Riley Hecklinski, an alumnus of the Indiana State softball program, has been hired as a scout by the Cleveland Browns of the NFL.
According to various media reports over the weekend, Hecklinski is joining the Browns’ scouting department on a full-time basis. Hecklinski is one of two females newly hired to scout for the team, and the only full-time scout, according to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com.
Hecklinski comes a family stepped in football tradition; her great-grandfather, Russ Deal, is a member of the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame, while her grandfather, Mike Deal, was on the Hoosiers’ 1967 Rose Bowl team. Her father, Jeff, is currently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at San Diego State.
Hecklinski previously worked for the Kansas Jayhawks’ recruiting staff, and also worked for the Senior Bowl in 2020. She began her college softball career at Indiana, where she took a redshirt in 2018 and transferred to Indiana State following that year. She played in twelve games at ISU during the 2019 season, recording five hits in 27 at-bats before taking a medical retirement.
