OMAHA, Neb. (May 29, 2025) – Omaha Vice Chancellor / Director of Athletics Adrian Dowell announced Thursday a multi-year contract extension for Maverick softball head coach Mike Heard following his team's Summit League regular season and tournament titles this season.
 
The 2024 Summit League Coach of the Year, Heard has ushered in a new era of Omaha softball, leading the Mavericks to three straight Summit League tournament championships and NCAA Championship appearances. Under his leadership, Omaha has advanced to the conference tournament final in each of his four seasons and has won at least one NCAA tournament game in each of the team's three postseason berths. In 2025, Omaha won the Summit League Regular Season Championship for the first time in program history.
 
"Coach Heard has led our softball program to unprecedented successes for Omaha Athletics and in the Summit League," Dowell said. "This year was another banner season for the program by capturing both the regular season and tournament titles while yet again, winning a game in the NCAA tournament. This program has an established culture of excellence and we are excited to support Mike's vision of even greater achievements in the future under his leadership."
 
Boasting a 148-59 (.715) record, Heard has led the Mavericks to unprecedented success in the Division I era, earning a national top 25 national ranking in 2024 and a three-seed in the NCAA tournament twice in three seasons. The 2025 Mavericks finished the regular season ranked No. 9 in the D1 Softball Mid-Major Rankings, the highest finish in program history. Omaha finished the 2025 campaign with an RPI of 46, the best in the DI era.
 
The 2024 program advanced to the Columbia Regional final, Omaha's first at the NCAA Division I level.
 
Since 2022, Omaha has emerged victorious against Power Four institutions (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC) 13 times, including NCAA tournament wins.
  
"It means the world to receive this vote of confidence from Chancellor (Joanne) Li and Adrian (Dowell) as we continue growing our program on the national stage," said Heard. "I appreciate the opportunity to sustain this momentum and serve our tremendous student-athletes and institution. I thank all of our supporters, fans and campus community members for their support of our team."

With Heard at the helm, Omaha has collected 28 All-Summit League plaudits, back-to-back Pitcher of the Year awards (Kamryn Meyer and Maddia Groff) and back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year honorees (Lynsey Tucker Tucker and Maggie O'Brien).
 
Omaha has placed two or more student-athletes on NFCA All-Region Teams in three of Heard's four seasons leading the Mavericks. Most recently, Groff and Sydney Thomason were named to the First and Third Teams All-Region, respectively.
 
Academically, five Mavericks in Heard's tenure have earned the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District® Team status with one (Sydney Ross) earning a spot on the prestigious CSC Academic All-America® Second Team. O'Brien, a member of the 2025 Academic All-District® Team is a finalist for Academic All-America®.
 
31 Mavericks have been named to NFCA Scholar-Athletes since 2022 (2025 list has not yet been released) and the team boasts a cumulative GPA of 3.664 in the Omaha native's tenure.

Omaha softball's 2022-23 academic year GPA of 3.699 was recognized as an NFCA/Easton Top 10 GPA in all of Division I.
 
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