Head Baseball Coach

Instructor of Physical Education

Email:  pete.paciorek@principia.edu

B.A., California State University, Los Angeles

M.A., California State University, Los Angeles

Pete played professional baseball in the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers’ organizations for nine years before moving on to coaching. For the past five years, Pete has been involved in coaching at the professional, college, and high school levels. Most recently, Pete coached at California State University, Los Angeles, where he helped lead the team to the best overall record in school history. In 2006, Cal State L.A. was ranked as high as 6^th in the country for NCAA Division II, and finished the season one game away from advancing to the College World Series.

Coach Paciorek’s playing career began at San Marino High School (Calif.) where he was “State Player of the Year” in baseball his senior year. He moved on to Glendale Community College ( Calif.), where he was an All-Conference selection. After one season at GCC, Pete signed a professional contract with the San Diego Padres. He played for the Padres from 1995 to 1999 before moving on to the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. With the Dodgers, he helped lead his teams to two Minor League Championships (California League 2000 and Southern League 2001).  During his professional playing career, Pete was a two-time All-Star and named “Best Defensive First Baseman” by Baseball America.

Pete comes from a long line of baseball players. His dad, John, holds the Major League Baseball career batting average record of 1.000 (3 for 3). Two of his uncles played in the Major Leagues, Tom (17 years) and Jim (5 years). His brother Mack also played professional baseball.

The San Gabriel, California, native earned his B.A. in communications from Cal State L.A. in 2004, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and his master’s degree in communications with an emphasis in organizational communication and leadership at Cal State L.A. in 2006.

For the past two years, Pete has taught two courses of Fundamentals of Public Speaking-COMM 150 per quarter, as well as Leadership and Communication-COMM 435 at California State University, Los Angeles. 

Pete is a lifelong Christian Scientist and is happily married to his high school sweetheart Sara (Snyders) Paciorek.