During the their most recent home playoff games, both the boys and girls' squads wore pink T-shirts, which read ‘Heritage Soccer Kicks Caner,' during pregame warm-ups to drawn attention to their noteworthy efforts to raise funds to cure this disease.
This venture was originally started by the volleyball team last fall and then picked by boys' soccer head coach Brandon Stewart. Stewart's main goals for this project were to have his players participate in a charitable drive and to teach them a valuable lesson beyond the game of soccer.
"I wish I could take credit for the idea. I saw the volleyball sold T-shits in October. So I piggybacked the idea and brought it to our booster club," said Stewart. "I told them to come up with a logo and I wanted our team to wear them as warm-up shirts as well as around school. We then sent out an e-mail to teachers and students to buy them. Whatever was left over we could sell them at the concession stand. I want us to stand for something. Our kids need to know life is bigger than just soccer and we need to give back."
The booster club printed over 100 T-shirts, pricing them for $10. As word of this benevolent deed began to spread, members of the Heritage High School community quickly jumped on the bandwagon and before they knew it, the club was completely sold out of shirts within weeks.
"Teachers and students were all asking about the shirts. We sold them pretty quickly. The booster club was great. All the profit went for us to make a donation to Relay for Life," Stewart said. "Everybody knows somebody who has been affected by cancer, generally breast cancer - either a mom, grandmother or an aunt. My family's been touched by it and my wife's family too. So we went to the booster club to do something about it."
It was another impressive year for the soccer program at Heritage High School with both squads advancing to the playoffs. The boys were on fire down the stretch, winning eight-straight heading into the postseason, but were blanked by Hillgrove, 2-0, in the first round to finish at 10-4.
The girls were state-ranked (No. 8, Class AAAA), finishing with an overall record of 10-5-4. In the opening round of the playoffs, the Lady Patriots beat Dalton 3-0. However, they were eliminated the following week in a 6-0 defeat versus Marist.
