Heese puts storied career to use

Fraser Caldwell

Sports Editor

In 1996, Mark Heese mounted an Olympic podium as one half of the third-best beach volleyball tandem on the planet.

But years earlier as he entered university at McMaster, volleyball was a distant second priority for the ten-time Canadian national champion.

Heese had family connections to the Maroon and Grey before deciding to attend the Hamilton campus in 1988, as his father – himself an Olympian at the 1964 games in Tokyo – had studied and competed as a canoeist at McMaster.

When it came time for the younger Heese to enter the McMaster community, he had his sights firmly set on being a dual-sport athlete. Eventually, he would become a prized member of the Marauders’ struggling volleyball squad, and come to value the sport and his own talent to an entirely new level.

But as he explains, his initial passion was for an entirely different ballgame than the one he would come to dominate on the beach.

“Being at McMaster basically helped me realize that I was a pretty good player,” said Heese of his time in the Maroon and Grey. “When I entered school I had aspirations to play for the basketball team. Coming out of high school that was my favourite sport, and I tried out for both teams thinking that I could play for both.

“I was cut from basketball right away. There were about 75 guys who tried out and they cut it down to 65 or so early to get rid of the jokers. I was one of those first 10 cuts. It really affected my confidence, to be honest.”

The horror of being so unceremoniously dropped from the basketball setup rankled with Heese, but it became quickly apparent that he was wanted and needed on the volleyball court.

“When I found out that the volleyball coach really wanted me, and how well I fit into that team as a starter, I uncovered how good I was at volleyball,” said Heese. “After my second year and playing beach in the summers I made my big breakthrough and made the finals at the national championships.

“My experience at Mac and the leadership role that I was given allowed me to develop the skills necessary to become good and I ran with it.”

And good he certainly was for a very long time. Heese would graduate from McMaster in 1992 and turn his attention to the beach volleyball scene on a full-time basis. Quickly, he and longtime partner John Child became fixtures on the international stage, and captured Olympic bronze at the Summer Games in Atlanta.

That same year, the two won their first FIVB event in Berlin and enjoyed four more top-three finishes on the international tour. 1996 was undoubtedly the high point, but perhaps the most impressive of Heese’s achievements is his sheer longevity.

The Marauder-turned-Olympian competed on the FIVB stage for 17 seasons between 1992 and 2008, and even sized up a run at the 2012 Olympics before deciding to retire.

When asked to explain his incredible ability to compete at the highest level for nearly two decades, Heese indicated that his longevity on the sand derived from his work ethic and continual commitment to training.

“I really took preparation and the sport itself very seriously,” said the ex-Marauder of his approach to the beach game. “When I was first starting out as a professional in the mid-nineties – in the world of such a young sport – there was no one that serious about it. I approached it as my full-time job and as a passion, and I was one of the first guys in Canada to run practices on the beach.

“I built up things like that – differentiators – that separated me from other players in the country. Once I made it to the international stage, I realized that even there – at that point in the sport’s development – people weren’t full-time athletes for the most part.”

Heese believes that such a realization allowed him to exploit his training to overcome the natural physical obstacles that came with being a six-foot player in a tall man’s game.

“I took that as a sign that that was what I had to do,” said the Olympian of his full-time commitment to the beach. “Especially for a guy like me who’s only six feet tall and can’t really jump that high or move that fast. I was physically very average and even below average in some ways, and had to find ways to make up for that.”

Since retiring from the sport in 2008, Heese has turned his attention toward instilling the values of hard work that served him so well in a new generation of athletes. He indicates that after such a long and storied career in the sport of volleyball, he feels it his duty to give back to the game in some form or other.

“It just feels right,” said Heese of his mentorship role. “It’s about more than any sense of accomplishment. My partner John and I are two of the very few that have gone through what we have in the sport and been on an Olympic podium. We played the sport professionally for nearly 20 years, and I feel like it owe it to the sport to stay involved.

“I found a way to do that and to pass on my experience and knowledge since retiring from playing three years ago. I work with my longtime sponsors Overkill and they’ve been very supportive of my various projects like the Child-Heese Beach Camp and the training we provide in conjunction with the Ontario Volleyball Association.”

Most recently, Heese began a personal venture to personally tutor promising young volleyball players, centered on the very concept that he believes propelled his career forward.

“I started a business called Maximum Reach that aims to help young, elite athletes find just that – their maximum reach,” said the ex-Marauder. “I feel like that’s what I did as a player, I found a way to maximize my potential.”

The most fundamental lesson that Heese has to offer aspiring players is simply to believe in their ability, regardless of the restrictions they may be inclined to place upon themselves.

“I was amazed at just how far a very average guy like me could go,” said the Olympian. “I wasn’t on anyone’s radar for a regional team, let alone a national team or an Olympic podium. I worked hard to discover the inner confidence that I lacked for a long time when it came to sports.

“You never really know how far you can go. We naturally put limits on what we can accomplish. If someone had told me in grade 11 or 12 that I would end up on an Olympic podium, I wouldn’t have thought that it was possible. That taught me that you need to stretch your limits, and that’s what I always tell people, whether they’re young athletes or older people: don’t limit yourself, just go for it.”

Such a message is particularly pertinent for one of Heese’s current clients, as Western’s Garrett May gears up for a late attempt to qualify for the London Olympics. The odds are clearly stacked against May, who will have only a matter of weeks to train before the final qualifying events get underway.

But with a positive outlook and Heese at his side, the Mustang standout remains resolute in his mission to compete in the Summer Games.