Jeff Hetzer - Assistant Athletic Director/Head Coach

Email: jeff.hetzer@thomasmore.edu

Office Number: 859-344-3532

Coach Jeff Hetzer enters his 10h season at the helm of the Thomas More College Baseball Program in 2010 as the program's all-time winningest coach with a career record of 215-127-3. He is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and a graduate of Northern Kentucky University. Thomas More has had excellent success with their baseball program and Hetzer has continued that tradition. The Saints have had 13 consecutive winning seasons and have won 20 plus games in 12 of the past 13 seasons, including the 2003 squad which finished 33 -10.

The 2003 team broke the school record for wins and also made it to the program's first National College Athletic Association (NCAA) Regional Final. In eight seasons, Hetzer has had his teams ranked seven times and four times in the final Mideast regional poll including the 2003 season in which the Saints finished third in the Mideast Region and No. 18 nationally. In 2008, Thomas More finished the regular season fifth in the Mideast Regional poll and won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) regular season by three games. In 2004, the Saints had a preseason ranking of No. 14 in the country, the highest in the program's history.

Hetzer has had 26 players named all-conference, including 10 named first team since joining the PAC in 2006. During his tenure, Hetzer has had 15 Saints named all-region. Hetzer has also had one post-graduate scholarship recipient as well as 10 all-district academic players and three ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans.

Hetzer expects excellence both in the classroom and on the field. In the classroom his teams have had a Grade Point Average of 3.0 or better in each of his 19 semesters, including this past fall. As for baseball his goals each season for the team are to earn the No. 1 seed in the PAC Tournament, win the PAC tournament and be invited to the NCAA Tournament. To achieve these goals, Hetzer's team will be marked by aggressive play and excellent fundamentals. He insists that his players be in top condition and play disciplined baseball.

Coach Hetzer graduated from Elder High School and then continued his academic and athletic endeavors at Wittenberg University. While at Wittenberg, Hetzer was an all-conference and all-region performer. He also helped lead the team to its first regional final and eclipsed the school record for team wins in a season. After two years at Wittenberg he transferred to Northern Kentucky University (NKU). At NKU Hetzer played for Coach Bill Aker and was a team captain and once again an all-conference and all-region performer. He was also named to the conference all-academic team. Hetzer earned his degree in physical education with a minor in health and also earned his master's degree in education while at NKU. After graduating from NKU, Hetzer served as an assistant coach for four years at his alma mater, while also being the athletic facilities coordinator before being named head coach at Thomas More in the fall of 2000. Early in his tenure at Thomas More, Hetzer was an Assistant Men's Basketball Coach where he helped turn around a program which had won five games during the 2001-2002 season to 12 games during the 2002-2003 season. Then in 2004, Hetzer also was named the Interim Head Women's Basketball Coach, and led the team to the NCAA Sweet 16. Hetzer became the first coach in TMC history to win an NCAA tournament game for two different teams. In the summer of 2004, Hetzer was named the Assistant Athletic Director.

Hetzer resides in Taylor Mill, Kentucky, with his wife Rebecca and their son, Ryan and daughter, Olivia.