2013 Outlook
Athletics Director
Dave Heeke Associate Vice President/Athletics Director Eighth Year
Coaching Staff 2013 Chippewas 2012 Recap History
Dave Heeke has instilled his vision of a “Championship Culture” at Central Michigan University. Athletic success, academic excellence, national media exposure, record fundraising and a commitment to facilities have defined Heeke’s tenure as CMU’s director of athletics. Under Heeke’s guidance, Central Michigan athletics attained new heights of success during the 2012-13 seasons. Six teams – football, soccer, women’s basketball, wrestling, gymnastics, and softball – qualified for the NCAA postseason. The football team made its fifth bowl appearance in the last seven years, winning the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit in front of a national television audience. The soccer program became the first in MAC history to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Women’s basketball claimed a third-straight 20-plus win season, a MidAmerican Conference Tournament title and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 29 years. Gymnastics advanced to the NCAA Regionals for the fifth straight year, earning its fourth consecutive MAC championship along the way. Overall, Central Michigan finished 88th in the Learfield Sports’ Directors Cup, second best in the MidAmerican Conference. In April, the CMU football program captured the national spotlight once again, as offensive tackle Eric Fisher made history when he was selected No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. Heeke is contributing to the national landscape as a member of the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee and the Division I Football Issues Committee, serving as chair of the football committee in 2012-13, his fifth and final year. He had previously served on the baseball committee from 2006-08. In June 2013, Heeke was appointed to the Division I Athletic Director Advisory Group. One of just 11 Division I athletic director’s nationwide to be selected for the appointment, the group will meet periodically with NCAA President Mark Emmert and his staff to provide feedback and perspective on issues affecting DI athletics. The Chippewas earned the Mid-American Conference’s inaugural Cartwright Award after the 2008-09 academic year as the league’s top overall institution, capturing the annual honor given to the program that most exemplifies excellence in academics, athletics and citizenship. The 2009-10 academic year brought conference championships in football, women’s soccer, wrestling, gymnastics and baseball. The Chippewas added conference tournament titles in women’s soccer, wrestling and baseball while the men’s basketball program repeated as the MAC West Division champion. The department captured the 2007 Reese Trophy for MAC men’s all-sports competition, and they have finished in the top three in four of his five years. In 2010, CMU placed second in the Reese standings and third in the Jacoby Trophy (women’s all-sports) standings, following one of the most successful years in recent history, and the women’s standing improved to second in 2011. The Chippewa football program made four consecutive bowl appearances from 2006-09 and won three MAC West titles during that span. CMU’s wrestling program has finished in the top 15 at the NCAA Championships each of the last five years, including a seventh-place finish to cap a 2008 season that saw the Chippewas ranked as high as No. 2 nationally. In 2010, they became the first squad in MAC history to qualify all 10 wrestlers for nationals. Both the volleyball and women’s basketball programs have experienced their most successful seasons in nearly two decades in recent years, advancing to postseason play each of the last two years, while the soccer team won back-to-back MAC regular-season and tournament titles, winning a first-round NCAA Tournament match in 2009. The athletic exploits of CMU’s student-athletes are topped only by their academic accomplishments. The Chippewas have earned the MAC’s Institutional Academic Achievement Award 10 times in the last 13 years, and CMU’s women’s varsity programs combined to win the conference’s inaugural Faculty Athletics Representative Academic Achievement Award following the 2007-08 academic year. The Chippewa soccer program posted the highest grade-point average in the country for eight consecutive years, while softball routinely ranks among the nation’s highest team grade point averages. In 2012, the field hockey program posted the highest GPA in the nation, a collective 3.61, to earn a Division I National Academic Team Award for the fourth consecutive season and fifth time in the last six years. Facility upgrades and renovations for all sports have been staples under Heeke’s leadership. Highlighting his efforts is the ongoing capital campaign to fund the new CMU Events Center, which opened December 1, 2010. The $22.5 million project includes a complete renovation of the arena in the Rose Center, as well as the addition of a dynamic entryway and new practice facilities for basketball, volleyball and wrestling. Among the first facility improvements Heeke oversaw was the installation of permanent lights at Kelly/Shorts Stadium to allow for flexible scheduling and television appearances for football. A new $2.5 million video scoreboard system, funded fully through private contributions, debuted during the 2007-08 seasons in both Kelly/Shorts and Rose Center. The Rose Center court was refinished with an updated floor design in 2006. Other additional facility improvements have included a $700,000 gymnastics practice facility, the naming and renovation of Margo Jonker Stadium for softball, stadium seating at the Field Hockey Complex, the resurfacing of the Jack Skoog Indoor Track and construction of a suite of track offices overlooking the Jack Skoog Indoor Track. An increased focus on fund-raising has led to five consecutive record-breaking years - the most successful years
Central Michigan Football
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