Last year, a friend and I went to watch the Revolution play in the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup. The match was at Jordan Field on the campus of Harvard University. My friend and I decided to walk to the field with the quickest route on his phone’s map. At some point, while walking through the shortcuts of the campus we realized we were probably somewhere we weren’t supposed to be. Our suspicions were confirmed when we saw two men talking in front of a closed door. One of those men was Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. He saw our scarves and realized we were on our way to the game. He gave us a quick hello and neither I or my friend knew what to say. I could barely look at him I was so starstruck. My friend finally nervously shouted a little “Go Revs” and we went on our way to watch Jay Heaps and the Revolution get another win in their run to the US Open Cup final.
Tuesday morning, Jay Heaps was fired as head coach of the New England Revolution. Heaps spent 6 years as the head coach after playing for the club in 9 of his 11 seasons during his playing career. But it wasn’t just his time as a player that made him qualified for the job.
Jay Heaps was a star player in soccer at Duke University. After his freshman year, in addition to soccer, he joined the basketball team as a walk-on. His coach was the legendary Mike Krzyzewski, who has won 5 national championships and is the all-time winningest coach in college basketball history. As a walk-on, Heaps didn’t see a ton of minutes on an already legendary team. But Coach K saw the fire needed to coach in Heaps. He became a better leader by watching Krzyzewski orchestrate plays and conduct his players. While Heaps was earning the Hermann Trophy for the player of the year on the pitch, he was guiding and coaching future NBA stars like Shane Battier.
After college, Heaps was drafted into MLS where he had 314 caps and scored 17 goals as a defender for Miami Fusion and New England Revolution. When he retired in 2009, he took a finance job and then briefly as a color commentator for the Revolution. In 2011, with no coaching experience, Jay Heaps applied to be the coach of the New England Revolution. And with the help of Coach K convincing the Krafts, He landed his first coaching job with his former club.
Heaps tenure at New England had many highs and lows. But for all the highs, Jay Heaps played a pivotal role in most of them. He redesigned the roster in his first year on the job and spent the first two years rebuilding the team. In 2013 he had a pivotal role in the trade up to draft Andrew Farrell. Heaps would go on to lead New England to 3 straight playoff appearances including a glorious run to the MLS Cup final. The lows were very evident though. During his time as head coach, Jay Heap’s teams were known for their unusual streakiness. Sometimes they would go on a 7 game winning streak only to follow it up with a 7 game winless streak. This year was the strangest of those streaks with a great home record and not a single win on the road. Although the Jay Heaps era had it’s ups and downs, it will hold a special place not only in my heart but the hearts of many Revolution fans. This is surely not the end of Jay Heaps the coach.
