Kyle Brumett
Head Coach
Hanover College, 1998

Brumett, who was selected out of a pool of over 160 candidates, will come to Defiance after leading his Lakeland College squad to a 33-22 record and a 2008 Northern Athletics Conference Tournament championship during his two-year tenure with the Muskies.

Brumett guided Lakeland to a 17-11 record this past season and entered the NAC Tournament as the sixth seed, before logging three-straight road victories over the top three teams in the league to claim the title. The impressive tournament run concluded with a thrilling 82-77 overtime victory over the top-ranked team in the conference.

Along with his time as the Lakeland head coach, Brumett has also worked the sideline as an assistant for DePauw, Southern Indiana and Hanover and has 11 years of collegiate coaching experience.

Prior to accepting his first collegiate head coaching stint at Lakeland, Brumett spent seven years as the top assistant at DePauw University. The Indiana native helped the Tigers to a 121-62 record, three Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships and an appearance in the 2001-02 NCAA Division III Tournament’s Elite Eight.

Brumett has also spent time at the University of Southern Indiana during the 1998-99 campaign, where he assisted current Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl. The Eagles posted a 26-6 record and were the top-ranked team in NCAA Division II throughout the majority of the year.

Along with his clear ties to the region, the 1998 Hanover College graduate will bring a strong familiarity of the Heartland Conference with him to the Defiance bench. Brumett served as a student assistant coach when his playing career came to and end under HC’s legendary head coach Mike Beitzel.

Brumett will be taking over a Yellow Jacket team which won the HCAC regular season championship and advanced to its second-straight HCAC title game. Defiance has won 36 games over the past two seasons and will lose only two seniors as it looks toward another strong campaign in 2008-09.

Brumett graduated from Hanover with a degree in physical education, before earning a master’s degree in recreation and sports management from Indiana State University in 2004. He and his wife, Steffanie, have a year-old son, Leon Maxwell.

Tom Heil
Assistant Coach
Bluffton University, 2007

Heil is no stranger to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference after playing four years at Bluffton University where he graduated in the spring of 2007 with a degree in marketing. Heil was a captain of the Beavers during his senior season and helped his class collect more wins over a four-year span than any other class in school history.

Heil excelled off the court as well, graduating with a 3.64 grade-point average and being named to the Dean’s List four times. Heil also spent three years as a member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Even during his playing career, Heil was already gaining valuable coaching experience. Heil spent two years as a recruiting assistant for the men’s basketball team at Bluffton and has also worked as a camp counselor at the Akron Hoban Basketball Camps for three years.

Ralph Ruffer
Assistant Coach
Defiance College, 1972

The Stryker, Ohio, native has also spent 27 years in coaching at the high school level, including 21 seasons as the head coach at Fairview High and six more as an assistant at Stryker High.

Ruffer is a 1972 graduate of Defiance College and earned a master’s degree from the University of Toledo.

Ruffer and his wife Cathy, reside in Ney, Ohio. The couple has two sons, Eric and Josh, and one grandson.