UIC Head Coach Mike Dee will be inducted into the WBCA Hall of Fame this February.

Dec. 30, 2005

Chicago, Ill.- The Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association announced on Thursday that UIC Head Baseball Coach Mike Dee will be inducted into the WBCA Hall of Fame this February.

Entering his eighth season at the helm of the UIC baseball team, Dee has rebuilt the Flames into a perennial Horizon League power. Fresh off the program's second Horizon League Tournament title and NCAA Regional berth in the last three years, UIC has gone 234-160-1 under Dee's leadership and racked up five Horizon League regular season crowns.

Dee has been named the Horizon League Coach of the Year five times during his seven-year tenure at UIC.

In addition to athletes from the Chicagoland area and around the country, Dee has coached numerous players from the Wisconsin area. Six players on this year's UIC baseball roster call Wisconsin home, including 2005 Horizon League Tournament MVP Ryan Zink (Madison) and 2005 All-Horizon League First Team selection Mark Hallberg (Barron).

Prior to taking the reigns of the UIC baseball program, Dee was an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. There he founded the Minnesota Instructional Baseball School, which became the third-largest of its kind in the U.S.

Before entering the college ranks, Dee served as head coach of his high school alma mater at Aquinas High School in La Crosse, Wis. In six seasons Dee compiled a record of 100-26 at Aquinas, accumulating five conference titles, six consecutive state tournament appearances and four straight state championships (1984-87). He was named the Wisconsin State Coach of the Year in 1987.

Dee was a member of the WBCA and spoke a numerous clinics, including WBCA Clinics, Northwest Wisconsin Coaches Clinics and ABCA Clinics.

Joining Dee in the WBCA Hall of Fame Class of 2006 are acclaimed Wisconsin prep coaches Bruce Erickson, Ernest Krogman and Jay Buckley.

The inductees were chosen by the Wisconsin Hall of Fame committee and the Executive Board of the WBCA.

Dee and the rest of the WBCA Hall of Fame Class of 2006 will be honored at the Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet at the Madison West Marriott on February 11, 2006.