Dan Heckert Named NWCA National Coach of the Year
By: Jared Barton
North Allegheny girls’ wrestling coach Dan Heckert has earned another award after a productive season on the mat.
Heckert was named the National Wrestling Coaches Association Battles Won National Coach of the Year Award presented by the
United States Marine Corps.
The accolade is presented yearly to the high school coach who best demonstrated genuine commitment to student-athletes’ personal and professional development, as well as, their own development as a coach.
Heckert is the back-to-back reigning WPIAL girls’ wrestling coach of the year. This past season, four of his wrestlers made the podium at the WPIAL Individual Championships, while three represented NA at the PIAA West Regional.
The Tigers finished the season with a 8-6 dual record along with a third-place finish at the Ram Slam Tournament at Pine-Richland, a seventh-place finish at the Mid-Winter Mayhem and a 10th-place finish at the North Allegheny Invitational.
This is not the first state coach of the year award Heckert has won, after taking home the Pennsylvania USA Wrestling Girls Wrestling Coach of the Year in 2021.
Heckert became the first person to be named a girls’ high school wrestling coach for a PIAA school in Pennsylvania back in 2020, before the sport was sanctioned by the governing body. He has been with the NA wrestling program for the last 10 years, first serving as a boys’ wrestling assistant in 2015.
