Bio

Rick Heines' will enter his second season as head coach of the Eutectics Baseball team in the spring of 2025. After being hired as assistant coach in the fall of 2023, Heines advanced up the ranks to the head coaching position following the departure of Jared Franklin, who started UHSP's first-ever program in 2022-23. Heines led the Eutectics to 11 wins in the 2023-24  season, with four of those coming from American Midwest Conference (AMC) contests. Four of Heines' UHSP baseball student-athletes were named Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes and three were named College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic-All-District in 2024.      

Prior to joining the UHSP department of athletics, Heines spent 11 years coaching the NCAA Division III Texas Lutheran University (TLU) Baseball team. He took over the reins of the TLU Bulldogs in 2020-21 and went on to amass an 87-43 record over three seasons as head coach. Heines led the program to two Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) championships (2021, 2023), an NCAA Regional Championship, and a National Championships qualification in that time. After the program's first outright SCAC regular season championship in 2023, Heines was named SCAC Coach of the Year, capping off his Bulldog career.

Texas Lutheran reached the 25-win mark in all three seasons under Heines with a high mark of 30 in 2021. His Bulldog players earned a total of 34 All-SCAC honors, six All-West region honors, and one All-American award over three years with Heines at the helm.

Before arriving at TLU in 2012, Heines served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas A&M-Kingsville from 2010-2012, helping the Javelinas receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship (regional round) in 2012. The Javelinas pitching staff led the Lone Star Conference in earned run average and strikeout-to-walk ratio.

After growing up in San Antonio, Texas, Heines began his collegiate baseball career at Midland College (Texas), where he was an all-conference selection in 2004. After receiving his associate's degree in Kinesiology from Midland, Heines continued on as a student-athlete at Purdue University. He was named All-Big 10 as a pitcher and Academic All-Big 10 while at Purdue in 2006. In 2007, Heines tied for the NCAA Division I season lead in shutouts, with four, before graduating with a bachelor's degree in Movement and Sports Science.

Upon graduation, Heines embarked on his collegiate coaching career as a volunteer pitching coach for Purdue in 2008. Since then, he has coached eight Major League Baseball draft picks.

In 2016, Heines completed his master's degree in Education Administration from Texas A&M-Kingsville.