Page 40 - 2024 DBU Baseball Media Guide

DAN HEEFNER–HEAD COACH
Dan Heefner is in his 17th season as the head coach of the DBU Baseball team and his 20th year with the program. During his previous 16 seasons at the helm, Heefner has guided the DBU Baseball program to the NCAA postseason 12 times, including 11 of the last 12 years. The Patriots are also one of just five teams in college baseball to reach the NCAA Regionals each of the past nine years.
In 16 seasons at DBU, Heefner owns a career record
of 607-311-1 and his .661 win percentage ranks as the ninth-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 351 wins, a mark that ranks as the eighth-highest win total
among the nation’s 303 NCAA Division I baseball programs.
After leading DBU to the 2023 Conference USA regular season title in their first year in the league, Heefner was named Keith LeClair CUSA Coach of the Year. During the Patriots’ nine seasons in the Missouri Valley Conference, he was also a two-time recipient of the MVC Dan Callahan Coach of the Year (2016 & 2021) and has been named the American Baseball Coaches Association Midwest Region Coach of the Year on two occasions (2008 & 2011).
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 eight 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 23 All- Americans, a mark that ranks as the eighth-highest total in college baseball dating back to 2009, as well as 15 Freshman All-Americans since 2008. Heefner has also coached 73 players that have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft and 10 that have reached the Big League level. Since 2015, the Patriots’ 49 draft picks ranks as the ninth-most selections from any program in the nation.
YEAR-BY-YEAR
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 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 when they won 14 straight games from April 1-22 and also won 11 consecutive conference games during that stretch.
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 both 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, giving them distinction as 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 finished 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 both 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 ranked No. 15 in the country by Perfect Game, a mark that ranks as the highest end of season ranking in school history.
In 2014, DBU competed in their inaugural season as members of the Missouri Valley Conference. Heefner’s club burst onto the scene by winning the MVC Tournament in Terre Haute, Indiana, and received an automatic bid to the NCAA Regional Tournament. The Patriots earned the No. 2 seed at the Fort Worth Regional and finished the season with a 40-21 record, making it the third time in the past four years in which DBU reached 40 wins.
Heefner and the Patriots made it back-to-back trips to the postseason in 2012, as DBU earned a trip to the Waco Regional. For the second straight year, the Patriots advanced to the Regional Championship game and finished the year with a 41-19 record.
In 2011, Heefner guided the Patriots to even more national recognition, as they won the NCAA Fort Worth Regional in a field that included TCU, Oklahoma, and Oral Roberts. Heefner was once again named the ABCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year, as his team competed in the Santa Clara Super Regional against the University of California-Berkley. The Patriots finished the year with a 42-20 record, marking the 33rd consecutive winning season for the program, and finished has high as No. 16 in the nation at season’s end by Collegiate Baseball.
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