Page 42 - DBU Baseball 25 Media Guide

DAN HEEFNER–HEAD COACH
Dan Heefner is in his 18th season as the head coach of the DBU Baseball team and his 21st year with the program. During his previous 17 seasons at the helm, Heefner has guided the DBU Baseball program to the NCAA postseason 13 times, including 12 of the last 13 years. The Patriots are also one of just five teams in college baseball to reach the NCAA Regionals each of the past 10 years.
Heefner has been a four-time Conference Coach
of the Year during his career, garnering the Keith LeClair Conference USA Coach of the Year in 2023 and 2024 and the Missouri Valley Conference Dan Callahan Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2021. Heefner is also a two-time American Baseball Coaches Association Midwest Region Coach
of the Year (2008 & 2011).
In 17 seasons at DBU, Heefner owns a career record of 652-326-1, and his .667 win percentage ranks as the eighth-highest in the nation among active NCAA Division I coaches. Dating back to the 2015 season when the Patriots hosted the Dallas Regional, Heefner has guided DBU to 396 wins, and the Patriots’ 43 wins per season is the third-highest average in the country over the last 10 years.
AVERAGE WINS PER YEAR SINCE 2015
five teams in the nation to reach the NCAA postseason each of the last nine years. During the 2023 season, the Patriots set a school record for most consecutive wins, winning 14 straight games from April 1-22.
In 2022, DBU reached the NCAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed at the Austin Regional. The Patriots capped off their season with a 34-24-1 record and fell six wins shy of posting their eighth consecutive 40-win season.
2021 will be remembered as one of the all-time great seasons in program history as DBU won three championships and reached the Columbia Super Regionals, where they faced Virginia. The Patriots’ three titles included the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles before winning the Fort Worth Regional over a field that included the No. 6 national seed TCU, a three-time national champion in Oregon State, and McNeese State. DBU finished with a 41-18 record, making them the only team in college baseball to have seven consecutive 40-win seasons. The Patriots also earned their highest end-of-season ranking when all five national polls tabbed DBU at No. 14.
In 2020, the Patriots posted a 12-4 record before college baseball witnessed the cancellation of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2020 season, DBU was ranked in the Top 25 all five weeks, winning all four of their weekend series, including a key series win on the road at then-ranked No. 13 North Carolina.
Prior to the 2020 season, the Patriots were coming off their sixth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament after earning an at-large bid to the postseason in 2019. As the No. 2 seed at the Lubbock Regional, DBU advanced to the regional finals for the fifth consecutive year, where they eventually fell to then-ranked No. 6 Texas Tech, capping off the 2019 season with a 43-20 record. At season’s end, the Patriots were ranked No. 24 in the nation by D1Baseball.
The 2018 season saw the Patriots reach the postseason as the No. 3 seed at the Fayetteville Regional. After a first-round loss to Southern Miss, DBU bounced back with victories over Oral Roberts and Southern Miss before falling to then-ranked No. 4 Arkansas, 4-3, capping off their 2018 campaign with a 42-21 record.
In 2017, DBU won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to earn the league’s automatic bid. It marked the third time since DBU joined The Valley in 2014, in which the Patriots clinched the MVC Tournament title. DBU advanced to the Fort Worth Regional as the No. 3 seed and reached the regional finals for the third straight year. The Patriots finished 2017 with a 42-21 record and won 22 of their final 26 games leading up to the NCAA postseason, which was the second-best record in the nation over that span. Following the 2017 season, DBU was ranked No. 20 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball, marking the third straight year that the Patriots finished the season nationally ranked.
In 2016, DBU won both the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the Lubbock Regional as the No. 2 seed. The Patriots finished the 2016 season with a 44-19 record, reaching the regional final for the fourth time in the last six years and finishing just two wins shy of matching a school record for the most victories in a single season. Following their 2016 campaign, DBU was tabbed No. 24 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Collegiate Baseball polls.
Heefner guided the Patriots to a historic season in 2015, as DBU won a school-record 46 games and hosted the program’s first-ever NCAA Regional Tournament. The Patriots also held the No. 1 RPI in the nation for eight of the last nine weeks of the regular season and finished the year
1. Florida (45)
1. LSU (45)
2. Oregon State (44) 2. Vanderbilt (44)
3. DBU (43)
3. Arkansas (43)
3. East Carolina (43) 3. Southern Miss (43) 3. Texas A&M (43)
4. Louisville (42)
5. TCU (41)
5. Texas Tech (41)
In the postseason, Heefner has led DBU to a pair of trips to the Super Regionals. In 2021, the Patriots won the Fort Worth Regional to advance to the Columbia Super Regional. Ten years prior, in 2011, DBU clinched the Fort Worth Regional to punch their ticket to the Santa Clara Super Regional. The Patriots have also reached the regional finals in seven of the last nine years, dating back to 2015 when DBU hosted the Dallas Regional.
Player development has been a hallmark of Dan Heefner’s coaching career. During his tenure as the head coach at DBU, Heefner has produced 24 All- Americans, a mark that ranks as the eighth-highest total in college baseball dating back to 2009, as well as 16 Freshman All-Americans since 2008. Heefner has also coached 75 players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, including 10 that have reached the Big Leagues. Since 2015, the Patriots’ 51 draft picks rank as the 15th-most selections from any program in the nation.
YEAR-BY-YEAR
The Patriots are coming off a 2024 season in which they won the Conference USA Tournament and advanced as the No. 2 seed to the Tucson Regional. DBU stormed out of the gates to their best start in the program’s Division I era by winning their first nine games and improved to 11-1 after defeating No. 15 Alabama in 12 innings to win the Frisco College Classic. DBU eventually earned its highest ranking in school history, reaching as high as No. 7 on March 25, and was a consensus top 10 team in all five major college baseball polls on the week of April 1. DBU finished the season with a 45-15 record, posting their third-highest win total in program history.
The 2023 season saw DBU win the Conference USA regular season title in their first year in the league and earn the No. 2 seed at the Stillwater Regional, where they would reach their seventh regional final in the last eight years. The Patriots joined the likes of Florida, LSU, Oklahoma State, and Vanderbilt as one of only
42 MEET THE PATRIOTS RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS