Coaches

Ed Kieff

Ed Kieff

Head Softball Coach
Doane College ’99
edkieff@dwu.edu
605-995-2178
605-212-5916

In mid-July, Ed Kieff was hired as the 14th head coach in Dakota Wesleyan softball history.  As well as many years of softball coaching experience, Kieff brings plenty of ties in the state, the city of Mitchell and Dakota Wesleyan with him to the position.

Kieff, who graduated from Doane College in 1999, takes over a team that went 12-23 overall and 7-13 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference in 2011.  The Tigers finished 11th in the league, but they picked up wins against Morningside College and Nebraska Wesleyan University, which finished first and second in the conference, respectively.

Nicole Haley and Brandi Nekrassoff both earned All-GPAC Second-Team honors in 2011, and both had a hand in setting several school records.  Haley set the record for hits (50) and runs scored (34) in a season, and Nekrassoff set the record for walks in a season (17) and currently has the record for pitching strikeouts in a career (209).  The 2011 team set team records for runs (165), stolen base percentage (.891) and batting average (.296) in a season and tied the record for doubles (50) in a season.

Kieff comes to Dakota Wesleyan with 20 years of softball coaching experience under his belt.  Most recently, he was the head of the Sioux Falls Diamonds Fastpitch Softball Club, which he helped get started five years ago.  The program started as one team when Kieff started it five years ago, and has grown to 12 teams spanning in ages from 9-and-under to 18-and-under.  He is the head coach of the 14u Diamonds Gold team, which won its division at the USSSA South Dakota State Tournament in Sioux Falls in June.

For the past two years, Kieff has been the state director for the USSSA Girls’ Fastpitch Softball program.  He helped develop the South Dakota program and has given the state a presence in the national fastpitch scene.  Kieff coached his daughter’s fastpitch softball teams in Nebraska and South Dakota when she was growing up, and he helped guide a handful of teams to the ASA National Tournament.  In July, Kieff traveled with the 14u Diamonds Gold team to Orlando, Fla., for the USSSA World Series.

Kieff’s ties around the state will be crucial in allowing him to recruit some of the best softball players in the area and the state to play softball at Dakota Wesleyan.  Kieff also has ties to Mitchell as his wife, Mary, is a Mitchell native and his mother-in-law, Marjorie Bertsch, graduated from the DWU nursing program, lives in Mitchell and is an avid Tiger fan.

Kieff currently lives in Sioux Falls with his wife, and they have two grown children.

Heather Ebert

Heather Ebert

Graduate Assistant Softball Coach
Adams State College ’08
heebert@dwu.edu

Heather Ebert enters her first season as the Dakota Wesleyan University softball graduate assistant after a successful college career, as well as stints overseas and with the Canadian National softball team.

Ebert, a Rosthern, Saskatchewan, Canada, native, graduated from Adams State College in 2008 as one of the most decorated softball players in school history.  The shortstop became the first ASC player to be named NCAA Division II National Player-of-the-Year in 2008.  That same year, she was an All-American First-Team pick, an Academic All-American and the Daktronics South Central Regional Player-of-the-Year, as well as Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player-of-the-Year.  In 2007, Ebert, who majored in human performance and physical education, was named the Softball Saskatchewan Female Athlete-of-the-Year.  She set the school record with 22 regular-season home runs and posted a .978 slugging percentage.

In 2009, Ebert played with the Bern Cardinals in Switzerland.  In 2010, she made the 17-player roster on the Canadian Women’s National Softball Team, where she helped the team to a bronze medal at the ISF XII Women’s World Championships in Venezuela in 2010.