(Park Hills, MO) Greg Heiar made his first appearance at the Bob Sechrest Fieldhouse Thursday, July 6th after making the trip from Mesa, Arizona over the weekend. Heiar was hired to coach the Mineral Area College Men’s Basketball program late last week.
Heiar coached New Mexico State University to a 9-15 record last season and was fired, along with the entire coaching staff, in February after basketball operations were suspended amidst hazing allegations.
Heiar says he wants to turn a negative into a positive after the controversial season at NMSU.
Heiar adds MAC Basketball has a rich history and he looks forward to continuing the tradition.
Coach Heiar takes over the position at MAC after Luke Strege announced he was leaving after 8 seasons in June, which gives Heiar little time to build a competitive roster, but he says he already knows what he’s looking for in a good player.
Heiar makes his return to the NJCAA for the first time since winning the NJCAA National Championship with Northwest Florida State in 2022. The 2022 NJCAA National Coach of the Year says the plan is to build a winning program at MAC as well.
Heiar has over 20 years of college coaching experience, that includes 5 years at Chipola Junior College, from 2004-09. In that time he lost just 15 total games, winning the other 165.
His NJCAA teams have never lost more than 5 games in a season and won less than 27 just once when his Chipola led team won 18 games in 2004-05.
Heiar has a 196-20 record as an NJCAA Head coach.
The Mineral Area Athletic Department will hold a meet the coach event Tuesday, July 11th from 4-6pm at the Bob Sechrest Fieldhouse to introduce Heiar as the 5th coach in program history.
The full interview can be found in the AudioVault
