Coaches
DANNY HEEP
HEAD COACH
In 2007, for the seventh straight year and the ninth in 10 seasons, Coach Danny Heep’s Incarnate Word baseball team cracked the magic 30-win mark. Just a handful of collegiate teams in this part of the country can make that claim.
In 2007 the Cardinals went 34-21 including 23-17 in the Heartland Conference. While UIW did not defend its Heartland title, the Cardinals can say they have won two of the last three HC crowns and they have played in two of the last four NCAA Division II regional championships.
With the 34 wins in 2007, Coach Heep now has a 10-year cumulative mark of 327-217 for a percentage of .601.
In 2006, the Cardinals went 38-21 including a 30-10 mark in the Heartland Conference. UIW won its second straight league crown. And, for the second time in three years Incarnate Word reached the South Central Regional Tournament. This time, UIW won its way all the way to the tournament finals before falling.
In the seven years the Heartland has crowned a champion, the Cardinals have won three—one through a post-season tournament and two through a regular season schedule with no tournament.
In the spring of 2004, the Cardinals advanced to the regional tournament and won a school record 41 games.
In his 10 years as the Incarnate Word head coach, Heep has seen one of his teams post a low cumulative batting average of .316. The high mark has been .343 as a team. In 2006 alone, with a team batting average of .322, seven of eight starting position players batted more than .300. And it goes back to the guy, Coach Heep, who every day talks hitting to his players whether it be on the field or in the batting cage.
Danny Heep certainly has the baseball know-how and the baseball lore to impart to his players. Before coming to the Cardinals in the fall of 1992 as an assistant coach, the lefthander played 11 seasons of major league baseball.
Heep's time in the 'show' was spent with the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros. And over that time, he had his share of successes, playing on World Championship teams with the Mets in 1986 and with the Dodgers in 1988. His name is still in the record books after he clubbed four home runs as a pinch hitter during the 1983 season.
Heep is a San Antonio native. He played baseball at and graduated from Lee High School. His collegiate playing days were spent at St. Mary's University in San Antonio where he was twice an All-American, in 1976 and again in 1978, as a pitcher.
At St. Mary's he earned his bachelor's degree in physical education, and he is a member of that school's Athletic Hall of Fame.
His wife is Jane and their children are Joanna (14), and Robert (11).
JOHN MALEY
PITCHING COACH
With his arrival at Incarnate Word to join the Cardinals baseball staff as the pitching coach, John Maley brings some amazing statistics scattered over his 14 years of collegiate experience.
In those 14 years, he has tutored hurlers who have piled up more than 6,000 innings and who have recorded more than 5,600 strikeouts. And in this age of aluminum bats, his pitchers have recorded 84 complete games, posted a cumulative 3.68 earned run average, and allowed just .238 as a batting average against.
The majority of those 14 seasons Maley was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at St. Mary's University. After that, he was at Laredo Community College for one year as the head coach and then, for the past three years, he was the pitching coach at Division I Texas State University.
During his stint at St. Mary's, the Rattlers were perennial contenders for titles in both the Heart of Texas and Heartland conferences. One of the highlights of Maley's career came in 2001 when the Rattlers won the NCAA Division II national championship and posted a 50-13 record. During his coaching career at St. Mary's, pitchers recorded nine no-hitters, 22 one-hitters and 214 complete games while breaking virtually every league pitching record.
Maley began his college coaching career at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., where he was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for two seasons. Prior to coaching at the college level, Maley coached three seasons at the high school level--Pettus High School and Yorktown High School.
A native of Richeyville, Pa., the 45-year old Maley graduated from Texas State in 1986 and then received a master's degree in education from Henderson State University. His children are Emily (11) and Kash (8).
HECTOR DELGADILLO
GRADUATE ASSISTANT
He owns an even one-dozen Incarnate Word pitching records, some notable, some he likely would like to ignore. But nonetheless, what it says is Hector Delgadillo was successful at UIW and with that came successes for the team itself.
The San Antonio South San High School product toiled on the Cardinals mound from 2002 until 2005. In those four years, he won more games than anyone ever (38), he had more complete games than anyone else (34), and by progression pitched more innings than all others (396.1). And, more opposition batters (310) whiffed when Hector was pitching.
The forgettable marks—hits, runs, earned runs, hit batters. But those records go with the territory when you work tons of innings as Delgadillo did.
In 2004 with Delgadillo as the ace, the Cardinals won a school record 41 games and advanced to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional tournament. Twice his teams won Heartland Conference titles and the other two years finished as the post-season Heartland tournament runnerup. In his four years, UIW was a cumulative 137-87. That is success.
After his eligibility was completed, he signed a free agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays organization and pitched two summers in their farm system.
Hector is nearing completion of his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. His ultimate goal likely will involve teaching and coaching, but right now he is sharing his pitching knowledge with the Cardinals.
