Nearly three months after Jeff Keller resigned as head women's basketball coach at UAH, former Florida State assistant coach Roy Heintz was handed the reigns of the Lady Charger program. Heintz was introduced as the 11th UAH women's basketball coach at a press conference on Monday morning at Spragins Hall.

Heintz was assistant coach at FSU 2000-02 under current Lady Noles head coach Sue Semrau. During that period, the Lady Seminoles had a record of 32-27. In 2000-01, FSU made it to the NCAA tournaent for the first time in 10 years. The Lady Noles defeated Tulane in the first round, but fell to host Iowa State in the second round. While at FSU, Heintz coached Brooke Wyckoff who is an 8-year veteran in the WNBA with the Chicago Sky. Wyckoff also plays professionally in Spain.

"I am very excited that Roy Heintz has been given this amazing opportunity," said Semrau of Heintz. "I know firsthand from his time at Florida State that Roy is an outstanding coach and great teacher of the game. His strong character and commitment to excellence in the women's game will make him an asset to the UAH athletic department."

After his stint at FSU, Heintz moved on to Covenant College where he served as head women's basketball coach for the last seven years. In his last season, the Lady Scots finished with a 20-13 record, winning the school's first Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament championship and advancing to the NAIA national tournament.

In his seven seasons at the helm, Heintz had a 119-93 record, and in three of those seasons his teams were ranked in the nation's Top 25 - the first time that had ever happened in school history.

He coached four NAIA or State Farm All-American selections, 13 All-AAC players, six AAC All-Freshmen honorees, and six AAC All-Defensive team members including two AAC "Defensive Player of the Year" honorees.

Equally impressive were his teams' excellence off the court, with seven Lady Scots earning NAIA All-American Scholar Athlete honors, and 24 earning AAC All-Academic recognition. In his seven years, his teams' combined grade point averages never fell below 3.0 for an academic year, and in two seasons his teams earned recognition as a Top 25 academic program by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.

Heintz took pride in how his teams performed on and off the court, so his squads' greatest accomplishment might have been winning the AAC "Champions of Character" award five times in seven seasons, winning it outright three times and awarded as the co-winner twice.

Heintz also served for a time at Covenant as Director of Athletics and Sports Information Director. Under his leadership as Director of Athletics, the Covenant athletic program grew from seven varsity teams to thirteen, with the addition of spring sport offerings in baseball, softball, men's and women's tennis, and men's and women's golf. Covenant also added seven junior varsity teams over that time as well, as the number of student-athletes more than doubled from 113 to 270.

Heintz, 46, is married to the former Miss Sharon Duvall of Indianapolis. The Heintz's are the proud parents of a daughter, Sarah. 

Emily Sheer

"Emily comes to us with strong fundamental play. She will be able to play multiple positions for us," said Lady Charger head coach Jeff Keller. "One of things we really liked about her is not only can she shoot well from beyond the arc, but can put it on the floor and get to the basket. She will also bring a lot of toughness
to our team."