Cole T. Wright
Baseball (1996-1998)
Sports Anchor at ESPN, FOXSports1 in Los Angeles, the NFL Network, NESN in Boston, SportsNet L.A. and Chicago's Marquee Network
Holds Waubonsee record for game-winning hits in a season
Key member of Skyway and Region IV Championship team in 1998
Coming through when the stakes are high and the pressure is elevated takes someone who is not only skilled, but also focused, determined, confident and relaxed. Cole Wright was all of those things and more when he was a member of Waubonsee’s baseball team in 1997 and 1998. “Mr Clutch” set the Chiefs’ single-season record for game-winning hits that still stands, coming through when it counted most nine times in a 32-win season in 1998.
Wright graduated from Waubonsie Valley High School where he was a Second Team All-Conference first baseman and designated hitter, for a Warriors team that finished second in the state in 1996. He stepped onto the Sugar Grove campus with a lot of potential, but admittedly some shortcomings. “Waubonsee was just what I needed to get things straightened out in the classroom and on the field,” declares Wright. “Dave Randall believed in me and that gave me the confidence to succeed. He helped me to get serious about what I wanted to do.”
As a freshman he was the Chiefs’ closer, finishing the season with a 1.71 earned-run-average, the sixth best mark in school history. The right-hander also struck out an average of 7.54 batters per nine innings to rank in the top-20 in the annals of the program, helping lead the Chiefs to the Region IV title game and a number nine ranking nationally. A shoulder injury kept him off the mound the following season and he moved to first base where he also thrived. Wright batted .363, ripped eight doubles, scored 37 runs, and posted a .978 fielding percentage. His 43 runs batted in that spring is tied for the fifth most in the Chiefs’ record book for a single-season. Waubonsee captured the Skyway Conference title and then swept the competition away for the Region IV Championship. The Chiefs eventually lost the District title to Columbus State from Ohio, two games to one, and finished the year ranked seventh nationally.
Wright played a season at the University of Tennessee-Martin, before transferring to Briar Cliff University in Iowa for his senior year, where he earned a B.A. in Communication and began an internship working for a local television station. He then worked as a sports anchor in Texas for small stations in San Angelo and Tyler. Wright got his first big break when he was hired by NBC affiliate WVLA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he covered LSU sports and the NFL’s New Orleans Saints. In 2008 he moved to the east coast to work for the North East Sports Network (NESN) in Boston, where he covered the city’s professional sports teams; the Celtics, the Bruins, the Red Sox and the New England Patriots. After two years there he was hired by ESPN, where he was the jack-of-all trades, filling in wherever he was needed. Over the course of three years Wright made appearances on SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, NBA Tonight, College Football Goal Line, College Football Live and College Basketball’s Buzzerbeater. He left ESPN in 2014 moving across the country to Redondo Beach, California to join FOXSports1 in Los Angeles. While on the west coast he served as one of the NFL Network’s marquee anchors, and he also worked for the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers at SportsNet LA. Wright, his wife Regan, and their eight-year-old daughter Paisley moved back to the Chicago area in early 2020 so the life-long Chicago Cubs fan could embark on his dream job, working as a lead announcer for the organization's new Marquee Network.