Coaches want Heath to get touches

Rob Heath did not beg his mother to let him play football. She begged him to play.

“She just didn’t want me sitting around doing nothing all day,” Heath said.

His mother, Myra Heath, said she wanted to get her son out of the house and get him to try other sports. He primarily was a basketball player before his mother signed him up for football.

“I just wanted to keep him out of trouble and make him do something,” Myra Heath said. “I wanted to get him away from the TV.”

Myra Heath still plays a big role in her son’s football life, attending all of his games and keeping all of his newspaper clippings.

“She motivates me a lot,” Rob Heath said.

Byron Bundy, a wide receiver and good friend of Rob Heath, said it is obvious that Myra Heath plays an important role in her son’s football life.

“I know that she is always there for him,” Bundy said.

Myra Heath might be the reason that Rob Heath is playing football at Hickman. But a trick play that his youth football team ran is the reason he is playing running back for the Kewpies.

Rob Heath was a tight end when he first began playing football, but his coaches realized that he was better suited for running back when Heath executed a tight end reverse in practice.

Rob Heath said the coaches noticed his running ability on that play and said he has enjoyed the switch ever since. He especially enjoys the fact that playing running back allows him many opportunities to make game-changing plays. Heath had 103 rushing yards in Hickman’s 24-21 loss to Bentonville, Ark., two weeks ago. That was the closest Hickman has come to winning this year.

“I always want more touches,” Rob Heath said. “I always want the ball in my hands.”

Rob Heath does more than just play running back, he also will be starting at safety when Hickman visits Francis Howell tonight. But coach Jason Wright said he is not worried about wearing out Rob Heath.

“He has become a player that we are desperately trying to get the ball to,” Wright said. “We would like to get him 20 touches a game.”

Rob Heath’s desire to have the football as much as possible does not mean he has a selfish personality. Bundy said it’s rare to see Rob Heath yelling at teammates or demanding more carries from the coaching staff in a game.

“He’s quiet, but physical, and I love that,” Bundy said of Rob Heath’s playing style. “He’s not going to say much out there (on the field), but he will come up and hit you.”

Myra Heath agrees that her son does not have an in-your-face personality.

“He really doesn’t get upset or show too much emotion,” she said. “He is a pretty easy person to get along with.”

Hickman is a football program with a winning tradition, winning a state championship two seasons ago. This year, the team has struggled to three consecutive losses to start the season. Despite the shock of the program struggling, Rob Heath said the team has not lost any confidence and that it is hungry to win its first game.

“We are ready for our first win this week,” Rob Heath said. “We are still motivated to have a winning season and to win districts.”

Wright said that if his football team can limit turnovers and have a consistent running game it will have success. That means getting the ball to Rob Heath and letting him play football, which is something that Myra Heath believes he was destined to do since birth.

“When I had Robert, the doctor told me right then and there that I had a football player,” Myra Heath said.