Last Updated: January 4, 2007
The winningest baseball coach in the history of the NJCU program, Ken Heaton, is entering his 18th season as the Gothic Knights’ head coach in 2007. He has won 240 career games in his first 17 seasons, and needs just 10 more for another personal milestone.
Named the City University of New York Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2005 after guiding the Gothic Knights to the CUNYAC regular season championship in its only season in the league, NJCU tied the school record for wins with 19 (19-14) and reached the ECAC Division III Metro Tournament for the first time in his tenure.
Heaton has also served as NJCU’s Assistant Director of Athletics since September 2004. In that role, he is the transportation and scheduling coordinator for the 15-team athletics program.
In his first 17 seasons at the University, Heaton has worked to build a competitive program in the powerful New Jersey Athletic Conference. He became the school’s career leader in wins on April 14, 1998, when he directed the Gothic Knights to a 13-1 victory over the United States Merchant Marine Academy. He won his 200th career game on March 27, 2004 with a 19-10 victory at Polytechnic University.
After guiding the Knights to an 18-20 record in 2002 and 19 wins in 2005, NJCU has had five of the seven winningest seasons in school history under Heaton’s leadership.
In 1995, Heaton was chosen as the NJAC and the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association Coach of the Year after guiding then-Jersey City State to a school-record tying 19 wins in 1995. The 1986 team also won 19 games (19-18). The Gothic Knights reeled off 11 wins in their final 13 games en route to their second-ever NJAC Tournament berth, and the first since 1978.
Heaton has served on the NCAA Regional Selection Committee and the ECAC Metro NY-NJ Selection Committee.
Heaton has also directed several community outreach programs for NJCU. In October of 1998, he directed Baseball Fest, a one-day youth clinic at Yogi Berra Stadium that served as a benefit to the Mountainside Hospital Foundation. He has conducted numerous clinics for Jersey City youth groups in his tenure at the University.
He has been a resident staff member of the Mott-Leeney Baseball School at Newark Academy in Livingston, New Jersey, and has served on the Morris County Baseball Tournament Committee. He has instructed at camps on the high school and American Legion level.
A 1983 graduate of the University of Delaware, Heaton came to NJCU from the prestigious Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey. His teams at Delbarton captured one county championship under his guidance. A “master of all trades” at the school, Heaton taught physical education, health and driver education along with coaching varsity football, basketball and baseball.
A native of Dover, New Jersey, Heaton is a 1978 graduate of Delbarton where he was a three-year letter-winner in baseball, basketball and football. A standout baseball player, Heaton was a First-Team All-Prep Conference selection in 1976 and 1977. He was also selected First Team All-Morris County and First Team All-State by the Newark Star-Ledger in 1977. Heaton was a team captain in football, basketball and baseball as a senior.
Born May 16, 1960, Heaton resides with his wife Cindy on Lake Hopatcong, NJ, where he enjoys outdoor sports including boating and fishing when his NJCU baseball club is inactive.
