Riverland welcomes new coaches to lead Blue Devils' volleyball and softball teams
Riverland Community College’s search for new volleyball and softball coaches successfully ended in time for the fall volleyball season.
Sara Heim, the new head coach for Volleyball, joins the coaching staff after graduating from Ripon College in Wisconsin in 2010 and assisting at Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) last season.
Besides Heim, the Blue Devils hired former Austin softball coach Al Eckmann, who was the head coach at Austin for 14 years and finished his high school coaching career with a record of 220-80, along with three state championships and five state tournament appearances.
“I’m very excited. It’s been my goal as long as I can remember to be a college coach,” Heim said. “I’m fairly young, which a lot of people look at as being a kind of weakness, but I have a lot of energy and I like challenges. I’ll be able to relate to (my players) and know where they’re coming from. Also by role modeling and being there for them, I will help build a trust with them.”
Heim played libero at Ripon, where she was the all-time digs leader in school history. She played high school volleyball at Wabasha/Kellogg. At RCTC, Heim was the co-defensive and conditioning coach.
“Having great coaches and competing at a high level as an athlete, I hope I can put those together and be the best coach I can be to really help the girls succeed,” Heim said. “I’m looking forward continuing the success here at Riverland,” Heim said. “Communication is key and people need to be on the same page. We’ll have strong, intense practices so we can stay at our peak level and we need to set the bar that we’re not settling for anything.”
Eckmann has a more time to field his team before the softball season in the spring, but he is already hard at work.
Eckmann coached at the University of Minnesota for three years and was an assistant coach at Austin for four years, but now he’s ready to take on a head coaching job again where he can teach players the game he knows very well.
“I was in the classroom for 17 years and I really liked teaching. Then I went into administration and I really missed teaching,” Eckmann said. “(Now) I’m retired from everything else and I’m not working on committees. I’m working on nothing but softball. It’s a good feeling.”
Eckmann has been on the job for a couple of weeks and he’s already spoken to every player whom he expects to be on this year’s team. He’s also ready to start recruiting some area players.
“I’m going to be very active in recruiting. I think the talent base in southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa is really good. I’m really looking forward to finding some and I’ve found some already,” he said. “I want it to be everybody’s team and not just mine. I want area high school coaches to work with me and know their kids can go to Riverland and it’s part of their program too.”
Eckmann, who likes to coach with a small ball approach on offense, is hoping he can continue to win at Riverland they way he won for the Packers.
“The administration here is very supportive; they want a winning softball team and so do I,” he said.
Former head softball coach Dan Swift resigned, but he will remain the men’s basketball coach. Helen Jahr, former volleyball coach, retired from coaching after completing the 2010 season.
Riverland Community College is a member of the Minnesota Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC) and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region XIII. Eligibility requirements are established by the NJCAA and the MCAC. The Riverland athletics program includes men's soccer, basketball and baseball and women's volleyball, basketball and softball.