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Rick Heller signs extension through 2024

By Patrick Mooney

Omaha, NE - JUNE 28: A general view of NCAA baseballs prior to game two of the College World Series Championship Series between the Arizona Wildcats and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on June 28, 2016 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Omaha, NE - JUNE 28: A general view of NCAA baseballs prior to game two of the College World Series Championship Series between the Arizona Wildcats and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on June 28, 2016 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
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The University of Iowa announced on Thursday that the school has reached an agreement with Head Baseball Coach Rick Heller, extending his contract through the 2024 season. For anyone that has been following the Hawkeyes on the the baseball diamond, this news was surely met with and ear-to-ear grin.

Heller has been a college baseball coach for 30 seasons at four different universities, and he has completely changed the culture at every stop.

After graduating from Upper Iowa University in 1986, he became the head baseball coach there just two seasons later. After going 17-53 over his first two seasons, he had 10 consecutive winning seasons and 3 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a D-3 College World Series appearance in 1996. Heller finished with a career record of 289-194-3 over 12 seasons at Upper Iowa before leaving for the Division-1 ranks.

In 2000 Heller accepted the head coaching job and the University of Northern Iowa. After a 23-33 debut season, Heller took the Panthers to the NCAA tournament in 2001.Heller had four winning seasons at UNI before the program closed at the end of the 2009 season.

When Northern Iowa baseball was forced to close it’s doors, Heller moved on to Indiana State. He never had a losing season and took the Sycamores to the NCAA Tournament in 2012. Heller finished 131-91 in his four years at ISU.

After the 2013 baseball season, a year in which Iowa finished 22-27, spirits were low and the expectations were lower. Northern Iowa had just shut down their baseball program four years earlier, and Iowa State had been without a baseball program since 2001. There were whispers within the Iowa Athletic Department about following in the foot steps of their in-state rivals. Those talks have since been silenced thanks to Heller.

16 of the 20 seasons before Heller took over were losing seasons, and Iowa hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 1990. In fact, the school had only gone to the tournament three times in its history.

Since 2014, Iowa has equaled the amount of winning seasons it had from 1994-2013 and has made the NCAA Tournament twice, while also winning the schools first ever Big Ten Tournament championship this past season.

Heller has shown a commitment to keeping the best in-state recruits at the school, while also doing a terrific job recruiting from the JUCO ranks. Iowa had two junior college transfers, first baseman Jake Adams and shortstop Mason McCoy, drafted in the 6th round of the 2017 MLB draft, making them the highest selected players out of the 15 Hawkeyes that have been drafted under Heller’s regime.

The success Iowa baseball has seen under Heller’s watch has been unprecedented, but he isn’t about to get complacent.

Iowa AD Gary Barta stated at the press conference “You can feel the excitement and buzz surrounding the program throughout the state. We are excited to continue building on that and are looking forward to the 2018 baseball season.”

You can feel the excitement indeed. With Heller locked in for at least seven more seasons, the odds of Iowa baseball busting down more barriers just got a whole lot better.

Next up, College World Series?