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Summarized by Kent Larsen
LDS Football All-American Joins ASU Basketball Team
Sporting News 24Jan00 S2
TEMPE, ARIZONA -- ASU All-American tight end and LDS Church member
Todd Heap joined the Sun Devils' basketball squad on Monday. The 6-5,
225-pound sophomore says he wanted to play basketball since he
arrived on campus as a freshman, and finally decided to do it. "I've
always loved basketball and it's been kind of a family deal," said
Heap after his first practice. "My grandpa played here and his
brother played here. I've been coming to the games as long as I can
remember."
While ASU's football coach Bruce Snyder had discouraged Heap from
playing last year, he told him on Monday he no longer had any
objection, "He actually came to me and said 'Why don't you do it?' "
Heap said. "It was definitely a surprise. I was real nervous. I
didn't know what to expect." Heap had been a star player in both
sports at Mountain View High School in Mesa.
Football coach Snyder issued a statement on Monday saying he
supported Heap's decision, "I decided that he's established here in
our program," Snyder said. "We looked at his grades and they're fine.
I'm a strong supporter of coach (Rob) Evans and if this works out, it
would be fun to take the football players to the arena to cheer their
team."
And basketball coach Rob Evans seems pleased to have him, "A couple
of weeks ago, when we were getting through with practice, he shot
some baskets and I could tell he was missing basketball," Evans said.
"But that was something that was going to have to be agreeable with
Bruce." But it may be some time before Heap actually gets in a game,
"That's down the line because first of all, he's not in any kind of
basketball shape," Evans said. "Football shape is different than
basketball shape. The muscles are different. The conditioning is
different. I think the thing we need to do for him right now is try
to get him in condition and let him help us in practice, let him
learn the offenses and defenses we're trying to do, and then go from
there."
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