Sports
Coach Carl Iwasaki is the 9th head baseball coach at the University of Northern Colorado. He is a former catcher for the Bears playing under ABCA Hall Of Fame coach Tom Petroff; he returned to coach his alma mater in August 2010. UNC is in its 5th season within Division 1 Western Athletic Conference and has qualified for the past 3 consecutive WAC postseason tournaments in Mesa, Arizona. His program won the 2013 Great West Conference championship and transitioned to the WAC in 2014. UNC finished the 2017 season in 3rd place at the tournament after upsetting #1 seed New Mexico State. The UNC baseball program has a tradition-rich baseball program including 20 NCAA D1 regional tournament births and 10 College World Series appearances. Coach Iwasaki has over 20 years of coaching experience in Colorado, Hawaii, California & Texas. Prior to UNC coach Iwasaki spent time as the General Manager for the MLB affiliated Hawaii Winter Baseball League from 1993-1997, an assistant coach at Saddleback CC in Mission Viejo California from 2000-2003 and head coach in Texas at Austin College from 2004-2010. Coach Iwasaki’s 2007 Austin College team won the SCAC Conference Tournament and went on to the NCAA Western Regional for the first time in program history. R.D. Spiehs begins his seventh spring at the University of Northern Colorado as the Bears Pitching Coach. In Spiehs’ time with UNC, the team ERA reduced significantly both years in the Great West Conference (2012, 2013). The same trend has happened since entering the WAC in 2014. Overall win total has doubled and ERA has decreased by almost two runs per nine innings since 2014. The Grand Island, Nebraska native played collegiately at the University of Nebraska from 1999-2001, assisting in back to back to back Big 12 tournament titles, along with the programs first appearance in the College World Series (2001). Spiehs, the 33rd round pick of the San Francisco Giants in the 2001 draft, pitched for eight years professionally. Playing up to the AA and AAA levels with the Padres, Mariners, and Giants. Prior to UNC, R.D. coached at Grayson Junior College in North Texas. The 2011 Viking team reached the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado; a team which had six drafted players and one future big leaguer.