FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – In their 20-year history, the New England Revolution have had six different head coaches. Only two of them have spent more than two years in that position.
Now in his fourth season at the helm, Jay Heaps is cementing a legacy in the role, rebuilding one of the league’s original franchises into a yearly contender in MLS.
“I’ve said this before with Jay, we knew the shortcomings in terms of no coaching experience,” Revolution general manager Mike Burns told MLSsoccer.com. “But, we also knew what we thought he was going to bring, and he’s brought all that. He’s brought the passion, the desire, the hard work and he wants to be a coach, he wants to continue to be a better coach each season and I think that’s been the case.”
While he may not have had head coaching experience when he took over for Steve Nicol – New England’s most decorated coach with ten years of service – Heaps did come with some experience, having assisted at nearby Boston College and Northeastern during his nine-year stint as a Revolution defender. It was during that time that he began to gain an appreciation for coaching, planting the seeds for his future.
"You get an idea of what it is on the field when I was coach in college,” said Heaps. “What's it going to take to run a session, what's it going to take to get your ideas to the players.”
The Revolution have bought into Heaps’ philosophy, improving throughout his tenure, qualifying for the playoffs in 2013 before making a run all the way to an appearance in MLS Cup last year. The Revs reportedly rewarded Heaps, who – at 39 – is the fifth-youngest coach in the league with a contract extension after last year’s Cup, clearly confident he’ll be able to build on his solid start to his coaching career.
Much in the way he played the game, Heaps continues to strive for growth and knowledge in his position. He’s still learning, but four years into the job, he has a firm grip on what his role entails and is far more prepared to deal with what’s thrown at him on a daily basis.
“He’s a smart guy, he’s a sharp guy,” said Burns. “He wants to learn and continue to get better and I think he has. It’s kind of remarkable that it feels like yesterday that we started this and now he’s in his fourth year. We just hope to keep improving every game and every year.”
