St. Ed’s senior Mason Heim was one of those athletes a coach could plug in anywhere at any time and count on a performance that would be fundamentally sound and positively contribute to the collective mission.
His signature trademark was always nothing short of complete dedication to the cause of every Pirates sports team fortunate enough to have him as a member.
While Heim won numerous awards and accolades playing football, basketball and lacrosse, he also managed his time carefully enough to excel academically and enter the college of his choice.
“When I started my senior year, Georgia Tech was not even on my radar,” Heim explained. “I was looking at Vanderbilt, MIT and Villanova when my counselor, Mrs. Sternberg, encouraged me to check out Georgia Tech. I finally went up to Atlanta for a visit and I really liked it there.
“The campus was great and the school met all of my requirements. It was also meaningful for me to be able to play lacrosse at the next level. It was a bonus when I found out that I could play for a top-ranked team at Georgia Tech.”
Heim will study some form of engineering and play club lacrosse for the Yellow Jackets. Those dual tracks fit perfectly and the preparation for both was well designed.
“My first two years of high school I took every different type of class I could,” Heim said, citing English, math, history, a foreign language and science, to name a few. “When I entered my junior year I started focusing more on the math and sciences route. I took computer science and physics before moving ahead to calculus and AP physics. At that point I veered away from those other courses because I wanted to go into engineering.”
This Saturday Heim will graduate in the top 10 percent of the Class of 2016. While in high school he also volunteered many hours toward community service. Everyone on campus spoke of his outstanding personal traits like loyalty, integrity, character, work ethic, humility, intellect and friendship. Those qualities were most prominently on display in athletics.
“I started at St. Edward’s in kindergarten and it has been a really remarkable journey,” Heim said. “It’s been great to be able to play just about every single sport, and be involved in every club and take all the classes I wanted to.
“Football was one of those things I thought would never end when I was playing my freshman year. You just kept coming back, but after this last season ended it really hit me that I will never play football again.”
Now he can let the bumps and bruises heal while ruminating about the enormous amount of time spent doing the dirty work in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
“Every season there were a lot of games when I would never come off the field. So I got to play a lot of football. You just had to be flexible on the fly. At times we had only 22 or 23 guys max. Some may think that was bad, but honestly it was great because I became close with everybody on the team.
“Even though I didn’t want to play football at the next level, I’m going to miss it a lot. I played the sport for four years and really enjoyed it.”
Heim mentioned two games as his all-time favorites on the gridiron. The first was a narrow 14-13 upset of 2A powerhouse Victory Christian in his sophomore year. The second was his final game in Pirate pads. He said, “I will remember that forever. We played well as a team and it was nice to go out with a win.”
The basketball season was a way for Heim to “wind down” from football. He had an approach to the sport that was grounded in reality and revealed what character is all about.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be a star player,” he said. “I really enjoyed just playing basketball and not being super competitive or one of the go-to guys. I had fun at practice, fun cheering on the team, and playing a few minutes whenever I was needed.”
The lacrosse season came next and Heim switched back to full-throttle mode. In football he played just about every offensive and defensive line position. In lacrosse he played everywhere. As a high schooler he started on defense before moving to midfield and finishing on attack.
“It’s hard to explain when people ask me what position I play in lacrosse. I played wherever they needed me. Midfield was my favorite because I got to run up and down the field. It got tiring but it worked out the best for me.
“I’m excited to be moving on to the next journey in my life, but nothing is going to be the same. Playing for the St. Edward’s Pirates has been my thing for the past four years. It’s sad for it to come to an end.”
