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Baseball
Head Coach Rick Heller begins his 10th season as the head baseball coach at the University of Northern Iowa where he has earned one Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) championship and an NCAA Regional berth. In 2007, Heller earned his 200th win with the Panthers, as well as his 500th win as a head coach. During his tenure, Heller has developed the program into a conference contender year in and year out, while coaching three MVC Most Valuable Players and one MVC Pitcher of the Year. The Panthers have broken 57 team or individual school records with Heller at the helm which includes UNI posting a 4.63 earned run average in 2006, its lowest ERA since joining Division I in 1981. It also broke team records for hits, runs batted in, doubles and extra base hits during the 2001 season. In 2008, UNI finished with its third 30-win season, posting a 30-24 mark. Shortstop Brandon Douglas earned MVC Player of the Year honors, as well as second-team All-America honors. The Panthers finished with the third-highest batting average in the Valley, and Douglas finished the year with the league's second highest average at the plate. Including 2008, Heller has led the Panthers to four MVC tournaments, winning the Championship in 2001 with all-American Ryan Brunner claiming the league MVP award and all-American Nic Ungs taking home Pitcher of the Year honors. Since Heller's arrival, 18 Panther players have gone on to play professional baseball, including current minor leaguers Brandon Douglas, Guido Fonseca, Nic Ungs, and Adam Boeve. The Panthers recorded back-to-back 30-plus win seasons in 2001 and 2002 for the first time in school history and set the school single-season record at 35 wins in 2001. UNI's NCAA Regional appearance in 2001 was the school's first since becoming Division I in 1981. Heller also has coached two academic all-Americans in Travis Welsch and Ryan Brunner. Since Heller's arrival in 2000, the school record books virtually have been rewritten. The Panthers have a strong tradition as one of the best offensive teams in the conference as well as the country. In Heller's nine years, UNI has led the league in hitting three times and finished second once. In 2001, UNI was ranked 10th in the nation in hitting with a team average of .333. The Panthers were sixth in the country in stolen bases with 130 in 2003. The team has averaged more than seven runs per game in three of the six years he has been at the helm. In 2003, Adam Boeve finished second in the league in hitting, leading in home runs and RBI. Boeve was also the second player during Heller's tenure to earn the MVC Player of the Year award. Team hitting is not the only thing that has improved since Heller's arrival. The pitching and fielding has also strengthened. UNI's earned run average has lowered in six of Heller's years with the 2006 ERA being the best in school history. The club's walk to strikeout ratio has improved with nearly every season since 2000. The 2003 and 2004 Panther squads also put together the top two defensive teams in school history with an overall fielding percentage of .964 both seasons. Heller became just the sixth UNI baseball coach since 1926 when he was hired in September 1999. He had spent the previous 12 seasons building a nationally-ranked program as the head coach at Upper Iowa University in Fayette, Iowa. While at Upper Iowa, Heller recorded a 291-194-3 record and was named Iowa Conference Coach of the Year four times. The Peacocks won three regular-season and three Iowa Conference Tournament titles in his tenure. Heller arrived in Fayette in the fall of 1987 and quickly turned things around, earning his first Iowa Conference Coach of the Year honor in 1989. One year later, he led Upper Iowa to its first winning season in 17 years. In 1993, Heller won his first conference championship, and the first for any UIU program in 20 years, while advancing to the NCAA Division III Regionals. Heller's team won the Iowa Conference and advanced to the NCAA Regionals again in 1995. His team finished 19th in the national rankings and he won his third Coach of the Year honor. He repeated Coach of the Year honors again in 1996 when the Peacocks won the Iowa Conference and Central Regional to advance to the NCAA Division III College World Series. His team finished the year ranked sixth nationally and he was named NCAA Division III Central Region Coach of the Year. That 39-12 team also set a school record for wins. In 1997, his team was ranked seventh nationally in the pre-season poll and won the Iowa Conference Tournament. In 1998, his team reached as high as 10th nationally while finishing with a 38-8 record to set a school record for winning percentage. His final UIU team finished 30-15-1 and finished third in the Iowa Conference while setting five school records. As a player at Upper Iowa from 1982-86, he was a four-year starter at shortstop and he also lettered in football and basketball. He is a member of the Upper Iowa Athletic Hall of Fame. Heller has two daughters - Tara (27) and Alyssa (19). He and his wife, Rachelle, live in Dike.
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