With two consecutive state championships in the bag, St. Aloysius has found the man it thinks will lead it to No. 3.

Chris Wright, who spent last season as an assistant at New Hope, has been hired as St. Al’s head baseball coach. He replaces Clint Wilkerson, who resigned last month to pursue other opportunities after leading the Flashes to back-to-back Class 1A championships.

This is the first head coaching job for the 27-year-old Wright. He played college baseball at Meridian Community College and Union University in Jackson, Tenn., before returning to his native Columbus and becoming a registered nurse.

He got back into coaching at New Hope last year and helped the Trojans reach the second round of the Class 5A playoffs.

“Just the tradition they’ve had the last couple years and the academic status of the school, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down,” Wright said of the St. Al job. “I originally applied for the assistant coach’s job. When Coach Wilkerson left it turned into a head coaching job and I really couldn’t turn that down. I was lucky. It normally doesn’t happen that way. I’ll have a learning process this year, and definitely in the classroom.”

St. Al principal Michele Townsend said Wright was selected from a pool of about 20 applicants. Townsend said Wright’s background made him an ideal candidate to fill both a coaching and teaching position. Wright will teach biology, health and earth science at St. Al in addition to his coaching duties.

“We were looking for a science teacher and a baseball coach, and that’s what we got,” Townsend said.