Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook’s Jack Heaps (7) dribbles the ball as he moves past Homewood’s Cedric Durban (21) as the Spartans face Homewood in an area match at Waldrop Stadium on April 5.
Jack Heaps is continuing his father's legacy on the soccer field.
He has played with soccer balls since he was 5 years old and watched plenty of soccer games with his dad, Jay Heaps, former professional soccer player for the New England Revolution and Miami Fusion, and current president of Birmingham Legion FC. He has developed over time into one of the top players in the state.
These days, the Mountain Brook High School junior has received nominations for the Gatorade Player of the Year award and for the North-South All Star Game this summer, and is considered one of the best players on the team by his coach, Joe Webb.
“He is one of, if not the, hardest working guy on the team,” Webb said. “You can not coach a team hard if you can’t coach your best player hard. He wants more, for himself and his team."
Webb said Heaps has an outstanding work ethic, great physicality and knows how to “see the game.”
Heaps doesn’t just react to what’s happening with the ball but also knows how to think “three or four moves ahead” and dissect plays unlike many teens his age, Webb said.
“My oldest son, who played in college and sometimes comes by and kicks around with us, loves to come to practice and either go against Jack to test his abilities or to play with him because he saw that run or that play,” Webb said. “Jason (Webb’s son) and I were talking about this the other day. Jason sees more of the game now because he’s coaching and out of college than he did when he was high school, even as a college player. Jack’s already there. His vision of the game is more than most already.”
Heaps is the Spartans’ leading scorer as a midfielder. He led the Spartans to victory in a game against Homewood on April 5, scoring both goals in the 2-0 win over the No. 2 team in Class 6A.
Webb said he’d have to rewatch the game but he’s almost sure Heaps made around 20 slide tackles during the game.
“That’s very physically demanding,” Webb said. “That’s just exhausting and he’s just popping up and going on to the next play. I mean what can I say? He’s just good.
“We played one game already where he was face marked the entire game. You don’t see that in soccer. I’ve seen it where it’s happened in bits and pieces; I’ve never seen that before, where for an entire game, the other team had someone whose entire job was to just face guard him.”
Heaps said his love and drive for the game came from his dad, being “immersed” in the game since he was born.
“It’s my favorite thing to score a goal or make a good pass and see him being excited in the stands because he really pushes me to work hard and I really appreciate coach saying that I work hard because that’s his big thing,” Heaps said. “You can have a bad pass, you can have a bad play but as long as you’re the hardest working player on the field, no one can take that away from you.”
Heaps said he has aspirations to play professional soccer but his immediate next step after graduating high school is to hopefully play Division I soccer as he works toward a degree. He has made official visits to Georgetown University and Duke University and looks forward to visiting other schools, he said.
“I’m just really excited for the potential to play in college and I’m humbled by the process,” Heaps said. “I’m looking to visit more schools and see where the process takes me.”
