The New England Revolution have had a tough go of it all season. Every time they have shown promise and take a step forward there has been a step backward. In a season filled with lack of momentum, the club has decided to take a different route at the coaching role.
This means the Revs have parted ways with Head Coach Jay Heaps who has been at the helm for the better part of the last 6 New England MLS seasons. The rumors of this decision spread out on Twitter on September 18th with the club making the announcement official on Septemeber 19th via a press release.
Here is what the club had to say about the parting of ways with a legendary player and one hell of a coach.
The New England Revolution announced that the club has parted ways with head coach Jay Heaps, effective immediately. Assistant coach Tom Soehn will take over as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2017 MLS season.
“Jay has done a great deal for the club over the years and had considerable achievements. I have great respect for him and wish him well in the next steps of his career,” said New England Revolution General Manager Michael Burns. “This decision has not been taken lightly, however, we need to do better than the results have shown from the last couple of seasons and this season left us convinced we need to go in a different direction.”
Heaps leaves the Revolution after six seasons as head coach, having been named the sixth head coach in club history on Nov. 14, 2011. As head coach, the New England native led the Revs to three consecutive MLS Cup Playoff appearances from 2013-15, a trip to MLS Cup in 2014, and the 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final. He concludes his tenure as the Revs’ second-longest serving coach with a record of 75-81-43 in the regular season and a 4-3-1 postseason mark.
“Jay gave the club his all as a player and coach, and we are thankful to him for all his passion and hard work,” said Brian Bilello, New England Revolution President. “We will always be grateful for his efforts in bringing us back to both an MLS Cup final and a U.S. Open Cup Final and wish nothing but the best for him moving forward.”
Heaps has been a central figure in 15 of the Revolution’s 22 seasons in MLS, including nine years as one of the team’s all-time great defenders from 2001-09. He played a part in all five of the Revolution’s Eastern Conference championships, four as a player, and helped lead the club to the U.S. Open Cup Final on three occasions, including the club’s victory in 2007.
As a Revolution player, Heaps totaled 243 appearances, started 238 matches, and recorded 21,619 minutes played, all of which rank third most in club annals. Including three seasons with the Miami Fusion, his regular season career totals include 314 games played, 299 starts, 17 goals, and 34 assists. In the postseason, Heaps added a remarkable 30 appearances, all starts, with one goal and two assists.
Revolution fans have been calling for this move for a while now. Many see Heaps’s American coaching style being too slow for where the MLS has headed and with the type of personnel he had on the field it didn’t seem like a good fit anymore. The counterpoint to that would be ownerships lack of commitment of real money to the team.
Outside of the Jermaine Jones deal a couple of seasons ago the real money spent on the Revolution hasn’t been what it should be for a championship contending squad. Either way, Heaps will leave beloved by the fans for what he did as a player and as a coach.
In his first Tweet ever he made a statement thanking everyone for their support while hinting a comeback of some form will occur shortly.
A classy move by a classy individual. Having meet the man multiple times all I have to say he is a great person and comes across very well to the media. He wasn’t afraid to throw shots right back in pressers and should be able to land on his feet somewhere.
For this organization after some of the losses they had this season this move was neccessary. But going forward a serious commitiment to spend more money on the team and find a legitmate home stadium will be key to the franchcises longterm success. But at this time it is unclear if the Kraft family is willing to do what it takes to acomplish this.