Grand Canyon University Baseball Camp

Head Coach Gregg Wallis

Gregg Wallis became the fifth head coach in the history of Grand Canyon's baseball program on July 8, 2022. Wallis spent the previous nine seasons on GCU's staff as an assistant coach with the last six as the program's recruiting coordinator.

In his first season as Lopes head coach in 2023, Wallis helped lead the Lopes to a WAC Regular-Season Championship with a 22-7 mark in conference action. He was named the WAC Coach of the Year, the first rookie head coach in conference history to win the award. The Lopes began conference action with a 9-7 mark but finished with 13 consecutive WAC wins to claim the title on the regular season's final day.

Wallis was the recruiting coordinator and right-hand man of former Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz, and Wallis was tabbed as GCU's next head coach within days of Stankiewicz's departure in the summer of 2022. The duo won five WAC regular-season championships and led the program to its first two D-I NCAA Tournament appearances.

Wallis originally joined the Lopes as an assistant coach in their first season of transition back to the NCAA Division I level in 2014 and took on the role of recruiting coordinator in 2016.

He was an assistant coach on the Lopes' staff through many milestones in the program's transition back to the D-I ranks including a decade of domination in the WAC, a first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, and a top-25 national ranking and at-large bid.

In his role as GCU's recruiting coordinator, Wallis worked alongside former Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz to reel in some of the nation's best talent. The Lopes' 2020 class was ranked as the 30th-best in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. In 2021, Baseball America named GCU's recruiting class as one of the 10 best at the mid-major level. Prep Baseball Report gave the Lopes' class a similar distinction in 2022 as one of 10 "Power Major" classes.

The Lopes saw unprecedented success for a team transitioning to D-I, winning the 2015 and 2017 WAC Regular-Season Championships. In 2015 – under Wallis’ direction — GCU’s offense finished with a .308 team batting average, a mark that was seventh in the nation. Grand Canyon had six All-WAC selections including the WAC Freshman of the Year.

The success continued following the successful completion of the Division I transition. In GCU's first fully-eligible season, the Lopes once again claimed the WAC regular-season title by winning all eight conference series. GCU broke through for its first WAC Tournament Championship and NCAA Division I Tournament debut in the 2021 season.

The Lopes returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2022 by virtue of an at-large berth. GCU featured the WAC Pitcher of the Year and WAC Freshman of the Year in Daniel Avitia and a Golden Spikes semifinalist in Jacob Wilson.

While with the Lopes, Wallis has worked to develop a strong corps of outfielders. The outfield development was never more evident than in 2019 when all three of GCU's starting outfielders (Quin Cotton, Preston Pavlica, Kona Quiggle) earned All-WAC recognition and were selected in the MLB Draft. Wallis coached 2018 WAC Player of the Year, Quin Cotton, 2017 WAC Player of the Year and Atlanta Braves draft pick, Garrison Schwartz, and 2015 Chicago White Sox draft pick, David Walker. Outfielder Tayler Aguilar broke the program's single-season D-I home run record with 23 in 2022.

The 2023 season marked Wallis’ 18th year on a collegiate baseball coaching staff, serving in positions ranging from undergraduate assistant to director of operations to assistant coach and now a head coach. He has previously held positions at Tennessee, Cal State Fullerton and his alma mater, UC Irvine.

Wallis came to GCU after three seasons at Tennessee, where he was responsible for managing baseball camps, oversight of student managers, the program’s academic liaison and the overall operations of the baseball program. Additionally, he was in charge of working with the Volunteers’ outfielders, offense and manned the first base coaching box. Following the departure of the program’s head coach after the 2011 season, Wallis was retained as a member of coach Dave Serrano’s new staff. It continued a long working and playing relationship between Wallis and Serrano, who were together at UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Tennessee.

Prior to his time in the SEC, Wallis spent three seasons at Cal State Fullerton. He held a variety of roles during his time with the Titans including serving as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Wallis mainly worked with the team’s outfielders including Big West Freshman of the Year Michael Lorenzen. As a member of the Fullerton staff, Wallis helped lead the program to an impressive 136-56 (.708) mark and helped run the Titans’ consecutive-year postseason streak to 19 seasons. Cal State Fullerton advanced to the Super Regionals, College World Series and Super Regionals, respectively, in Wallis’ three seasons with the program.

An alumnus of UC Irvine, Wallis spent two seasons on the team’s staff upon graduation. He served one year as an undergraduate assistant in 2006 before moving to the director of baseball operations position for a College World Series-qualifying club in 2007. The Anteaters won a pair of games before being eliminated by the eventual national champion, Oregon State.

Wallis played collegiately at UC Irvine from 2002-2005, the first player to sign with head coach John Savage as UC Irvine looked to resurrect its baseball program for the 2002 season. He appeared in 149 games for the Anteaters as an infielder and posted a .319 batting average as a senior in 2005. He accumulated 91 hits over the course of his four-year career.

A three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American and four-time UCI and Big West Conference Scholar-Athlete, Wallis graduated from UC Irvine in 2005 with a degree in political science and a minor in psychology.

A native of the Los Angeles area, Wallis graduated from Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, California, in 2001. He is married to his wife, Kay, and lives in Goodyear, Arizona, with daughter Khia and son Karsen.