Field Hockey
(Editor’s note: Twins Jake and Jill Heilig were nominated for Univest Featured Athlete recognition by their respective coaches within hours of each other. In what is a first, their stories have been combined into one.)
Favorite athlete: Jess Jecko
Favorite team: University of Maryland
Favorite memory competing in sports: When we beat Methacton in my sophomore year during district playoffs.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Having a riff off before our practice.
Music on mobile device: Anything Harry Styles
Future plans: Go to college and major in film.
Words to live by: “Live glass half full.”
One goal before turning 30: Travel to five new countries.
One thing people don’t know about me: I love to dance.
By Mary Jane Souder
Ask Jake and Jill Heilig to describe each other, and it’s clear – this set of twins doesn’t have a whole lot in common. Except, that is, the genuine love and affection the Central Bucks South seniors have for each other.
Jill is the outgoing one, Jake the laidback twin. Both are competitive, both are captains of their respective fall teams, both are beloved by their teammates, but that’s where the similarities end.
“When we were younger and playing sports, she was always angry,” Jake said.
“Really?” Jill said. “Is that what you remember about me?”
“She would get so angry,” Jake said. “Now, I don’t know. It might have switched.”
“I think it may have,” Jill said. “I hope so.”
And then she addresses her twin.
“You are so hardworking and so level-headed in everything,” Jill said. “We could not be more opposite. There is no chill in my body, and you are so relaxed all the time.
“You never show if you’re in disarray. You’re always together. That always made me angry to play against you because I’m such a crazy person on the field and off the field, and you’re so stoic.”
The differences – once a point of contention – now connect the twins.
“It was weird when we were little trying to get along just because we’re so different, but now I feel like I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Jill said.
“It works,” Jake said.”
“I could not have you be similar to me,” Jill said. “It would drive me up a wall.”
Talk to either one of their coaches – Jake plays soccer and Jill is the field hockey goalie, and it’s clear – Jake and Jill Heilig are valuable additions to their respective teams for reasons that go well beyond the skills they bring to the field.
“Jillian has the most positive attitude,” South field hockey coach Pat Toner said. “What she lacks maybe in technical skills, she certainly makes up for in tactical skills.
“She continually is talking and she wants to learn. She doesn’t pretend that she’s ready to start on the national team. She says, ‘I’m doing the best I can, I’ll keep learning.’ She works really hard, the kids love her, and she’s a very easygoing person.”
“Jake is a leader on the team,” South soccer coach Joe Coscia said. “He’s always talking to the guys, getting their feedback, seeing where they’re at mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, the whole thing.
“Every kid looks up to him – he’s just the guy. He’s probably the most popular kid on the team, not because he’s that cool, but he’s just that easy to talk to. People share things with him that I don’t think they necessarily would otherwise.”
Growing up twins
Jake and Jill Heilig grew up with the ‘I’ll sign up for this if you sign up for this’ philosophy. It’s what twins do. Sometimes it worked, often it didn’t. Sports were always a part of their lives.
“Both of our parents were super athletic growing up, so they were super into sports, and my mom always wanted us involved in at least one activity,” Jill said. “When we were little, we both played soccer, and we were both pretty competitive.
“Jake was significantly better at soccer than I was so I moved to field hockey.”
“I think it was cool having a twin sister playing sports alongside of me because I did things I don’t think I would have done with a brother per se,” Jake said.
Topping that list was gymnastics.
“I was a gymnast and I was horrible at it, but I was one,” Jill said.
“She did gymnastics longer than I did,” Jake said. “I lasted maybe six months. I wasn’t a big fan. I wasn’t bad at it though.”
“You were good at gymnastics,” Jill said.
“They asked me to do the competition team,” Jake said. “I was like, ‘This is it. I’m calling it quits.’”
“I quit for a period of time because I was very bad,” Jill said. “But then my cousin signed up and I was like, ‘All right, I’ll give it another shot.’
“I did it from when I was 10-12 years old. Then I had a rough fall off the balance beam from a straight jump. Literally, I jumped up on the balance beam - it was not intense at all. That was the end of my career.”
Jill laughs as she recounts the story.
“That was the end of my career,” she said. “I bruised a rib, but it was the least intense move – it was like a warm-up move, and I managed to get hurt doing it.”
When they were eight, the twins both took dance lessons.
“Everything happened in the 7-9 range,” Jake said. “That was the testing period.
“Dance was definitely not my thing.”
“You liked to dance when we were little – don’t lie,” Jill said. “We used to do dance competitions in our house. Or singing competitions.”
“Except I can’t sing, so I always lost,” Jake said.
“Or you’d be the judge,” Jill said. “I like to sing, I like to dance. I’m very energetic, and I think I’m very expressive too, so I like doing stuff like that.”
The dance captain in South’s musicals, Jill is also in the choir.
“I do musicals every year,” she said. “I sing, but I’m mediocre.”
