December 20, 2007
(release courtesy of Steven Phelps, Buena Vista University sports information director)

STORM LAKE, IOWA . . . Buena Vista University Director of Athletics, Jan Travis, has announced that Heather (White) Hupke has been named the next head softball coach at BVU. Hupke will succeed current head coach Marge Willadsen who, earlier this school year, announced she will retire at the conclusion of the 2008 season.

“I am very pleased that Heather has accepted our offer to return to BVU and be our next head softball coach," Travis stated. "With the high-caliber background she holds, both as a player and as a coach, and the passion she has for the game, I believe she is a great fit for this position and to help carry on the tradition of BVU softball.”

Hupke, who has been the head softball coach at Briar Cliff University for the past nine seasons, led the Chargers to a runner-up finish in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) in 2004 - its first year in the league. She also guided the team to four straight sectional and regional titles from 1999-2003, while being named the Sectional Coach of the Year in 2001.

“We are proud to welcome home one of the most highly-decorated student-athletes in Buena Vista history,” said BVU President Fred Moore. “Coach Hupke has tremendous passion for her alma mater and we look forward to bright days for BVU softball under her leadership.”

Hupke, a four-time All-American at BVU, made a name for herself as a star pitcher from 1992-95. In 1992, her first collegiate season, Hupke finished the year with the nation’s lowest earned run average (0.47), as she helped lead the team to an NCAA runner-up finish. She compiled a 12-2 overall record that season en route to a career record of 72-20.

The rest of her career was much of the same as she became a four-time all-conference and all-region performer and was named the Iowa Conference MVP after posting a conference-record 14 wins during her senior campaign. She helped lead the Beavers to three Iowa Conference Championships (1992, 1994, and 1995), as well as another top-five national finish (fifth-place) in 1994. In the fall of 2005, Hupke was inducted into the Buena Vista Athletic Hall of Fame.

“I’m very excited about returning to BVU,” Hupke said. “My four years here as a player were some of the best years of my life. Now as a coach, I still look to give the university that same passion I carried with me then.”

To this day, the three-time Buena Vista MVP holds the program’s career marks in wins (72), appearances (97), complete games (79), shutouts (30), innings pitched (602.1), and strikeouts (525). Her name is also found atop the BVU single-season list for wins (24; 1995), appearances (35; 1995), complete games (29; 1995), shutouts (11; 1993), and innings pitched (217; 1995).

“I am very proud and excited that BVU has chosen Heather Hupke,” Willadsen said. “She was one of the hardest working and most determined players that I ever coached. With her leadership, knowledge of the game, and integrity, I feel confident that BVU softball is in ‘good hands.’ She will be an excellent role model for the future student-athletes that choose to attend Buena Vista University. I am proud to have been her coach.”

Prior to arriving at Briar Cliff, Hupke was a graduate assistant at South Dakota State University from September of 1996 thru May of 1998 where she graduated with a master’s degree in HPER in 1998. In addition, she has also served as an assistant coach at Galva-Holstein High School (1996) as well as at Cherokee Washington High School (1998). While at BVU, she also served as a pitching clinic instructor.

Hupke and her husband, Dewey, have two children; Mackenzie and Korver.

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