Heggie North Carolina’s top goal scorer

Traditionally, the Washington Daily News honors the area’s most impressive male and female multi-sport student with the athlete-of-the-year award. For a single-sport athlete to take home this distinguished accolade, he or she must piece together a season so noteworthy and impossible to overlook that it captures the attention of not only the newsroom, town or county, but also the state.

This season, Christian Heggie broke Washington’s single-season scoring record for both boy’s and girl’s soccer and led the entire state of North Carolina in goals with 55.

“I don’t think anyone in Washington has ever seen something like that,” said head coach Ed Rodriguez. “I’ve coached girls that were capable, yes, but none that have actually done it. We’ve had a lot of good girls here in the past that given the opportunity could do it. But they never did.”

Heggie currently sits tied for No. 22 on the NCHSAA’s all-time single-season scoring list.

“I didn’t plan for it, but I just took the opportunities I had and tried to do the best that I could with them, which was put it in the goal,” said the confident Pam Pack striker.

Freshman year, Heggie played in the shadow for Beth Batchelor, who still holds the all-time school record for goals. Over the next two seasons, the young goal scorer became stronger and more technically skilled.

Last season, Heggie notched 10 goals in 12 games, including a four-goal effort against South Central, before injuring her knee. This year, she picked up right where she left off, matching her previous total by the sixth game.

As a senior, Heggie, however, became more than a goal scorer. She single-handedly forced her teammates to get involved and became one of the Pack’s three uncontested leaders.

Then, came the relished quarterfinal match up against a hard-hitting Carrboro club.

“They came out and they pushed us,” Heggie said. “They probably had the ball 80 percent of the time, but our defense was killer. We shut them down every chance they had.

“All I remember is me and this girl were running toward the ball. I tipped the ball to clear it away. Then it popped … I’ve never felt that kind of pain. I could still hear the pop ringing in my ear afterwards.”

Just two games away from achieving her state championship goal, Heggie tore her ACL with just seven minutes left in the game. The state’s leading scorer would have to watch her team from the sidelines for the remainder of the playoffs.

Washington went on to defeat Croatan in the semi-final game, but would lose to West Stokes in the championship due to a limited bench and a lack of offensive options.

Despite the loss, the goal-scoring streak has cemented itself in Washington history, earning Heggie recognition from local colleges. Due to her injury, she will have to sit out a season, but will join Division III Guilford College’s soccer team in 2015.

“The (Guilford) coach told me they have problems finishing goals,” Heggie said. “The opportunities are there, but they had trouble doing anything with them. I’m going to try to go in and help them score goals. Not this season, but I want to help them and do some great things.”