Baseball was the sport of choice for their father. It was a short-lived career for both.
“We played t-ball, and that was pretty much it,” Jake said. “Obviously, he wanted us to try it, but he wasn’t going to force us into playing something we didn’t want to do as long as we were active.”
Choosing an athletic path
For Jake, it’s always been soccer, and as a freshman, he earned a spot on the varsity. He competes at a high level on the club circuit for the Ukrainian National Club squad. Last summer, his team advanced to the USYS National Championship in Overland Park, Kansas.
“When I was younger, I played ice hockey too,” he said. “They were conflicting, and when I was eight maybe, I was like, ‘I’ve got to make a choice.’ I literally left my hockey game halfway through.
“I was like, ‘I’m going with soccer guys.’ Soccer was just always something I had played. It’s always been my favorite sport. I guess it wasn’t that difficult a decision. I always kind of knew. I also had more friends playing soccer, and it seemed like the right choice.”
For Jill, the choice wasn’t as clear cut. She walked away from soccer in fifth grade.
“I played travel, but I was like, ‘This isn’t for me anymore. It’s not my thing,’” she said. “I signed up for a ton of sports through fifth grade to see which one I really liked. I stuck with hockey.”
Jill played the field in fifth and sixth grades, but in seventh grade, when her squad needed a goalie, she volunteered.
“I was like, ‘Well, I’m a bad runner, let’s give it a shot, let’s do it,’” she said.
Jill found a home in the cage. As a ninth grader, after trying out for the jayvee and varsity, she was put on the freshman team. The following summer she decided to call it a career.
“I had the physical and all finished, but I was like, ‘I think I’m done. I’m not going to play,’ so I went to the beach,” she said.
With preseason underway, Jill received a surprise phone call from Toner.
“We had a very talented goalie who was unable to continue because of an injury, and we started preseason and didn’t have a goalie,” the Titans’ coach said. “We weren’t sure what we were going to do.
“The girls said to me, ‘Call Jillian Heilig, she’ll come out.’ She was involved in choir and a lot of other things, and she didn’t think it would all work out, so I called her down at the shore and begged her. All of the rest of the kids were in the background begging her.”
“All weekend I was so stressed,” Jill said.
“You can’t make up your mind,” Jake said.
“I am a horrible decision maker actually,” she said. “He’s definitely more decisive.”
“I like to think so,” Jake said. “I Just kind of wanted her to do it. Why not?”
“I was like – should I or shouldn’t I?” Jill said. “My parents were talking to me about it because I’m also into musicals, so I thought – maybe I’ll just do that.
“But then I was like – ‘This is a great opportunity. You have friends on the team. You can do the musical in the spring. Just do it.’ So I went out, and the other girl was quitting as I showed up, so I literally took her equipment off her body. It was so crazy. They put me directly on the varsity. It was just awesome.”
It’s a decision she has never regretted.
“It’s amazing, it’s the best thing I do,” Jill said. “I love it so much, I love the girls. My coaches are so awesome - I love them. It’s just awesome to play.
“Every day I show up and we have so much fun together. I can’t imagine what I would have done if I said no. I’m so glad she gave me that call.”
For Jake, soccer has also added significantly to his high school experience.
“It’s been really cool,” he said. “There are definitely a lot of people that I talk to now that I don’t think I would have otherwise.
“The underclassmen maybe I wouldn’t get a chance to meet – some of them are really good friends of mine. It was really cool my freshman and sophomore years because the upperclassmen were good mentors for me, especially transitioning into the new school. I remember how I felt being the only freshman on varsity, so now I try to make sure everyone feels included.”
Both Heiligs are major contributors to their teams. Jake – initially a defender - occupies the key role of attacking mid.
“I think my style of play just developed so it just naturally fits,” he said.
He shares the team lead for goals with AJ Peev – both have nine goals.
“Jake has played pretty much every role on the squad for us since joining us as a freshman,” Coscia said. “His sophomore and junior year he played the right wing or left wing for us because his size hadn’t really developed yet, and there were upperclassmen ahead of him that were owning the middle of the field.
“This year he’s really established himself as the attacking mid – the playmaker, the leader on the field, the creative juice that’s always getting the ball where it needs to go.”
His ability to put the ball in the net was underscored in his two-goal effort in a non-league win over Avon Grove.
“They were two spectacular goals – both from outside the 18,” Coscia said. “He just found a pocket of space and let both shots rip low and hard into the far corner to beat the Avon Grove keeper.
“Each year he’s been a recognized player by the coaching staff at the end of the season, whether it’s been our coaches award for that go-to guy or the most valuable.”
Jill delivered a personal highlight her sophomore year, stopping 17 shots in a dazzling effort in goal that propelled South to a stunning 2-1 overtime upset of second-seeded and undefeated Methacton in the second round of the District One Tournament. She has been a rock in goal for three years.
