Many students usually wait until high school to decide where they are going to college, maybe after a visit to campus, or once they decide what they want to study. But Miles Van Hee knew all about Western Colorado University, then Western State College, long before high school, and had visions of being a Mountaineer.
Growing up in Fowler, Colorado, Van Hee’s father, Tom, was the head wrestling coach at the local high school. Every summer, Tom Van Hee would take his team to Gunnison for the Rocky Mountain Wrestling Camps, held at Spring Creek Resort and run by Western legend Tracy Borah.
Borah was the head wrestling coach and Athletic Director for 29 years at Western before retiring in 1985. He is credited with the implementation of the longest-running wrestling camp in America. After high school, Van Hee, a three-time state champion at Fowler High School, was prepared to take his athletic career to the next level. In 1990, he officially became a Mountaineer student athlete, studying Industrial Technology with a minor in Business Administration.
When he wasn’t hitting the books or competing, Van Hee was also a Resident Advisor in Chipeta Hall and had a work study job with facilities services. He recalls some of his favorite memories as a student athlete. “It was very special to be a part of a program where everyone is in the trenches together,” Van Hee said. “We were all working towards the same goal.”
Van Hee graduated from Western in 1994, and shortly after, an opportunity arose. “I was pretty much done with my degree in 1993, so I stuck around to be a student assistant wrestling coach and decided to get my teaching certificate,” Van Hee said. “I was in a position to student teach, and in fact, I was going to student teach in Hotchkiss, and I was really looking forward to it. But I didn’t have much of a plan after that, other than finding a coaching or teaching position somewhere. That is when the assistant head wrestling coach job opened up at Western. I ended up getting that job and coaching as an assistant for four years.”
After getting his feet under him as an assistant, Van Hee started to see the challenges of being a coach at a collegiate level. “As an athlete, you feel like you have more control of the outcome on the scoreboard. On the sidelines as a coach, you find your competitive fire through the performances of your athletes.”
After developing as an assistant, Van Hee learned a lot about himself and knew he was ready for an opportunity as a head coach when the time came. In 1997, the head coaching position opened, and he was hired to lead the Mountaineer program. “You think you are ready for it, but you are never really ready for it until you step into it,” Van Hee said. “Every year, I learned something more. The more I talked to other coaches, the more I found out what worked for me. I also spoke with my student athletes a lot; it is amazing how much you can learn from them.”
There is no doubt his wrestlers bought into his program, and the success followed. Van Hee’s teams finished in the Top 10 nine times and in the Top 25 every year except one. He also coached six NCAA Division II national champions and 55 NCAA All-Americans, was named NCAA DII Coach of the Year in 2004, was a four-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, and was a six-time Colorado Coach of the Year. His teams also performed well academically, with Academic National Championships in 2016 and 2017. In 2017, he became Western’s all-time winningest coach, going 182-94.
After 20 years and hundreds of duels and tournaments, Van Hee decided it was time for the next step in his career. “When the opportunity came about to be the Athletic Director (AD), it felt right,” Van Hee said. “I was very fortunate at the time to have the best assistant coaches, who were my former wrestlers, take the program to the next level, and they did.”
Van Hee passed the torch to current head coach Charlie Pipher and assistant coach Donovan McMahill, one of his six national champions. “I knew that taking the AD position would be a huge undertaking, and it was,” Van Hee said. “It is still challenging every day; the job never gets easier. In fact, I think it gets harder because you continue to challenge yourself and the people around you.” Van Hee credited several people in his life who have helped him achieve what he has achieved – including the leadership of Western President Brad Baca and former Interim Western President Nancy Chisholm – but especially wanted to share the impacts of two people: his wife, Tonya, and former assistant coach, Craig Otto.
Van Hee met his wife, Tonya, at Western. “She worked in the Admissions office when I was an assistant coach,” Van Hee said. “We knew of each other in college, but never dated as students. We started dating when we were both working for Western. Now, we’ve been married for 29 years and have two amazing boys, Bryson and Jared. She has been through it all with me. She is my anchor in the storm and my calm in the chaos.”
Otto wrestled for Van Hee as a student and then joined forces as Van Hee’s ‘right-hand man’ and Head Assistant Coach for 18 years. “Otto was one of my first All-Americans, my first year as a head coach,” Van Hee said. “Otto made all of us better, he made the program better, he set the standard. When I became the AD, he was a great life coach and mentor to me. He is someone I can always count on.”
Since taking the AD job in February of 2017, Van Hee has seen countless changes throughout the department and the entire campus. New facilities have been constructed, new academic programs implemented, and new faculty and staff have been hired, and Van Hee is happy to see it. “Change is healthy,” he said. “Change is good.”
One thing that has not changed is Western’s will to win. “Western is a special place,” Van Hee said. “Only those who have experienced it can truly understand. Our student athletes are the inspiration for us all, and we could not have had the success we have experienced without the support of our alumni, donors, fans, and parents.”
