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Revs’ defender Heaps retires after 11 MLS seasons
By HOWARD ULMAN, AP Sports Writer
FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts (AP)—Jay Heaps retired Wednesday after having played a team-record 243 games for the New England Revolution.
The defender, the second pick in the 1999 MLS draft and the league’s rookie of the year that season, is moving to a career in finance after 11 seasons, the first 2 1/2 with the Miami Fusion.
He plans to start work early next year as an associate in the private wealth management division for Morgan Stanley in Boston, where he has been an intern.
“I have no regrets,” Heaps said. “This has been something I’ve always been preparing for. I just never knew when it was going to happen. And, after a season like we had, making the playoffs for the eighth year in a row, I always had a dream of walking away on my own. … I just thought that it just was the right time.”
Heaps played 314 games, eighth in MLS history, with 17 goals and 34 assists. For the Revolution, he had nine goals and 26 assists in a team-record 21,619 minutes.
The 33-year-old Heaps is one of three Revolution players who started in all four of the team’s MLS Cup championship games, all losses, in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007. In July, Heaps made his debut with the U.S. national team against Haiti in the CONCACAF Gold Cup then played three more games with the team.
“If I hadn’t played on the national team, I would have felt a little void. I’d always been so close, (but) I’d never got into a game,” he said. “It’s like you can almost touch it, kind of like the MLS Cup. You can almost touch it but you just don’t get it.”
The Revolution nearly won it in 2006 but lost in a shootout to the Houston Dynamo. Heaps took the last shot and missed.
“The infamous penalty kick,” he said with a smile. “The goalie saved it and the championship was lost right there on that play.”
But there were plenty of good times.
The Revolution won the U.S. Open Cup in 2007 and SuperLiga trophy in 2008. Last June, Heaps became the ninth player to play in 300 MLS games and had a goal and an assist in that 4-0 win over the New York Red Bulls.
Revolution forward Taylor Twellman, the fifth leading goal scorer in MLS history, praised Heaps’ off-field contributions.
“We’ve got a huge hole,” Twellman said, calling Heaps “a leader in the locker room that does all the intangibles.”
