 A Sporting Chance
Back in the Game
One of the region’s legendary
track coaches comes out of
retirement to head the fledgling
South Fayette squad
By Brian Knavish
Mike Heiser knows that turning the
track and field program at South
Fayette High School into a WPIAL
power won’t be easy. But Heiser is no
stranger to adversity. This is the same man
who once coached state champion hurdlers...
while confined to a wheelchair.
When the South Fayette School District
decided to launch a track and field program
prior to last season – the first boys’ team in
school history and the first girls’ team since
1982 – administrators knew they needed a
coach experienced in all aspects of the sport,
driven to build a team from scratch, and
patient enough to let the building process
take its course.
Heiser fits that blueprint perfectly. He
has 25 years of track coaching on his resume,
including experience coaching every track
and field event. On the inaugural track
coaching staff at Center High School when
that district founded its program in 1984, in
the same year Heiser also founded the Beaver
County Track Club, an independent club
open to athletes from across the county.
His success with those teams was equal
to the record of any track coach in Western
Pennsylvania history. Heiser was a coach on
four Center girls’ WPIAL Championship
teams, and has coached countless athletes to
WPIAL and state championships. In the
hurdles alone, he has coached 37 athletes to
medals at the state championships, including
seven gold medalists.
An example is Chris Rose, who won the
WPIAL Class AA Championship in the
300-meter hurdles in 1999 while with Beaver
High School, but he says that it was his work
with Heiser on the Beaver Valley Track Club
that elevated him to that level.
“I can’t say enough about how much he
taught me,” says Rose. “The technique he
offers, the drills he puts you through, really
help you to excel. He teaches you to focus on
fundamentals and on improving your own
times, not thinking about the other guy.”
Rose says that while Heiser is a master
tactician, his coaching is about more than
technique. It’s about complete dedication to
his athletes. “He gave up his Saturdays and
his summers to spend time with the kids on
his team,” says Rose. “If you wanted to
improve, he would be there to help you.”
Heiser had exactly the kind of resume
South Fayette was looking for in its first
track coach two years ago. The only problem:
he was retired. Heiser had stepped down
from Center in 2002 and from Beaver
County Track Club in 2005. The plan was to
ease away from the sport and enjoy some
leisure time. “I was retired,” the coach says. “I
turned the club over to the Beaver County
YMCA. I thought I was done.”
But just when Heiser thought he was out,
the sport pulled him back in. “I saw an ad in
the paper for a new program being started at
South Fayette. I went down to the school and
took a look at that $11 million stadium,”
Heiser says with a chuckle. “It was hard to
resist. It ended up being a perfect fit.”
The truth is, stepping away sounded good
in theory, but coaching is more than a
profession for Heiser; it’s a passion. He says he
wouldn’t have taken just any coaching job, but
the situation at South Fayette – with its new
facilities, a growing student base and support
from the administration – made building a
powerful program a very real possibility.
For Heiser, staying away from the sport is
an impossibility. This was never more evident
than in 1995, when he suffered a debilitating
stroke.
“I lost about three months of my life” he
explains.
Doctors didn’t believe he would walk
again. But for a man who had spent his
professional career teaching athletes how to
take their bodies to levels they never thought
possible, immobility was not an option. “I was
in a wheelchair, and it took me a couple of
years to get out of that wheelchair,” he says,
explaining that the recovery process was long
and painful.
But even a wheelchair didn’t keep him
away from coaching, especially his beloved
hurdles. Obviously, he couldn’t physically
demonstrate the technique, but he would
wheel down to the trackside, watch his pupils
train and offer verbal critiques.
Eventually, Heiser walked again, though
he still has limited use of the left side of his
body. The stroke forced him to retire from his
day job as a maintenance coordinator at the
Bruce Mansfield Power Plant in Shippingport,
but it did not keep him away from the track.
With that kind of drive, no wonder he
couldn’t stay retired.
Photo: Freshman pole vaulter Nicole Ingham.
Track is a difficult sport to build from the
foundation up. Doing it right requires a
massive number of athletes to fill 34 events,
thus requiring a substantial intra-school
recruiting effort and expansive facilities.
Assembling a coaching staff is also a
complex project. On any track team, a good
coaching staff is an eclectic one. The skills,
techniques and experiences needed to excel in
distance running are drastically different than
those needed to excel in the shot put, for
example.
But those who know him well
say Heiser is custom-built for this
type of project. “He’s built
successful programs before,” says
Rose. “He started the Beaver
County Track Club with five or
six kids.”
Last season, in the program’s
first year of competition, 32 South
Fayette athletes made it to the
WPIAL qualifier meet and seven
qualified for the WPIAL finals.
This season, approximately 120
athletes are on the varsity team,
with another 50 in the middle
school track program.
“We run our track program
year-round so athletes can come in
and out of the program when it
fits with whatever else they’re
doing,” Heiser says. “Our athletes
can play soccer, football, baseball,
basketball,” he says. “We give all
athletes the opportunity to
compete. This gives them the
opportunity to participate on the
team while working on academics,
as well as other individual things
like chorus or the band. I’ve
always been very liberal with
that.” The long-term future of the
program isn’t Heiser’s only
priority; the 2008 season is in full
swing and he’s consumed with this
year’s squad. The veteran coach
likes what he sees on the team,
including several athletes who
could take the next step and
qualify for the state championship
meet. For example, on the boys’
team, seniors Chris Spicer – who
throws shot put, discus and javelin
– and Caleb O’Kelly – a
long/triple jumper – are WPIAL
contenders. Additionally, Heiser
also pointed to the distance
runners and relay teams – led by
senior Ben Rosati and junior Dan
Brady – as potential state
qualifiers.
On the girls’ team, junior Amy
Murrer and sophomore Erica
Quarttro are both top-notch
hurdlers.
While every coach is
optimistic about his team, Heiser’s
words carry more weight than
most. Few people in the state
know more about track and field
than Heiser.
The school may have found
the perfect architect to lead the
reconstruction of its track program
– a coach available and willing to
take on the job just when the
program needed him. And,
judging by the enthusiasm in his
voice, he’ll be around for a while
“I’ll coach as long as I can do
it and I’m enjoying it,” he says.
“I’m excited. I’m ready to develop
a program and develop young
coaches. Eventually, I’d like to get
it to a point when I can let the
younger guys take over, but it’s fun
for me right now. As long as it’s
fun for me, I’ll continue to be
there.”
In other words, don’t expect
another “retirement” from Heiser
any time soon.
Brian Knavish can be reached via
email at brianknavish@yahoo.com
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Hurdling to Victory
