Heaps living his dream

SEATTLE - Talk about a busy day. Jake Heaps and the Skyline Spartans defeated Franklin Pierce 48-14 to advance to the State 3A championships Saturday morning, and then Heaps gets offered by the Washington Huskies after the Apple Cup that evening. For the sophomore signal-caller, a magical season just keeps getting better and better.

"It was definitely a full day," Heaps told Scout.com Sunday with a laugh. After going 12-20 for 172 yards, two touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in the Spartans' semifinal win, he went to Husky Stadium with his father Steve to watch the Apple Cup.

"We just thought we were going to go watch a football game," he said. "The next thing you know, I was in (Washington) Coach (Tyrone) Willingham's office, getting an offer. It was quite a shock."

The Heaps were so taken aback, they didn't even have a ride home. They had taken one of the many transit buses that handle the traffic overflow during Washington home games. After the game was over, Jake and his father thought they were headed back on the bus to go home.

The Huskies had other thoughts, as they told the Jake that Coach Willingham wanted to see them in his office.

"I was thinking, 'This is awesome, but what are we gonna do?'" Jake said with a laugh. Fortunately there were some other SKyline parents that had been around, so they waited while the family met with Willingham.

The interesting twist to all this is that Willingham's son Nathaniel also plays for Skyline. So not only do the Heaps know Tyrone Willingham as the Head Coach at Washington, but they also know him as Nathaniel's father.

"It's nice to see all the different aspects of Coach Willingham," Jake said. "You get to see how he handles himself in all aspects of life, and I've been nothing but impressed. He's just an all-around great guy."

Willingham - who went to see Skyline win earlier that day, had some notes for Jake on his performance. "He was excited for me," Jake said. "He told me that there are things that I need to work on, and I'm totally there with him. That's something we get along with very well. There's always something you can improve on."

And then came the news that left Heaps a little speechless. "He (Willingham) was very upfront," Heaps said. "He said that if I was a senior, he would be giving me a written offer, and in a sense he was. Then we talked about how he feels the program is going to go and what he sees in the future."

And Jake's reaction? "It's unbelievable," he said. "It really hasn't sunk in yet. It's so far out there in my mind, I wonder if it's really happened. It's something I've been dreaming about since I was a little kid, and now it's here."

Not quite. He has some business to take care of first, and there's nothing he takes more seriously than this upcoming Friday's championship tilt with the O'Dea Fighting Irish, who dispatched Bellevue 27-17 in the other semifinal game.

"When it's the season, all I'm worried about is winning a state championship," he said. "But I'm really excited to see what happens."

Heaps, who is Mormon, was offered a scholarship by BYU less than two weeks ago. Now with an offer from his hometown school, he admitted that it's going to be a tough road for whoever else comes along. But he's definitely not closing any doors this early in the process.

"It's tough to look past these two great programs," Heaps said of BYU and Washington. "Not only are the schools that I grew up watching, but they are just two great programs. Hopefully there will be other offers that come along, but I'm not going to look past these two schools. BYU is in the top-25 currently and U-Dub (Washington) is just a couple of plays from being a top-25 team."

And since he still is in the 10th grade, he gets the advantage of having two more years to watch everything unfold. "It's definitely a huge advantage," Heaps said of the early offers. "I feel fortunate that I'm getting this opportunity."

Jake Heaps Scout.com Profile