Hawkins Barratt Heitmann '17 Recruiting Profile

I am a student-athlete.  I play all the sports I can, but love football (soccer) the most.  I have played competitively since I was 4 years old.  I have played for clubs such as PDA in New jersey and TBU in Tampa.  Now I play in Central Africa where my mother works, for both my High School team and my club, Olympique de Kinshasa. I played striker when I was younger but have evolved into a mid-fielder.  I feel my two greatest strengths as a player are my accurate passing and my ability to see where the ball needs to go 2 or 3 passes ahead in the game.  As a midfielder I can help adjust the pace and direction of the ball and the game.

I also work very hard on academics.  I take as many math and science classes as are offered at my school and work hard in all of them, including my independent study Precalculus course. I just completed an Engineering Fair project on fractional distillation, and a Physiology research project on the impact of training on aerobic capacity.

I also try to do as much community service as I can find time for.  I work with the elementary students as a peer counselor.  I help them with math and English and, of course, I also help coach them in soccer!  I also help with environmental activities: educating visiting students about primates, habitat destruction and the bushmeat trade here in Central Africa. We also work on building drinking water filters and educating local people about hygiene.

I think I am a good candidate because I have played football all around the world and relate well to different styles of play.  I am deeply competitive, but my coaches have always noted how unselfish I am.  I think it's more important to pass the ball and get the goal than to get the goal myself.  Playing in Africa for the past 5 years, I have been able to play year-round on a daily basis.  I have seen kids with no ball, no boots, no goals, strive to develop their skills and I have learned from them.  I know I can combine my passion for soccer with my academic drive to be a great NCAA student athlete.