Chip West enters his fourth season on the Virginia coaching staff in 2013 with the additional title of recruiting coordinator. West, who coaches the Cavalier cornerbacks, took over the new role following the 2012 season and saw Virginia sign a top-30 class in February that featured the first five-star prospect in Mike London's tenure at Virginia. It was the third consecutive top-30 class for the UVa program.
The highly-energetic West has taken advantage of his personal and professional background in the Tidewater area to strongly enhance Virginia's recruiting efforts in that region. West was named the Atlantic Coast Conference's recruiter of the year for 2011 by 247Sports and was one eight finalists for the organization's national recruiter of the year honor.
As effective as West has been on the recruiting circuit, he has been equally successful as a position coach.
In 2012, sophomore cornerback Demetrious Nicholson was an honorable mention selection to All-ACC media and coaches teams. As a freshman in 2011, he was a second-team freshman All-American.
In 2011, senior cornerback Chase Minnifield earned All-ACC honors for the second straight year while being coached by West. Minnifield ended his career with 13 interceptions.
That same year, Nicholson, the state's high school player of the year in 2010, started all 13 games, recorded two interceptions and finished fourth on the team with 60 tackles.
In 2010 West coached Ras-I Dowling. Despite missing much of the season due to injury, Dowling was a second-round pick by the New England Patriots.
A Hampton, Va., native, West was the assistant head coach, recruiting coordinator and defensive backs coach for head coach Bobby Wilder at Old Dominion before joining the Virginia staff. He was responsible for recruiting the Hampton Roads and Tidewater areas for the Monarchs. ODU went 9-2 in 2009 in its first season as a NCAA FCS program.
Prior to joining the staff at Old Dominion, West coached at James Madison for three seasons (2004-2006) overseeing the defensive backs, including free safety Tony LeZotte, a 2005 All-American and Atlantic-10 Defensive Player of the Year, as well as the Atlantic 10 co-rookie of the year as a freshman. The Dukes won the NCAA Division I-AA national championship in 2004, finishing 13-2. In 2006 JMU returned to the FCS playoffs, losing in the first round at Youngstown State.
West coached the defensive backs at Fordham in 2003 when the Rams were 9-3. He served as the wide receivers coach at Colgate for four years and worked as a graduate assistant at West Virginia. Colgate shared the 2002 Patriot League title with Fordham, finishing with a 9-3 overall record and a 6-1 league mark. The Raiders led the Patriot League in 2002 in total offense, averaging 392.5 yards per game, including 215.0 yards per game passing. In 1999 Colgate won the Patriot League title and competed in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
As a graduate assistant at West Virginia for two seasons, West worked with the defense as the Mountaineers participated in the Carquest and Insight.com bowls.
West played football at Kecoughtan High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer information systems from Livingstone College, and his master's in physical education from West Virginia while working as a graduate assistant coach. West was an all-CIAA wide receiver at Livingstone.
He and his wife, Patrice, are the parents of five children: Zoe, David, Gwen, Justin and Jada.
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