Golf Coaching Staff
Under Coach Heiss' leadership the Chiefs’ won the ISCC title in 2001, 2004 and last season.
Dave Heiss, Head Coach
The 2011 season is Dave Heiss’ 20th year in charge of Waubonsee’s golf program. A trademark of many of his teams has been marked improvement as the season progresses. Under his leadership the Chiefs’ have won the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference (ISCC) title three times, taking the crown in 2001, 2004 and last season.
With Heiss’ guidance, thirty-six golfers have attained All-ISCC status including 2010 medalist and All-Region IV performer Tim Schofield. In 2004 he helped Milo French earn ISCC medalist honors, with Eric Heinkel finishing third in the ISCC. Heinkel then went on to earn All-NJCAA Tournament honors by placing 14th at the NJCAA Division II Nationals. Subsequently, Heiss was named the ISCC’s Golf Coach of the Year that season.
Coach Heiss’ also had a special ‘diamond anniversary’ tenth year as golf coach in 2001. That jewel of a season witnessed the Chiefs winning the ISCC title for the first time since 1989. Five of Heiss’ golfers made the All-Conference team as the Chiefs went undefeated in Skyway play. As a direct result, Heiss was honored as the leagues’s Golf Coach of the Year. That sparkling season was capped off with the team winning the Region IV championship for the first time in school history. The Chiefs then competed at the NJCAA Nationals in Arizona, finishing 18th nationally. Individually, Aaron Conlon placed 26th in the nation, missing out on All-American status by just two strokes.
In addition to his golf responsibilities, Heiss has led the men’s basketball program the last 25 years. During that time he has built the Chiefs into a national contender, registering twenty or more wins in a season 13 times. In February of 2011 he became just the 21st active coach at the NJCAA level to win 500 games.
Heiss graduated in 1980 from Aurora West High School. He attended Eastern Wyoming Junior College and Bemidji State University in Minnesota. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Bemidji State and his master’s degree from Chicago State University in 1992. Heiss is a full-time faculty member in the physical education department at Waubonsee and a life-long resident of Aurora. Coach Heiss has three children, D.J., Danielle and Demi.
Chuck Van Horn, Assistant Coach
Chuck Van Horn is in his seventh year with Waubonsee’s program. An avid player and teacher of the game of golf, Van Horn also directed Aurora Central Catholic (ACC) High School’s golfers for 11 years, guiding either the Chargers’ team or an individual to sectional play eight times during that span. He also coached track at ACC before joining the Chiefs’ staff in 2005 as a volunteer assistant coach.
A 1978 graduate of West Aurora High School, Van Horn was an All-Upstate Eight Conference performer for the Blackhawks’ track team, setting a league high jump record. A truly versatile athlete, he went on to earn All-Conference honors in basketball at the Morrison Institute of Technology in southern Illinois. Van Horn then transferred to Southern Illinois University and achieved a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Technology in 1982.
Coach Van Horn retired in the spring of 2011 from the Aurora Fire Department (AFD), where he served as a Senior Medic the last 20 years. He has represented the AFD at the World Police and Fire Games, an international competition in Calgary, even taking third in the decathlon in 1997. These days Van Horn never strays too far away from golf, operating his own business (Black Diamond Golf) making custom built golf clubs. He earned a degree in Business Administration from Benedictine University in 2008. Van Horn resides in Oswego with his wife Glenda and their three daughters Amber, Leah and Alison.
