Men's Basketball Coaching Staff
Coach Heiss won his 500th career game in February 2011 and then led the Chiefs to the Region IV title for the third time in the last four years.
Dave Heiss, Head Coach
Last February Dave Heiss joined a select group when he became the 51st coach all-time in NJCAA basketball history to reach the 500-win plateau. Under his leadership the last 25 years, the Chiefs have become a perennial NJCAA top-20 program, ranking as high as #2 in the NJCAA’s Division II poll two different seasons. Five times Heiss has led the Chiefs to the Region IV crown and a berth into the NJCAA Division II National Tournament. His teams have won 20 or more games in a season 13 times, including last year’s 21-13 mark.
Accordingly, off the court recognition has followed Heiss’ on court success. He has been inducted into the NJCAA Region IV Hall of Fame (2006), the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame (2009), the Aurora West High School Athletic Hall of Fame (2010) and the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference Hall of Fame (2010). Heiss has been selected as the IBCA and the Region IV Basketball Coach of the Year five times, while the ISCC has tabbed him with that honor nine times. In 2008 he became the ISCC’s all-time record holder for career wins and enters this season with 225 victories in league play. His squads have won nine ISCC titles with 59 of his players being named All-ISCC First Team, including eight league MVP Awards. The Chiefs won six league titles during the decade of the 1990s, and had a seven-year run from 1997 through 2004 where they won five titles and compiled a 70-14 record (83 percent) in ISCC play.
Under Heiss’ leadership, Waubonsee grabbed the Region IV title in 1990-91 with a school-record 29-8 mark, en route to finishing 7th in the nation. His 1999-2000 team also snared the Region IV crown, but the 2007-2008 season may have been Heiss’ best job of coaching. The Chiefs turned around a sub-.500 season to win the Region IV Division II Tournament as the sixth-seed. Last year Heiss’ squad grabbed the title for the second year in a row and third time in the last four years, to once again advance to the Nationals.
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 head golf coach the last 20 years, leading his golfers to three ISCC titles and a Region IV Division II title in 2001. A life-long resident of Aurora, Heiss has three children, D.J., Danielle and Demi.
Rick Robinson, Assistant Coach
Rick Robinson joined Waubonsee’s staff last season as the Men’s Assistant Coach and helped guide the Chiefs to another NJCAA Division II National Tournament berth. He brings to the program more than 30 years experience playing, coaching, teaching, mentoring and counseling for a variety of organizations. More recently Robinson spent a year as the head sophomore coach at Marmion Academy and two years as the Varsity Assistant. He also coached two seasons at K.D. Waldo Junior High School on the east side of Aurora.
Robinson is a 1978 graduate of Aurora East High School where he starred for the Tomcats under legendary coach Ernie Kivisto. The 6’6” center was an All-Upstate Eight Conference First Teamer and the Most Valuable Player of both the St. Charles Thanksgiving Tournament and the Tomcats’ Christmas Tournament his senior year. He also competed in track and field, setting a school-record in the high jump that stood until 2009. He was inducted into the Tomcats’ Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Robinson went to Eastern Illinois University on a basketball scholarship and continued to excel on the court. He was the Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year in 1981, while being named All-MCC three times. In addition, Robinson was tabbed the Panthers’ Most Valuable Player for the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons, and was selected to the NABC Division II All-American Team his senior year. He played professionally for one season (1982-83) in New Zealand, where he even appeared as a public speaker once with Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
Robinson earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Eastern Illinois University. He established and coached the Northeast Atlanta Hawks AAU 12U and 17U teams from 1997 through 2002. Robinson also has worked as a Youth Director for an outreach program, and served as a Departmental Liaison at a Recreation Center in Decatur, Georgia. He has been a Counselor for a Waukegan area Juvenile Detention Center, and Teacher’s Assistant for the Quad County Urban League and Aurora Community Outreach. Robinson has worked as a substitute teacher and aide for Fox Valley Tech & Trade and the Aurora Education Center. Coach Robinson is the father of four and lives in Aurora with his wife Vanessa.
Bob Friel, Volunteer Assistant Coach
Bob Friel returns for his third season as a Volunteer Assistant Coach. He was an instrumental part of the Chiefs back-to-back Region IV titles the last two seasons. Coach Friel has over 20 years experience as a head or assistant coach, and is a National Certified Coach through the IHSA. He just finished his fifth season as an assistant football coach at Marmion Academy, where he previously served as the Cadets’ varsity assistant and head freshman basketball coach.
Friel is a 1980 graduate of Blue Hill Regional Vocational High School in Canton, Massachusetts. As a sophomore he was a three-sport athlete on the Warriors’ varsity baseball, basketball and football teams. His junior and senior seasons, he earned All-State, All-Scholastic and regional All-Star awards on both the gridiron and court. Friel was tabbed the Warriors’ team MVP in all three sports he participated in his senior year. He was invited to the National Shriner’s football game and the Northeast Invitational Basketball All-Star game. In 2003 he was inducted into the Blue Hill Hall of Fame.
Friel attended St. Joseph College in Indiana where he played football and basketball. He later transferred to Curry College in Massachusetts. After college he was invited to both the Oakland Raiders’ and Washington Redskins’ kicker camps, before being a part of the Redskins training camp as a punter in 1986.
Coach Friel later returned to his alma mater in Canton as the boy’s varsity basketball assistant and the girl’s varsity head coach for four seasons. He has also coached 13U and 15U baseball traveling teams, as well as 16U and 18U AAU basketball teams. Prior to that, he guided both the boy’s and girl’s basketball teams at St. Rita of Cascia in Aurora to four junior high school championships. He and his wife Mary Beth live in Aurora and have two boys, Tyler a freshman at North Central College, and Corey who currently attends Marmion.
