Longmeadow native Jay Heaps out as Revs coach

If you really haven’t been following soccer lately, then you may have missed out on some big news regarding a New England native.

Longmeadow’s own Jay Heap had been the New England Revolution’s manager 2009 but this week, the team went ahead and fired him and in his career as a coach. Heaps went ahead and wrote a letter on Twitter reacting to the move.

https://twitter.com/JayHeaps722/status/910184159301242881

One might wonder why the team decided to do this. Well, the Revs missed the playoffs this year–and they missed it last year. The team has a losing record, Heaps has a losing record (75-81-43). It’s also worth noting the Revs have had two really tough losses in their last two contests. The Revs, who are in eighth place at the moment, dropped a 2-1 game in extra time to the LA Galaxy and got blown out, 7-0, by Atlanta United.

The Revs have yet to announce a full-time replacement for Heaps in the future. With a few games left in their season, Tom Soehn is going to take over the job–for now.  He was the manager of DC United from 2007 to 2009.

The Revs best season under Heaps came in 2014. I remember this because when I played at Gillette Stadium in high school, we could not use real locker rooms because the Revs still had their stuff in the one we were supposed to use. That year, the Revs made it to the MLS Cup Final, but they fell to the LA Galaxy. And yes, that was David Beckham’s team, but his last year was 2012.

Heaps spent over a decade playing Major League Soccer. The defender spent most of his career playing for the Revs (2001-2009).

One more fun fact: Heaps played both college soccer and basketball at Duke. It looks like he was probably a walk-on hoops player though.