As the last line of defense, the pressure on goalies is immense, but Heilig keeps it in perspective. Toner relays the story of an own goal after a miscommunication in the backfield.
“Jillian came off and said, ‘I’m sorry,’” Toner said. “I said, “Jillian, I don’t care.’ Not that we want to lose, but there are things more important than hockey.
“I said, ‘It was a mistake, let’s work on it, we’ll fix it.’ She said, ‘On a positive note, I did score my first varsity goal.’ We all started laughing, so I congratulated her on her first varsity goal and said – in the future, maybe she could score for our team, not against our team. She laughed.”
Family comes first
Both Jill and Jake acknowledge the support of their parents, Bob and Dawn Heilig, throughout their careers, so it’s hardly a surprise that the family’s support system has gone into overdrive recently when they were dealt some devastating news.
“It was pretty much right after school ended last year,” Jake said. “I went to Disney for an international competition with HOSA (Healthy Occupational Sciences of America). Me and three of my friends competed in a biomedical debate about opioids. I was there for a week and got home on a Friday.
“I walked in and my dad’s always at the kitchen table. He sits in the same seat every day, so I get home, and he’s not in his seat. The first thing I say is, ‘Mom, where’s dad?’ He was in the hospital because of an infected gall bladder, which caused pancreatitis, so he was in a lot of pain. They took out his gall bladder, but he was still having complications with the pancreatitis. We’re like, ‘What’s going on?’”
What was going on turned out to be far worse than they could have imagined.
“It was July 17 – my mom came home and said they diagnosed him with pancreatic cancer,” Jake said. “I guess it was kind of lucky that his gall bladder was infected because they caught it really early.”
“I went to Camp Neidig and then I went on vacation with my friends immediately after,” Jill said. “I came home before Jake got home, so I knew my dad was going into the hospital, but we didn’t tell Jake until he got home because my mom didn’t want him to stress about it.
“You could tell something was off, but he’s been battling Factor 5, which is a blood clotting disease, since we were 10, so we were used to him being in and out of the hospital. I was going away again, and the doctor had mentioned a biopsy was happening. They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it. They just want to test to make sure his pancreas is better.’ The day before I left for vacation we had a family dinner, but my dad was still in the hospital.
“I remember it was so weird because we were laughing and it felt like a normal family dinner, and our mom was like, ‘I have to tell you guys something.’ I knew right away. She said they found pancreatic cancer. My mom was like, ‘Be ready, it’s going to be really hard, but we can do it together.’”
“A lot of credit to our mom,” Jake said. “She really held it down while he was in the hospital. She found out that he was diagnosed two days before she told us, so that was a lot on her to not tell us and keep her cool.”
“Our mom is such a boss – she’s the strongest lady ever,” Jill said.
Bob Heilg is currently in a treatment plan that includes two weeks of chemo and then a bye week, but through it all, he has made a point to be present at both Jake and Jillian’s games.
“He’s a trooper,” Jill said. “He tries as hard as he can to come to our games.
“He got chemo the day before my Senior Night, and he was still out there and he refused any help. He said, “I’m going to walk you across the field,’ and he stayed for the first half.”
“He comes for the first half of most games and then he has to go home,” Jake said.
“Luckily, both of our coaches are really supportive,” Jill said. “It’s so crazy how people come through for your family when stuff like this happens.
“So many of my teammates and friends have made us dinner, and I know the same goes for Jake. We have so much food, it’s crazy. People just stop over. Everyone is so close, my coaches are really nice about it, Jake’s coach is really nice about it. It’s just been really nice how supportive everyone has been.”
“I told my friends about it a couple days after we found out,” Jake said. “And it was really cool how everyone – I know they’re my friends and all, but they really bound together to support me.
“I don’t think we make dinner any day of the week. We get so much food from people. It’s really cool.”
Looking ahead
Both Jill and Jake are in the process of choosing a college.
“(Our family has) always been close,” Jake said. “I don’t think there was a plan to go super far away anyway, but there’s a higher emphasis on it now.”
Both Jill and Jake are excellent students – both are members of the National Honor Society, and both boast high GPAs with a course load that includes AP classes. Jake is NHS vice president and he is treasurer of the Science National Honor Society. Both are members of student council.
Jake is also a member of HOSA, and his debate team placed in the top three in the state, qualifying for the international competition at Disney.
Jake plans to major in pharmaceutical chemistry while Jill will major in film and advertising. They have plenty of decisions to make in the weeks and months to come, and there’s also the not-so-little matter of their father’s illness. Through it all, the twins will have each other.
“That’s helpful,” Jake said. “To have someone to talk to.”
“It’s so nice,” Jill said. “It’s weird – even though we’re so different, I feel like we just know each other. We can say things that only we’ll get.”
While they couldn’t be more different, the bond Jake and Jill Heilig share is unbreakable. Their differences only make it stronger.
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