Jay Heaps, far right with wife Danielle and their children from left, Jude, Olivia and Jack.By Rubin E. Grant
As has become his Father’s Day tradition, Jay Heaps will go into the kitchen Sunday and make fondue to go with the goodies his wife, Danielle, prepares.
“I grew up with fondue,” Heaps said. “I love it.”
His wife is glad he does because otherwise the cooking is left up to her.
“He doesn’t cook any other time,” she quipped.
While fondue is on the menu, that’s not the most important thing to Heaps.
“The big thing is being together as a family,” he said. “I love being together with my family.”
Heaps, 46, is president and general manager of Birmingham Legion FC professional soccer team. He is a former head coach of the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer.
The Legion has become a fan favorite of soccer enthusiasts in Birmingham. Last Wednesday, a record crowd of 18,418 — the largest to witness a professional soccer game in Alabama — watched the Legion lose 1-0 to MLS club Inter Miami CF in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal match at Birmingham’s Protective Stadium.
“It was an exciting night with a great atmosphere but a bummer result,” Heaps said. “We played our hearts out but just couldn’t score the goal we needed.”
A Longmeadow, Massachusetts native, Heaps moved to Birmingham in 2018 after six seasons as the Revolution’s coach when the United Soccer League granted Birmingham an expansion club.
The family settled in Mountain Brook almost by happenstance.
Heaps had come to Birmingham several months before his family because his three children were finishing the school year in the Boston area. He was living in a rental home near Mountain Brook while considering whether to buy a home in an Over the Mountain community, such as Liberty Park, Homewood or Mountain Brook.
He was jogging one day near Crestline Village and liked the area. During his run, he spotted a five-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath home for sale and figured it would be perfect for his family.
Later, while sitting inside Taco Mama in Crestline, he called Danielle.
“I told her she had to come down to look at this house,” Heaps recalled. “She came down, we made an offer and closed on it in March (2018). It happened really fast.”
Initially, Danielle wasn’t too keen on leaving the Boston area, where she had grown up, graduated from Boston University and met Heaps.
“When he told me we were moving to Alabama, I kicked and screamed a little,” she said. “But after I came down, the (Legion FC) owners took us around and showed us the area, and I liked it.”
Athletic Family
The Heaps, who will celebrate their 20th anniversary on New Year’s Eve, brought three talented athletes along with them, their children Jack, Olivia and Jude.
Jack, 18, helped Mountain Brook score its first boys state soccer championship in 2022 and was named the Gatorade 2021-2022 Alabama Boys Soccer Player of the Year as a junior. His dad earned the 1994-1995 Gatorade award for Massachusetts.
Jack had another strong season this spring for the Spartans, earning All-State honors and becoming Mountain Brook’s all-time leading scorer with 84 career goals. Last fall, he joined the football team, helping out with punting and kicking duties late in the season as Mountain Brook reached the Class 6A championship.
He also was named the 2023 Class 6A winner of the Larry Striplin Jr. Blankenship Scholar-Athlete Award during the Bryant-Jordan Student-Athlete Awards Banquet in April. Jack will play soccer in college at Georgetown.
Olivia, 16, who goes by Liv, is a star lacrosse player for the Spartans, helping them win three consecutive state champions. She also plays for the prestigious Eagle Stix Lacrosse club team in Atlanta. She will be a junior in the fall.
Jude, 12, who will be in the seventh grade at Mountain Brook Junior High, is rapidly becoming a soccer player to keep an eye on.
Heaps was a star soccer player himself in college at Duke and professionally. He was a three-time Hermann Trophy finalist, given annually to the nation’s top collegiate player, before winning the award as a senior and was the NSCAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year the same season.
Heaps also walked on to the Duke basketball team and played 3½ seasons as a point guard for the Blue Devils under Mike Krzyzewski.
Heaps played 11 seasons in the MLS, spending 1999 and 2000 with the Miami Fusion and 2001 to 2009 with the Revolution before retiring. Before he began coaching, he spent time in 2010 as the color commentator for the Revolution games on Comcast SportsNet New England and joined Morgan Stanley in Boston for three years in private banking.
Heaps didn’t push his children to become athletes. They just sorta naturally gravitated to sports.
“They’ve always been around sports, with me playing and coaching,” he said, “but I wanted them to make it on their own because it opens up other avenues in life. But you have to put in the work.
“They’re great kids and they work hard. It’s been great seeing them adapt to life here and it’s fun to watch them play sports.”
Balancing Act
Heaps also spends time playing with and coaching his children.
“It is hard to balance, but for me that’s something that was instilled in me by my father,” Heaps said. “He was good at showing me how to be there for my family because he was there for us.”
“My dad was a hockey and soccer player. He walked on at Norwich University, a military school (in Vermont) and fell in love with soccer. When I was little, he taught me the basics, but I also played a lot of baseball, basketball and hockey.”
“Being a GM instead of a head coach allows me to get up early and be a dad. I love balancing soccer and lacrosse.”
Heaps tries not to overdo it when coaching his children.
“I was an assistant coach of theirs a few times,” he said. “When Jack was playing Little League baseball, I coached and I enjoyed it. With me being a head coach of a major league soccer team, I loved jumping in and helping out. I just enjoyed being around all the kids on the team.
“I was always around practice with my kids, but I didn’t try to be a head coach because I wanted to make sure they heard another voice.”
Jack remembers the days when he was just dipping his feet into soccer and how his dad was there for him.
“When I was little, he was still playing and we’d go to his games,” Jack said. “We were living in an apartment in Boston and I’d go out and kick the ball up and down the street with him.
“He’s always done a great job balancing being a dad and working at his job.”
Liv played soccer when she was little but decided she liked lacrosse better.
“Jay was thrilled when she picked lacrosse,” Danielle said. “It’s less stressful for him.”
Heaps has become Liv’s tossing partner when she works on her skills at home. He has had to step up his lacrosse game to keep up with her.
“With my daughter getting better, I needed to get better,” he said with a laugh.
“He has gotten better,” Liv said, “and it’s fun for me to teach him stuff.”
Jude is enjoying the benefits of his dad being with Legion FC.
“Being the youngest, Jude was in the locker room all the time with Birmingham FC,” Heaps said. “I used to coach him and I trained him one-on-one because he was the youngest.”
Danielle works from home in commercial real estate for a company in Boston. She goes back to Boston every five weeks. She enjoys seeing her husband interact with their children.
“He’s very patient, a lot more patient than I am,” Danielle said. “He leads by example. The two older ones grew up watching him play and coach, so they have that leadership quality instilled in them.”
Liv enjoys her dad just being dad.
“My dad is the best dad ever,” Liv said. “He’s so involved in our lives as athletes and takes time to play with us, but he also enjoys eating ice cream and watching movies with us.”
And of course, he enjoys making fondue.
English (US)