Southeast's prize-winning afterthought

Joey Haines sounds almost embarrassed to admit it.

There was a time when he barely gave a second thought to recruiting Jay Heddell.

"Jay was an afterthought," Haines, the Southeast Missouri State University track and field coach, said with a laugh.

From afterthought to already one of the premier shot-putters in Southeast history -- and Heddell is only a sophomore.

"It's a pretty amazing story," Haines said.

As Haines tells it, Southeast was in the market for a shot-putter a few years ago when Heddell was a senior at Oakville High School in St. Louis.

It so happened that Missouri had three of the nation's premier high school shot-putters that season -- but that list didn't include Heddell. Southeast recruited the standouts hard, but failed to land any of them.

"At the state meet, we're thinking what are we going to do," Haines said. "I had seen Jay at a sectional meet and we needed a shot-putter bad. We missed out on all those other guys so we signed Jay."

Heddell, taking a break from a workout at the Abe Stuber Complex as he prepared for this weekend's All Sport Classic, smiled when he recalled those days.

"I wasn't recruited by anybody," he said. "I had an offer to walk on at Missouri, then Southeast called me late."

A good thing, too. Heddell already has won three Ohio Valley Conference titles, two in the shot put (both indoor, last year and this year) and one in the discus (outdoor, last year). He also was second in last year's outdoor shot put.

And during this year's indoor season, Heddell broke loose with a shot put of 57 feet 8 1/2 inches to break Southeast's oldest school record for track and field. Rick Wadlington's shot of 57-1 7/8 stood since 1971.

Heddell is also on Wadlington's trail for the outdoor record of 59-0 1/2, also set in 1971. Just a few weeks ago, during Southeast's first outdoor meet of the season, Heddell hit 58-8 to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships.

"Things are going pretty well so far," Heddell said. "Breaking a school record is always a goal and now I definitely want to get the outdoor record."

Haines said it didn't take the Southeast coaches long to realize they landed a gem in Heddell.

"Really quick, we realized we got lucky," he said. "He was tall and thin in high school, but he was a great athlete, which a lot of shot-putters aren't. He got on the weights and went from about 190 to 230."

Heddell attributes his progression to the weight gain and throws coach Eric Crumpecker, a former standout collegiate weight thrower.

"Coach Eric has really helped me a lot," Heddell said. "He knows a lot about it, the technique and everything."

Heddell's college career actually got off to a tough start when he suffered a broken leg in something of a freak accident on the toe board during a practice after the first indoor meet of his freshman year in 2000. He wound up redshirting that season. But the three-time Southeast Scholar Athlete hasn't looked back since.

"I came here and expected to do OK, but not this," he said.

mmishow@semissourian.com

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