Dan Heefner

Dan Heefner is an American college baseball coach who has been the head coach of Dallas Baptist since the start of the 2008 season. Under Heefner, the Patriots have reached ten NCAA tournaments, including a Super Regional in 2011. An Olivet Nazarene graduate, Heefner played two years of baseball for the Tigers after transferring from Northern Iowa.

Coaching career

Northern Iowa Heefner began his coaching career at Northern Iowa (UNI), where he worked under head coach Rick Heller from 2002 to 2003. The Panthers had a 30-win season in 2003 and made the MVC tournament in both seasons. Heefner earned his master's degree from the university in 2003.

Dallas Baptist Heefner was named an assistant at independent Dallas Baptist under Eric Newman for the 2005 season. When Newman left to become an assistant at Nebraska after the 2007 season, Heefner was promoted to head coach.

In his first season as head coach, 2008, the Patriots qualified for their first NCAA tournament with a 37–17 regular season. They were the first independent other than Miami (FL) to do so since Cal State Northridge in 1992. As the second seed at the Houston Regional, they went 0–2, losing 9–5 games to Houston and Illinois–Chicago.

After playing in the Western Athletic Conference in 2013, Dallas Baptist reached the NCAA tournament in 2014, its first season in the Missouri Valley Conference. It went 36–18 (14–7 MVC) in the regular season, tying for second in the conference. It won the MVC tournament, defeating Illinois State in the title game. The Patriots then went 0–2 at the Fort Worth Regional.

Head coaching record Below is a table of Heefner's yearly records as a collegiate head baseball coach.