Big crowd shows support for Brookland-Cayce soccer coach
Fans and players of Kevin Heise came out in full support of Brookland-Cayce’s boys soccer coach Thursday night at the Lexington Two District scheduled meeting.
Heise has been on administrative leave since Feb. 10 for a classroom incident, but nearly 200 people came out wearing “I Support Heise” stickers in showing unification.
“We just want to support coach Heise,” former B-C soccer player and 2006 graduate Kevin Ross said. “He’s been around since we were, probably, third-graders and he’s followed us and helped us all the way through college and into adulthood. He’s always been there for us. He’s just a good guy that is in an unfortunate situation.”
Heise’s situation was expected to be addressed in the closed executive session of the meeting but no decision was reached Thursday night.
Neither Heise, the B-C administration nor the School Board would comment about the incident.
Ross was joined by former teammates Jamison Shull and Tim Duzan in showing support for the B-C soccer coach. Nearly every member of the current Bearcats boys and girls soccer teams were in attendance as well.
“We want to show the board a lot of people support coach Heise, and it would be a bad decision if they decide to let him go,” Shull said. “He’s done so much for people not only at B-C but across the Midlands and the state.”
The incident in question centers around a life lesson speech Heise gave that many supporters are calling “tough love.” None of the students in attendance at the school board meeting were in the classroom during the speech but said they had been told the speech referenced terms “thugs, rednecks and crap.” Heise was trying to get the point across that the students needed to apply themselves now to be successful later in life.
Heise has received an outpouring of support from the B-C soccer community and around the state. A petition asking for Heise’s reinstatement has gotten more than 1,300 signatures from friends, family members, students and parents of students.
“During my time as a player and assistant coach under coach Heise, we won A LOT of games (196 to be exact) but it’s not the wins that stay with me, it’s the life lessons, the friendships, and the bond of BEARCAT PRIDE that live with me every day,” said Will Eudy, a 1995 graduate at B-C and former assistant at B-C with Heise.
Coach Dick Smith and Katie Smith Clampitt, who are on the board of the S.C. High School Coaches Association, voiced their support of Heise and asked for others to do the same.
“Kevin has dedicated his life to soccer at BCHS and the State of South Carolina, and we have each at some point in our careers been blessed and thankful to be able to call Kevin Heise a friend and colleague,” the post read. “Kevin has always put his players and the development of the game of soccer in S.C. first.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Big crowd shows support for Brookland-Cayce soccer coach."