Behind the Hawk: Dillion Heap
Laurier special teams member Dillion Heap has played a pivotal role for the Golden Hawks football squad this season.
The third year business student has set an unprecedented number of Laurier, Ontario University Athletics (OUA), and Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) records over the course of the 2009 season.
Heap is a four-time Laurier Football Special Teams Player of the Week, two-time Laurier Athlete of the Week, and two-time CIS Special Teams Player of the Week.
His 179 yards on eight punt returns set a new Laurier single-game record, while a total of 912 yards for punt returns over the course of the season sets a trio of records, at the Laurier, OUA, and CIS levels. His 493 kick return yardage also set a new Laurier season record. A total of 1,971 all-purpose yards crushes the previous CIS record, with room for growth as the team heads into the first round of play-offs this weekend.
Dillion has not only been breaking University Athletics records, but is breaking down what some may call stereotypical barriers. The wide receiver is as committed to his religious faith as he is the team.
As a dedicated member of the Church of Laterday Saints, Heap is directly involved in the leadership of his church and has even partaken on a two year missionary service.
“Some people don’t quite understand it because we have different standards in terms of morals,” he says. “Behind family it’s the number one priority on my life.”
The Utah native moved to Waterloo at the age of 11 as a result of his dad’s job.
“Growing up in the US, football is obviously bigger there than it is here,” he said. “There was always the football influence around, and when my Dad signed me up for flag football I just ended up being good at it.”
Heap attended Waterloo Collegiate Institute for high school, where he played football, basketball, and rugby. He was a football First Team All-Star, co-Athlete of the Year, and Valedictorian in his grade 12 year.
Heap was admitted into the business program here at Laurier in 2005.
“I accepted on a pure academic basis,” he said. “I didn’t really have my heart set on playing football.”
Under the influence of his father who played the sport in high school, and his older brother who played for Laurier, Heap decided to accept head coach Gary Jeffries’ offer to play for the team. He and his teammates went on to win the prestigious Vanier Cup in his first year - not a bad feat for a 155 lb, 18 year old rookie.
“I don’t think I had ever stepped in a gym in my life,” Heap confessed. “Playing against 25 year-olds was pretty intimidating; it was a completely different level than high school.”
Also in his first year, Heap was named an Academic All-Canadian, obtaining an impressive ten grade-point average.
At the end of year one, he travelled to South America where he spent two years on his mission.
“We give up two years of our life and go to a part of the world and do missionary work,” explained Heap who was stationed in Chile for the duration of his service.
“I didn’t always want to go when I was younger,” he admitted. “I was kind of apathetic towards it at first.”
But as he began to study the faith at a deeper level, he hit a turning point. “I began to understand the purpose of life and why I was here, and I wanted to share it with other people.”
Heap now balances his time between athletics, academics, and religion.
“I feel that the abilities in sports that I have are God given,” he explains. “As such, there are certain activities of the church I sacrifice in order to fully commit myself to university athletics.”
In response to his many records and accomplishment, Heap remains humble.
“It’s mainly due to opportunity I’d say. The coaches have recognized my ability and the records are a statistical manifestation of ability, opportunity and the hard work of other people.”
