Will Heron joined the Lewis & Clark baseball coaching staff in the Fall of 2025. The 2027 season will mark his second season on the River Otters Coaching Staff. Heron works primarily with the infielders and hitters.
In his first season on staff, Heron helped develop All-NWC third baseman Michael Aikawa, who led the team with seven home runs and had a .325 batting average, while adding 24 putouts and 92 assists with a .943 fielding percentage. As a unit, the River Otters' offense improved 17 points (.297) in batting average over the previous year.
Heron joins the River Otters coaching staff after putting together a tremendous four-year career on Palatine Hill. The 2025 Lewis & Clark graduate played in 149 games and made 136 starts. The first baseman hit .308 with 160 career hits, 103 runs scored and 123 runs batted in. He blasted 27 doubles and 21 home runs to finish with 250 total bases. He concluded his career with a .989 fielding percentage on over 1,000 career chances.
He was named to the Northwest Conference All-Conference Second Team as a sophomore (2023) and senior (2025). Heron earned All-Region accolades as a senior from the American Baseball Coaches Association (Second Team) and D3baseball.com (Third Team). On February 16, 2025, Heron became the 23rd player in NCAA DIII history to hit four home runs in the same game when he went 4-6 with four runs and eight RBI in an 11-4 win over host Whittier College. For his career, Heron finished sixth in program history in RBI and walks (81), tied for sixth in games played, 10th in home runs, tied for 11th in hits and 13th in runs scored.
Head coach Matt Kosderka said, "We are thrilled to add Will to our coaching staff. He has always had a very high Baseball IQ, and we are excited for him to share that with our players in a coaching role.
As a program, we always want to have builders of men on our coaching staff, and we think Will can be just that. He loves L&C Baseball and I know he will give all he has to our players, so that they can get closer and closer to their peak potential.”
