The 2007-08 season marks Dave Heiss’ 23rd year leading Waubonsee’s program. Under his guidance the Chiefs have become perennial power and have been rated in the Top-20 nationally 14 out of the last 20 years. As a matter of fact, Waubonsee has been ranked as high as #2 in the NJCAA’s Division II poll two different seasons. In March of 2006 Heiss collected his 400th career coaching win at Waubonsee and was inducted into the Region IV Hall of Fame a week later. Heiss capped off the 2005-2006 season by traveling to the inaugural NJCAA All-Star Classic in Texas, where the Chiefs’ Mike Leonard earned the game’s Most Valuable Player honor. Last year the Chiefs finished 19-12 overall, the 10th consecutive year Heiss’ teams have won 19 or more games.
Coach Heiss will also be on the verge of another milestone once the Chiefs begin Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference play in early January of 2008. Waubonsee’s first win in Skyway action will establish Heiss as the league’s all-time record holder for career wins. Coach Heiss’ squads have dominated the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference during his tenure, winning nine Skyway titles while 49 of his players have been named All-Conference. After guiding the Chiefs to six league titles during the decade of the 1990’s, Heiss’ 2003-04 crew won their second consecutive league crown to give the program five titles in a seven year span. Waubonsee compiled a 70-14 record (83 percent) in conference play during that time.
Under Heiss’s leadership, Waubonsee grabbed the Region IV title in 1990-91, going 29-8 en route to finishing 7th at the NJCAA Division II National Tournament. In 1999-00, the Chiefs again snared the Region IV crown despite finishing second in the Skyway Conference. Heiss was selected as the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and the Region IV Basketball Coach of the Year in both of those seasons, while the Skyway has tabbed him with that honor nine times. His team have also reached the Region IV semi-finals nine out of the last ten campaigns and grabbed the title of Waubonsee’s Invitational Tournament seven times in its’ twelve year history.
In 1980, Heiss was an All-Upstate Eight performer at Aurora West High School when his team finished third in the state. He went on to play at Eastern Wyoming Junior College where he led the NJCAA Region IX in scoring as a sophomore. Heiss then transferred to Bemidji State University in Minnesota where he was All-Northern Sun Conference his final two years. Heiss was invited to the Utah Jazz rookie and free agent camp in 1986 and played for the Jazz’ rookie team in the Pro-Am League that summer.
Heiss earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education at Bemidji State and his master’s degree from Chicago State University in 1992. He is a full-time faculty member in Waubonsee’s physical education department and was an instrumental player in the establishment of the school’s S.T.A.R. program, the student/athlete academic monitoring system. Heiss has also been Waubonsee’s golf coach the last 16 years, leading his golfers to a pair of Skyway titles and a Region IV Division II title. |
