A program defying expectations, fueled by players driven to do the same
May 4, 2017
IOWA CITY, Iowa —
“The ability to prove people wrong is great motivation.”
Not a bad axiom to live by is it?
You can pretty much apply it to anyone in any situation that might benefit from an extra boost of inspiration to help achieve some ultimate outcome.
Most of us have felt undervalued at some point in our lives; be it by a person, an employer, or even just the world in general.
Individually this is plenty enough of a motivator to inspire great, much less unexpected feats.
So how about when it’s a collection of individuals and the team they’ve become a part of?
How about when that team is working to make its mark in a sport that hasn’t always lent it or its predecessors much in the way of external belief? Yeah, it might work there too.
In fact, it fits so well within the arena of athletics that you might guess it came from the lips of a legendary sports figure to spur on some historic, triumphant performance.
But this didn’t originate from Knute Rockne or Vince Lombardi. And you won’t find it amongst the building blocks of John Wooden’s ‘Pyramid of Success’ either.
No, this tidbit was offered up on an 8 a.m. telephone interview by Justin Meyer, first-year head baseball coach at Iowa Central Community College. And it reflects an attitude and approach that have carried both a number of individuals and one entire Division I baseball program to levels of success that the outside world rarely expects from them.
Black & Gold Impact
The state of Iowa isn’t exactly considered a hotbed for baseball at any level by outside observers. So when University of Iowa head coach Rick Heller arrived in Iowa City four years ago he faced challenges on multiple fronts.
For one, he was tasked with elevating to relevance a program that hadn’t qualified for NCAA Tournament play in 23 years, spanning three different coaches who amassed just five winning seasons. In the meantime, Heller had to find players capable of helping him win despite residing in a state that sits near the bottom of the ‘totem pole’ nationally in terms of the amount of prep talent it produces.
And so he broadened his search, a lesson he’d learned as a head coach for over two decades at other lower profile in-state schools like Upper Iowa (a Division II university) and Northern Iowa (which no longer even has a baseball program).
“I think it was ingrained early that you had to uncover every rock and look in every spot (for talent) that you could possibly find,” says the Hawkeye head man. “It definitely set the groundwork and the work ethic that is needed to find good players.”
Fortunately for Heller and his staff, a unique and fruitful opportunity to find such talent did exist, and right in the program’s backyard.
Enter junior college (JUCO) baseball.
The year prior to Heller’s arrival the Hawkeye roster included just two players who had at some point in their careers traveled through the JUCO ranks. In the four years since there have been a total of 27.
Aside from sheer numbers, Heller is quick to acknowledge the tangible impact that this talent pool has had on his program.
“Oh I think it’s been significant…We have been able to tap into that and we’ve brought in some really good kids. And that’s something that will continue to happen in our program.”
It helps that Heller isn’t the only coach on staff who is well-versed in making connections at the JUCO level.
Recruiting coordinator Marty Sutherland came through the JUCO ranks himself before ultimately both playing and coaching under Heller at Northern Iowa.

