{"id":165,"date":"2022-04-29T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T23:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/?p=165"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:27:11","slug":"meet-coach-heiar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/2022\/04\/29\/meet-coach-heiar\/","title":{"rendered":"Conoce al Entrenador Heiar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally published in spring 2022 on Kokopelli NMSU, a former news site produced by students enrolled in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Heiar [pronounced \u201chigher\u201d] became the 27th NMSU men\u2019s basketball head coach after former coach Chris Jans left for Mississippi State this past March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heiar was previously Northwest Florida State College\u2019s head coach in Niceville, Florida, where he led the Raiders to the NICAA Division I national title in early March. He also served as an assistant coach at Louisiana State, East Tennessee State and Wichita State, among other universities and colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n

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NMSU new men’s basketball head coach Greg Heiar, left, and athletic director Mario Moccia pose for a photo with Heiar’s new jersey at his introductory press conference in the Pan American Center March 28, 2022. (Photo courtesy of NMSU Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A native of Dubuque, Iowa, Heiar says he\u2019s won about 91% and 70% of his games, respectively, as a head coach and assistant coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heiar also played a season for Coach Jans at Kirkwood Community College. Three years later, he worked for him as an assistant coach at Chipola College. Heiar would eventually take over as head coach at Chipola, where he led his team to five straight conference championships and four National Junior College Tournament appearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heiar and Jans also worked together at Wichita State University, where Heiar helped the Shockers reach the Final Four in 2013 along with five conference championships and 179 total wins in six seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heiar took the time to speak with Kokopelli earlier this month. Here is the transcript of that interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kokopelli: What brought you here to be the NMSU men\u2019s basketball head coach?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Heiar: <\/strong>Obviously, my relationship with the athletic director Mario Moccia was really important. I\u2019ve known him for the last five years and stayed in touch with him. And then obviously, my relationship with coach Jans as well. We constantly had communication the last five years, and he was just always talking about what a wonderful community and what a wonderful university New Mexico State University was, and what a great community Las Cruces had to offer as well. So, it was a win-win for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kokopelli: This is your first Division I head coaching job. How do you feel about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Heiar: <\/strong>It\u2019s an opportunity, and I want to make the most of my opportunity. We\u2019re going to enjoy every day. We\u2019re going to take it one day at a time. We\u2019re going to work extremely hard, and we\u2019re going to be good to people. We\u2019re going to have great customer service as coaches with our players, the university and community. I\u2019m just really excited, blessed and honored. And like I said, I\u2019m going to work hard and be great to people.<\/p>\n\n\n

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NMSU new men’s basketball head coach Greg Heiar gives a speech at his introductory press conference in the Pan American Center March 28, 2022. (Photo courtesy of NMSU Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Kokopelli: We know the success that Jans had with the team. Do you expect to continue that same success or [have even more success]? If so, how do you plan to do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Heiar: <\/strong>I plan on having continued success and to build on his success. We\u2019re going to recruit quality student athletes that can really play basketball and are really good students. They represent themselves in a first-class manner every single day on campus and in our community. They\u2019re going to work extremely hard every day. They\u2019re going to play as a team. We\u2019re going to be a team. It\u2019s pretty simple. We\u2019re going to compete hard, compete smart and compete together and have a lot of fun doing that. But it all starts with hard work. I\u2019m just excited for the success that he has had, and I\u2019m excited to continue to build on that success and take the program to even another level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kokopelli: What are your strengths as a coach?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Heiar:<\/strong> I think one of my biggest strengths is my ability to interact with people, read people, have a feel for people, understand people, build confidence in the people, and just have a trust and a belief in people and help them become the best versions of themselves. I think that\u2019s probably my biggest strength and a big reason why I\u2019ve had the success that I\u2019ve had everywhere I\u2019ve gone, because it\u2019s really about the people. Just helping people in any way possible is something that I take a lot of pride in, and I must say it\u2019s my biggest strength. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kokopelli: How will your team members play after you have been coaching them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Heiar:<\/strong> We\u2019re going to be really competitive. We\u2019re going to play really intense and play to win. We\u2019re going to play the right way. We\u2019re going to play an up-tempo style, where we want to get the game going up and down the floor. Well press on some dead balls and some made baskets situations, but we\u2019ll be scouting based on the defensive end. But our style on the court is definitely a pro style of play. We want to get good ball movement. We want to be happy for our teammates when they create a good shot for me or happy for my teammate when he passes me the ball, and I make the shot. Just everything is about team and togetherness. That\u2019s what wins championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kokopelli: Many current players are deciding to leave NMSU, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. What would you tell them, or what would you do to persuade them to stay or return?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Heiar:<\/strong> I just support them in whatever decision that they want to make. I want what\u2019s best for them. If [they\u2019re] going to be here, I want them to do the right things on a day-to-day basis. If there\u2019s maybe a coach out there that is better for them, then I advise them to take that route. But we\u2019re going to continue to recruit quality student athletes that want to represent this university in a first-class manner. I treat this like I\u2019m the head coach of the Phoenix Suns or like I\u2019m at Kentucky. It\u2019s totally an honor. It\u2019s a beautiful place with great people, and I want those that want to be a part of it. It\u2019s a traditional program that\u2019s been built of winning championships. So, we\u2019re going to continue to do that. But the players know it\u2019s really important if they look somewhere else, we support them and do whatever we can to help them moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Heiar [pronounced \u201chigher\u201d] became the 27th NMSU men\u2019s basketball head coach after former coach Chris Jans left for Mississippi State this past March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279255734,"featured_media":48,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Meet Coach Heiar","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20799],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phbsGB-2F","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img_2990.jpg?fit=530%2C354&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279255734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speakingmymindarcy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}