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Heller introduced at Iowa

Sports

July 16th, 2013 by Ric Hanson

The University of Iowa has not won a Big Ten baseball championship since 1990 but new coach Rick Heller says the future for the program is bright. Heller was introduced on Monday as the Hawkeyes new coach. The native of Eldon spent the past four years as the head coach at Indiana State. Heller says Iowa AD Gary Barta offered him a partnershuip with the administration to build the program. He says he will go to work immediately and says his goal is to keep the best players in the state.

Heller says he enjoys coaching and developing talent. He coached at UNI rom 1999 until the program was discontinued in 2009. He says as the lone remaining division one program in the state Iowa has a lot of potential. Barta says the administration is making a bigger commitment top the sport of baseball and will begin the process of upgrading facilities.

Heller began his college coaching career with a successful run at Upper Iowa. He takes over a program that qualified for the Big Ten tournament three times during former coach Jack Dahm’s 10 years at the helm.

(Radio Iowa)