Chris Kuchta has held a wide variety of positions within the Prairie State College Athletic Department in his nearly 16 years at the Chicago Heights-based school.
Kuchta was hired as the Coordinator of Sports Information in 2010, served as Director of Athletics from 2018-2021 and in January of 2022 stepped into his current role as PSC's first-ever Assistant Director of Athletics.
Kuchta helps oversee the operations of eight intercollegiate athletic programs and assists Director of Athletics, Joe Belcaster, in supervising 21 coaches and over 120 student-athletes. He also serves as the Chair of the PSC Student-Athlete Advisory Council.
A major part of Kuchta’s role as Assistant Director of Athletics focuses on athletic communication as he maintains the department's website and social media pages.
In 2024 Kuchta's story "McDivitt's Road to Success a Lesson in Defeating Adversity," was named the Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest National Story of the Year by the College Sports Communicators of America. The story also claimed the Best General Feature Award for the CSCA's college division and was named the CCSA's District 5 winner for the same category as well.
As the Coordinator of Sports Information, he was a liaison to local media as well as the manager of the school’s athletic website and official statistician. He created the athletic department's Facebook page and managed all social media.
While Director of Athletics, the Pioneers earned two NJCAA Region IV titles and seven Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference championships. The men's soccer program earned a berth in the NJCAA national tournament for the first time in school history (spring, 2021) and achieved the highest in-season ranking ever for a PSC athletic team (No. 2 during the 2021 fall season). Five Pioneer student-athletes also earned NJCAA All-American status under Kuchta's watch.
In the fall of 2024, Kuchta also became the director of the PSC Fitness Center. The center underwent a $300,000.00 transformation prior to spring 2025 that included new flooring, branding and equipment. The center is free to all students and also has a paid community membership component.
Prior to his time at Prairie State, Kuchta served as a freelance sports writer for the Chicago Sun-Times News Group and was the Assistant Sports Editor at the Marshalltown Times-Republican (Marshalltown, IA.).
Kuchta earned a Bachelor of Communication degree from Central College (Pella, IA). While at Central, he was a member of both the men's cross country and track and field teams. Competing in the 400-meter run, 800-meter run and javelin, Kuchta was part of three American Rivers Conference (formerly the Iowa Conference) championship teams and helped Central earn a third-place finish at the NCAA Division III National Meet in 2000. Kuchta also wrote for the student newspaper, served as the sports director for the campus radio station and provided play-by-play for men's and women's basketball broadcasts on campus television.
A 1997 graduate of St. Rita High School in Chicago, Kuchta served as a captain on both the Mustang's cross country and track teams.
A life-long athlete, Kuchta, who grew up playing a wide range of sports, has continued his love of running, still participating in road races today. He is also an avid 16-inch softball player, golfer and cyclist. He and his wife, Kristi, reside in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood.