“For me in my coaching life, I’ve probably known most of those coaches for 15 years, so that type of relationship is always going to lend itself to you potentially having shots at their best players,” said Sutherland on Iowa’s success mining junior college talent.
The same goes for pitching coach Scott Brickman, who spent the first three years of his coaching career at Muscatine (IA) Community College.
“Having been on both sides of it there are definitely pluses to the junior college route,” notes Brickman as to why Iowa has been so proficient hitting on these prospects.
In terms of the influx of JUCO talent making a difference on the field, the results are undeniable. As it currently stands, the Hawkeyes are on pace to finish with a winning record for the fourth consecutive season, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since 1990.
That’s not to say that the method always produces seamless results, as junior Matt Hoeg would attest to as a first-year JUCO transfer himself.
“Over the course of the season I’ve kind of been struggling, at least to my standards. I felt like at some points I’ve been letting the team down by not getting big hits to help propel us to victories…but I kept working and stuck with the process,” said Hoeg.
After garnering honorable mention All-America honors as a sophomore at Iowa Western Community College, Hoeg got off to a slow start as a Hawkeye. But with that persistence he remained a fixture in the lineup and is now getting hot at the right time, posting a .400 batting average over Iowa’s last 11 games as it pushes toward postseason play.
With a head-turning track record of success with JUCO players during Heller’s short stint at Iowa (four All-Big Ten/All-American nominees, three MLB draft picks), don’t expect a change anytime soon.
How the System Works
Aside from the relative dearth of well-known high school talent in the state, a few other factors affect the flood of players that end up in the JUCO pool.
“With Iowa high school baseball you’re looking at summer baseball and multi-sport athletes, so there are a lot of kids who aren’t specializing in a sport,” says Sutherland.
Summer baseball is played in just three states, including Iowa, which can hinder the recruitment of some kids to the highest level.
Per Sutherland, “There are guys who get a lot better between that junior and senior year, but by the time that’s happening you may be out of scholarship money or don’t have a roster spot for them.”
“The junior colleges in Iowa do a really good job of getting those kids into their programs, and maybe by the time they get them those kids are already in a position where they may be able to help at the Division I level.”
And that leads to a whole lot of under-the-radar talent coalescing within the state’s borders.
Five Hawkeyes during Heller’s tenure have arrived via Iowa Central. Three others joined the 2017 roster by way of Iowa Western, a program that has produced 123 Division I signees in the last 15 years alone.

And while not every kid at these schools is an Iowa native, they’re all effectively ‘native’ Iowans for the 1–2 years that they’re going to school and playing baseball within state borders.
“We’ve had a lot of success bringing them in here, but an example of the talent level is that we can’t take them all,” says Brickman of the JUCO pipeline. “You’ve got kids going to numerous different SEC, Big 10, and ACC schools, so hopefully we’ve done our job to evaluate them and figure out who we do want before the rest of the names get out to other programs.”
Given that Iowa is the only Division I program in the entire state, the advantage is recognized by all parties involved, especially JUCO coaches like Central’s Meyer, now in his 11th season at the school.
“We have a great relationship with Iowa. Coach Heller and his staff have done a really nice job,” notes Meyer. “These Iowa kids want to play at Iowa. Our job is to develop them and put them in a position to be recruited by Iowa and the surrounding schools in this area and let the chips fall where they may.”
What Outsiders Get Wrong
When most people come across the ‘junior college’ moniker the immediate reaction is fairly predictable. Sure, maybe the kid is talented, but there’s got to be some reason why they’re ‘stuck’ in JUCO, right?
More often than not, that reason is assumed to be academic related. And that’s by far the greatest point of contention when speaking with coaches on both ends of the system.
“The biggest misconception is that people choose junior college because academically they can’t get in anywhere else,” offers Meyer.
Almost as if on cue, Heller & Co. reply in nearly identical fashion.
“That’s the furthest thing from the truth,” says Brickman. “Obviously there are some kids that go that route because they haven’t taken care of the grades, and quite honestly usually those kids aren’t going to fit in real well here at Iowa.”
“You’ll find kids that were valedictorians and had 4.0’s (GPA) that are going to junior college to try to get that Division I scholarship,” urges Heller.
It can be particularly aggravating to someone who successfully went through the process on their own accord, like Sutherland.
“I went to Cascade High School and had 84 kids in my graduating class. I just didn’t have a lot of opportunities. It was basically Division III or go to junior college and give yourself a chance,” recalls the Kirkwood Community College graduate. “I had good grades. All of that stuff was not an issue. It was more where I felt I could ultimately play at…and I think you see that a lot.”

In reality the influx of JUCO players into the Iowa program has maintained a winning formula both on the field and in the classroom.
According to the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) Iowa has averaged a score of nearly 985 (out of 1000) during Heller’s tenure, well above the NCAA mandated average of 930 to be eligible for postseason play. That doesn’t happen if the numerous junior college graduates aren’t pulling their weight in the classroom as Hawkeyes.
As it stands, a steady stream of overlooked, often marginalized individuals have proven themselves capable of helping bring about positive results, both on and off the field, to a program that had rarely seen them during the two decades prior.
For that, some credit lies with the coaches who’ve had the foresight to provide the opportunity, but even more falls on the shoulders of the kids whose will and hard work have made it all happen.
“The ability to prove people wrong is great motivation.”
It sure is.