FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
VILLANOVA, Pa. – Baseball head coach Joe Godri announced this week the hiring of Nick Weisheipl as an assistant coach with the team. Weisheipl will serve as the Villanova pitching coach and recruiting coordinator while being heavily involved in all aspects of the program. He fills the spot on the coaching staff vacated by Jim Carone, who accepted a head coaching position at Wagner.
Weisheipl comes to the Wildcats from Notre Dame College in Cleveland, Ohio where he has been the head coach for the past three seasons. He brings more than eight years of coaching experience to the Villanova program as well as playing experience both at the collegiate level and internationally.
“I am very excited to have Nick come on board,” Godri said. “He is a great addition to the team and his experience as a head coach at the collegiate level will be invaluable to our ball club. Nick has handled a high level of responsibilities for many years and will do an excellent job of working with our players and also leading our recruiting efforts.”
Weisheipl was named the head coach at Notre Dame College following one season as the pitching coach, recruiting coordinator and academic liaison at the school. In his three seasons as head coach the team established program records for the most wins and highest winning percentage in a season. Most recently, his 2011 squad had eight players garner all-conference honors and the team was honored as an NAIA Scholar Team for having a team grade-point average of higher than 3.0.
During the 2010 season Weisheipl led his team to the program’s first-ever winning season. He posted a 28-20 record for the year, an improvement of 18 wins from the year before. In addition to setting a program record for wins in a season and the highest finish in the conference standings, the 2010 team rewrote the program’s offensive record book and set top marks in nearly every offensive category. Seven players were named all-conference selections, including two freshmen who were first team picks.
In his tenure as head coach Weisheipl signed more than 85 players while drastically improving and creating new on-campus training facilities. He also established relationships with area Major League Baseball scouts and consistently placed his players in top collegiate summer leagues throughout the country.
Among his other achievements as head coach Weisheipl developed a team fundraiser which was responsible for a significant amount of support for the program. He also represented the athletic department in accreditation interviews, created a year-long strength & conditioning program and established an international recruiting pipeline in Canada, Germany, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
Weisheipl spent the 2008 season as the pitching coach at NDC and helped the team’s pitching staff lower its ERA by two runs from the previous season. That year the team set a program record for its highest-ever winning percentage, a mark which Weisheipl would go on to break as a head coach. He also created a study program which resulted in the baseball team’s highest-ever GPA and was part of a team that refined and implemented a progress report system for all student-athletes at the school.
Prior to arriving at Notre Dame College, Weisheipl spent the 2007 season as an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Stout and before that was the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for three years at Clarke College. In his year at Wisconsin-Stout the team reached the conference tournament for the first time and upset the league’s top seed in the first round of the tournament. In three seasons at Clarke College he coached the Conference Player of the Year and the team set over 70 individual, team and single-game records.
Weisheipl also has coached with the Eau Claire Express and the La Crosse Loggers. Both teams are members of the Northwoods League, a summer collegiate league that consistently attracts top college players who have gone on to enjoy success at the professional level.
A student-athlete in his own right, Weisheipl is a 2002 graduate of Beloit College where he was a two-time team MVP and a two-time academic all-conference selection. He batted .333 during his collegiate career and held six school records at the time of his graduation. He was named the team’s Most Improved Player during his career, won the Team Academic Award for having the highest GPA among team members and was presented with the Joe Kobylka Sportsmanship and Team Spirit Award.
Following his graduation from Beloit, Weisheipl played professionally in Germany for the Regensburg Legionaere Baseball Club as a shortstop and a pitcher. Playing in Germany’s 1st Bundesliga he was the league leader in runs scored, walks and on-base percentage and also ranked among the league leaders in stolen bases, assists, double plays and saves. Regensburg won the 2003 Bayern Pokal title (Bavarian State champions) as well as the 2003 Deutsche Pokal national championship.
