Peninsula grad Heggerness looks to continue all-conference play for PLU soccer

In 2019, Peninsula High School grad Keeton Heggerness made his Pacific Lutheran University debut as a sophomore after transferring from Chaminade in Hawaii. Playing in 20 games, he scored 15 goals for the men’s soccer team, helping the Lutes to a 14-5-2 record and a Northwest Conference title.

His stellar play earned Heggerness the honor of being selected first-team All-Conference and set a high standard of play for his junior season.

Whenever that will be, right?

“It’s obviously disappointing because our season is in the fall and is pushed back,” he said. “A lot of us, including myself, look forward to coming back in the fall and being around everybody again, and getting to compete for another Northwest Conference title. It was a bit of a bummer, but our coach let us know that we were still going to have a training camp.”

Like the many other collegiate sports programs, the decision to postpone entire seasons affected PLU as well. Per their conference, no competitions will be held until after the new year.

But, the Lutes are able to go out and practice in pods of 10 bodies or less to keep up their conditioning. In fact they have been practicing for several hours, a few days a week since Aug. 28.

“Obviously there’s rules with getting temperature checks before training and wearing your mask everywhere,” Heggerness said. “In comparison to other schools, PLU and our coaches have done a really good job facilitating for us and allowing us to play as much as we can… Knowing that we are going to be able to compete again in the spring time is where our heads are at.”

Once the Lutes hit the pitch again, Heggerness will do so as one of four captains for the team as well. Along with two seniors and another junior, coach John Yorke took the group aside and gave them the responsibility of leading their team.

Heggerness will collect teammates on Sunday afternoons to break up the monotony of a slow day and kick the ball around. It helps keep the conditioning up and it gives him a chance to build upon his leadership for his teammates.

“I fell into place with those guys,” he said. “We had a really good leadership system last year with some of our older guys, so we are trying to emulate that a little bit. But at the same time, circumstances are a bit different so there has to be a little bit of creativity.”

As a forward, Heggerness is usually around the action. His 15 goals in the 2019 season were good for second best on the team, one shy of Zak Gregg’s 16 goals.

While on the pitch, his No. 1 goal is to find a way to win and to score as much as he can in the process. He is constantly trying to set himself in the right position for goals or assists, of which he had three in 2019.

More often than not, Heggerness is also trying to keep control of the match. If PLU needs a score, then he is the guy that will try to make the shots. But if they’re up and want to slow the clock down, then that’s something Heggerness will take over as well.

“I think [I’ll have more scoring opportunities], absolutely… Last year as a team, we scored [52] goals as a team and the second closest in our conference was 20-something,” he said. “So we are a team that likes to score goals, we are a team that does score goals.”

Contrary to his time at Chaminade, Heggerness has developed better relationships with his teammates. They all hang out together, as well as share the feeling of being one large group of best friends.

In the past, he has dealt with teams that split off into cliques and left people out on the team. The current Lutes squad feels like a group that has very good character and it helps the dynamic Heggerness has with the rest of his teammates.

“I’ve never been on a soccer team throughout my entire playing career where there isn’t an odd man out, there’s not a group, it’s everyone is best friends,” he said. “We hang out on the weekends, we’re pretty much inseparable off the field which makes it a lot easier to go on the field and play for each other.”

Ultimately, what Heggerness wants to do is score goals and win soccer games with his team. Doing that will help them win games, then the conference and then make it into the national tournament at the end of the year.

He believes that this current group of guys has something special going as they are there to support each other and celebrate whenever somebody nets a goal.

“For me, I like scoring goals. I always have. It’s what I was trained to do throughout high school,” Heggerness said. “It’s a rush when you score a goal and you get to celebrate with all your best friends. You just know that you’re helping your team move up in the table.”

However, without a set schedule yet, all he and the rest of his teammates can do is take things one day at a time and continue their training program.

And when the Lutes can hit the pitch again, expect that Heggerness will be making moves to score and lift his teammates to another conference title.

This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 6:00 AM.