IUP Athletic Hall of Fame
Adel Heder, the most successful women’s soccer coach in IUP history, is being honored in the coach/administrator category. Heder’s teams won 220 games, two PSAC West titles and one PSAC Tournament championship, and made three NCAA Division II tourney appearances during his tenure.
Only once in his 21 seasons—2020 was lost to the COVID-19 pandemic—did IUP finish with a losing record.
Heder won multiple coach of the year honors at Kiski Area High School before coming to IUP in the fall of 2001. He was a success right from the start, leading the Indians, as they were then known, to a 12-4-1 record and into the PSAC Tournament.
Three years later, Heder guided IUP to the best season in program history. The Indians claimed the PSAC Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Division II tourney for the first time ever. IUP (19-4) set still-standing school records for victories and winning percentage (.826).
His 2006 squad (15-7) won its second consecutive PSAC West title, posted its first-ever NCAA tournament victory—3-1 over New Haven—and finished with a No. 15 ranking in the National Soccer Coaches Association poll. The 2009 team (14-7-2) advanced even deeper in the NCAAs, knocking off Gannon and West Chester before falling to California in the third round of the tournament.
Overall, Heder was twice selected as the PSAC Coach of the Year and reigned as Northeast Region Coach of the Year on two occasions. Eleven of his players earned all-region honors and 83 were named to all-conference teams.
Heder was inducted into the PA West Soccer Youth Hall of Fame in 2019 in recognition of his influence on youth and amateur soccer players throughout western Pennsylvania. He is currently coaching with the Beadling club team.
Heder received his undergraduate degree from the University of Baghdad in Iraq and his master’s in health and physical education from Pitt in 1984.
He and his wife, Jacqueline, reside in Vandergrift. They have two daughters—Crystal and Viann, who both played for their father at IUP—and five grandchildren.
