being ranked nationally in each poll and ranking as high as #3 in the country. He was named Conference and Regional Coach of the year for the 2012 season.

In his three years as head coach at NECC, the program won two conference championships and one regional championship with three First-Team All-Americans. Most importantly more than 30 of Shanahan’s players moved on to 4-year programs, most with scholarships, including 8 moving on to Division 1 programs.

Shanahan, a native of Tyngsboro, Mass., is a 2006 graduate of Daniel Webster College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Sport Management. As a player At DWC, he was a four-year letter winner, three-time all-conference honoree and  captain, and holds numerous offensive records. During his senior year, Shanahan was named First Team All-GNAC catcher, GNAC Player of the Year, and ABCA New England All-American Catcher. Shanahan left DWC with a career batting average of .419, holding the school record. In 2006, he also won an NCAA National Batting Title, hitting .524 for the season, breaking the DWC record for hits. He finished his college career playing at the NEIBA College All-Star game at Fenway Park.

 

Shanahan resides in Nashua with his wife Stacey and son Hunter.