Miles Van Hee enters his seventh year as the Western Colorado University Director of Athletics following 20 seasons as Western Wrestling’s head coach, a four-year stint as an assistant coach and an All-American wrestling career with the Mountaineers.
Van Hee has dedicated his efforts to increasing the fundraising capacity of Mountaineer Athletics to ensure Western's programs are competitive among their peers. Under Van Hee's guidance, the Mountaineers have had one NCAA Academic National Championship team, 14 Individual National Champions, 112 NCAA II All-Americans, five Academic All-Americans, two NCAA DII Academic All-American Athletes of the Year and five RMAC Team Championships.
Van Hee has overseen, a $30 million renovation of our Mountaineer Bowl Event Complex stadium and home of our Football and Track & Field sports is underway with an expected completion of Fall 2023. This groundbreaking effort has been paid for entirely by privately fundraised dollars. Other renovations completed and paid for with fundraised dollars during Van Hee’s tenure include: a $2.6 million brand-new turf field for our Soccer program, renovations to both our Women’s and Men’s Basketball team locker rooms, Women’s Swimming and Dive locker rooms and a 30-person film room specifically for our women’s teams. Additionally, the MAA Crab Feed has grossed its highest revenue and profit in the history of the event as he and his team annually fundraise $800,000-$1 million for Mountaineer Athletics.
Van Hee has helped reshape the department, developing a new Vision, Mission and Values, as well as hire new head coaches and administrators to aid program development. Van Hee is committed to furthering the University’s strategic plan, and in fact, was an integral part of its development, as he serves on the University’s leadership cabinet.
Van Hee is involved at the conference and national levels and has served on many committees within the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and the NCAA including chairing the NCAA D2 Wrestling committee and currently serves as the lead connector for the NCAA D2 wrestling coach’s connection. In addition, the RMAC President’s council recently voted Western’s President, Brad Baca, to be the executive committee chair of the President’s Council which makes Western and Van Hee, as the Athletic Director, the chair of the Athletic Administrators Council for the next two academic years.
Prior to being Director of Athletics, Van Hee spent 20 years as the Head Coach for Mountaineer Wrestling and is the all-time coaching wins leader. Van Hee’s team finished as the NWCA All-Academic National Champions in 2016, setting a record for highest GPA in the history of the award. In his final year they were awarded the 2017 NCAA D2 Academic National Champions which was announced at the D2 Winter Festival National Championships. They were also the second-ranked NWCA All-Academic team in 2014.
In 2004, Van Hee was named the NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year and has been cited by National Wrestling Hall of Fame – Colorado Chapter as “Colorado College Coach of the Year” on six occasions (2001, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017), more than any other collegiate coach in Colorado. He’s a four-time RMAC Coach of the Year (2005, 2009, 2010, 2014). In 1995, Van Hee (an assistant at Western from 1993-97) was named the Assistant Collegiate Wrestling Coach of the Year for all levels by Wrestling USA Magazine. He was named the D2 Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence Award winner in his final year as a coach.
Van Hee coached six NCAA Division II National Champions - Shane Carwin (1999), Dave Vondy (2001), Jared Haberman (2004), Adrian Jiron (2004) and Donovan McMahill (2010 and 2011) – 15 NCAA Division II National Finalists, 55 NCAA Division II All-Americans, and 83 NWCA All-Academic wrestlers.
Van Hee’s dual record for Western wrestling is 182-92-5 and his teams finished in the Top 25 every year and in the top 10 eight times. In 2004, the Mountaineers finished fourth at the NCAA Division II Championships, and fifth at the 2011 championships. The Mountaineers won 16-straight home duals from 2008-09 through the 2010-11 season.
During the 2017 Tracy Borah Duals, Van Hee became the all-time winningest coach at Western, surpassing Tracy Borah’s dual record during the final dual win.
Van Hee wrestled for the Mountaineers from 1990-93. He was a two-time All-American and RMAC champion, and a NCAA Division II West Regional champion. In 1992, he was selected as a member of the USA-Collegiate Cultural Exchange Team that toured Poland and Germany.
Originally from Fowler, Colo., Van Hee was a three-time high school state champion at Fowler High School and an Asics Junior National All-American and Cadet All-American. He holds a bachelor’s degree in technology from Western (1994) and earned his master’s degree in sports management from the University of Northern Colorado in 1997.
He and his wife, Tonya - who owns and manages Gunnison Shipping – have two sons, Bryson and Jared. Bryson will be graduating from Western in May 2023 with degrees in Psychology and Sociology and Jared is a musician living in LA who recently graduated from Icon Collective College of Music with a Music Production degree. As empty nesters, Miles and Tonya love to hang with their other “kids”, their dogs, Slater and Cato.
