Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Former Mountaineer Baseball Standout Hetzel Passes Away
February 13, 2025 01:56 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Don Hetzel, an All-Southern Conference outfielder and 1966 team captain for the West Virginia University baseball team, has died.
His death was confirmed this morning by the WVU baseball office through longtime Jefferson High baseball coach John Lowery.
Hetzel was a sophomore on the Mountaineers' 1964 team that won the Southern Conference championship and played in the NCAA District 3 Regional Tournament in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Back then, the NCAA Tournament consisted of only 21 teams comprising eight different districts around the country.
The Harpers Ferry High product was a starting leftfielder for West Virginia that season and was a key performer on the 1965 squad that won 19 games but finished a game behind Furman for the Southern Conference title. He batted a team-best .355, which included a career-high four hits in games against Georgia and Penn State, to earn first team All-Southern Conference honors.
Hetzel's senior season in 1966 saw him bat .311 in 33 games and his team get edged out of the Southern Conference championship by a rainout. The 26-7-1 Mountaineers were 12-4 in league play and finished a half-game behind 12-3 East Carolina in the conference standings.
Hetzel batted better than .300 all three seasons as a regular and ended his Mountaineer career with a .324 average in 79 games.
After earning bachelor's and master's degrees at WVU, he coached the Davis & Elkins baseball and cross country teams for two years before moving to South Florida to coach at Miami Dade Junior College.
He later returned to the Mid-Atlantic region in 1973 to coach baseball and tennis at Handley High in Winchester, Virginia.
Hetzel was named Jefferson High's athletic director in 1977 and continued in that role until his retirement in 2003. He stayed on to coach the Jefferson High golf team from 2003-10 and was named coach of the year four times.
A founding member of the West Virginia Athletic Directors Association, Hetzel was named its Athletic Director of the Year in 1997 and was inducted into the WVADA Hall of Fame in 2024, the same year he became an inaugural member of the Jefferson High Athletic Hall of Fame.
Among Hetzel's many administrative accomplishments at Jefferson were the expansion of female sporting opportunities there.
His death was confirmed this morning by the WVU baseball office through longtime Jefferson High baseball coach John Lowery.
Hetzel was a sophomore on the Mountaineers' 1964 team that won the Southern Conference championship and played in the NCAA District 3 Regional Tournament in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Back then, the NCAA Tournament consisted of only 21 teams comprising eight different districts around the country.
The Harpers Ferry High product was a starting leftfielder for West Virginia that season and was a key performer on the 1965 squad that won 19 games but finished a game behind Furman for the Southern Conference title. He batted a team-best .355, which included a career-high four hits in games against Georgia and Penn State, to earn first team All-Southern Conference honors.
Hetzel's senior season in 1966 saw him bat .311 in 33 games and his team get edged out of the Southern Conference championship by a rainout. The 26-7-1 Mountaineers were 12-4 in league play and finished a half-game behind 12-3 East Carolina in the conference standings.
Hetzel batted better than .300 all three seasons as a regular and ended his Mountaineer career with a .324 average in 79 games.
After earning bachelor's and master's degrees at WVU, he coached the Davis & Elkins baseball and cross country teams for two years before moving to South Florida to coach at Miami Dade Junior College.
He later returned to the Mid-Atlantic region in 1973 to coach baseball and tennis at Handley High in Winchester, Virginia.
Hetzel was named Jefferson High's athletic director in 1977 and continued in that role until his retirement in 2003. He stayed on to coach the Jefferson High golf team from 2003-10 and was named coach of the year four times.
A founding member of the West Virginia Athletic Directors Association, Hetzel was named its Athletic Director of the Year in 1997 and was inducted into the WVADA Hall of Fame in 2024, the same year he became an inaugural member of the Jefferson High Athletic Hall of Fame.
Among Hetzel's many administrative accomplishments at Jefferson were the expansion of female sporting opportunities there.
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