Soccer is A Family Affair At Gray Collegiate With Kevin & Emily Heise Head Coaches Of The Boy’s & Girl’s Soccer teams At the School
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
West Columbia—Gray Collegiate Academy boys’ soccer coach an athletic director Kevin Heise, celebrated his 600th career win late in the 2025 season, and his current War Eagle’s team improved their record to 22-3 with a first round AAAA play-off win over Gilbert, 5-0, on May, 7.
The War Eagles will now host Brookland-Cayce on Saturday May, 10. The Bearcats advanced with an 8-0 win over Wilson High.
In the win over Gilbert, the Gray boys’ team took 26 shots on goal, making five of them. The goals were scored by five different
players. Those War Eagles scoring goals included Ethan Mohundro, Noah Mitchell, Jason Gonzalez, Gavin Greer, and Tanner Leggette, Andres Camp has one assist while Mohundro led the team with two assists and Jay Ethridge added one assist.
Earlier in the week, prior to his game with Bluffton, the HSSR interviewed Coach Heise as he was keeping stats on his lap top, watching the Gray Collegiate girls’ soccer team defeat Bluffton 6-1 on May, 6.
“We finished 21-3 in the regular season with a 13-1 region record,” said Coach Heise. “The one region game we lost was to North Augusta in penalty kicks at their place earlier in the season. We were fortunate enough to come back home later in the season and best them 4-0.
“Winning the region was a big goal because it sets us up well for the play-offs and here, we are getting ready to play Bluffton,” said Coach Heise. “We always hope to be playing our very best once the paly-offs begin.”
Coach Heise talked about the seven seniors on this year’s team who have been a vital part of the programs the past several years. He began with senior goalie Joey Sullivan being a four-year starter for Gray. ”Sullivan has already competed in three state championship games, so he has a lot of experience and he has a huge number of minutes played, that will never be surpassed here,” said Coach Heise. “It is very rare to play start four seasons and play in all 30 games each season. He is a good leader for us.”
Sullivan has 58 saves in goal this season and he has only allowed 12 goals in well over 1,000 minutes of play. Sullivan is headed to the Honors College at USC.
In the mid-field the War Eagles are led by senior Noah Mitchell who has 11 goals and a team leading 26 assists to date. Mitchell is an all-state performer and he will be on the Carolina’s Classic team. Mitchell will be attending Emory University in Virginia. Senior Ethan Mohundro id also in the mid-field. “He’s our glue guy,” said Coach Heise. “He does all the dirty work and leads by example.”
Another key forward/mid-fielder is junior Andres Campo who transferred into the program from Cardinal Newman last season. Camp has 14 goals and 12 assists so far this season. Freshman Jason Gonzalez also works hard in the mid-field and he has 11 goals and six assists coming into the post-season.
Coach Heise is especially pleased with the play of three marking backs who have led the defense for several years as starters. “Really, a key aspect of our team is three seniors who play in the back,” said Coach Heise. “JJ Evans is going to be playing in the North-South game (also has 7 goals & 7 assists) and he is joined in the back by senior Junior Gonzalez who is just a great soccer player,” said Coach Heise. “He turned down several colleges offers to move back to Mexico this summer. Then we have in the back senior Jay Ethridge who will also play in the Carolina’s Classic all-star game after the season. Jay has signed to play at USC Lancaster next year.
“All seven of our seniors are a very special group of players that we will miss,” said Coach Heise. ”I can’t put it any other way. They are very special players in our program.”
Nathan Hernandez is a senior versatile player, on offense and defense, who has missed most of the 2025 season with a knee injury. “Nathan has been a three-year starter but he has only played in about a quarter of our games this season,” said Coach Heise. “The game he has played in, he has made an impact and knock on wood that he can play and give us a shot in the arm in the play-offs.”
Some non-senior starters include sophomore mid-fielder Will Webber who has scored 14 goals with 11 assists to date. “He is on the outside and he is tied for the most goals on the season and he just a sophomore,” said Coach Heise. “We have a junior up-front Tanner Leggette and he is a beast, a very big boy at around 200 pounds and he has scored 10 goals with seven assists. We also have a junior right marking back who has started all but one game this season in David Andrade. Freshman Jason Gonzalez has started 8 games for the team this season and he has 11 goals and six assists tohis credit so far.
“We have 26 total players on the team and we rotate them in-an-out-out all the time,” said Coach Heise. “All of our players are hard-working and dedicated to the sport of soccer.”
Over the past three seasons, Gray Collegiate boys’ soccer has been in the state finals three years in a row. They lost to Christ Church three years ago and to sister charter school Oceanside Collegiate the past two seasons.
Can this senior dominated team take that next step and win a state title this season? “The thing I am most proud of is that this team wants to really prove that they can compete at the AAAA level,” said Coach Heise. “Before realignment this year we competed at the AA level. We know that people are waiting to see what we can do at the AAAA level.
“In the three championship games we have lost we were beat, 2=0, 1-0, and 3-0,” said Coach Heise. “In two of these games we had a chance to score to score in the first minute of play and one hit the post and the other we just missed a wide-open shot.
“You have to score in order to win and we have to take advantage every scoring opportunity we get,” said Coach Heise. “The play-offs are single elimination so we have to play our best from here on out.”
Coach Heise is now in his 8th season at Gray Collegiate. His top assistant is brother Kyle. Other assistant coaches include: Bryan Fallaw, JT Gardner, and Todd Wilkerson. Alisa Dancer is the team statistician.
The Gray Collegiate Girls Soccer team Finishes 22-3 On The Season
To describe the boy’s and girls’ soccer teams at Gray Collegiate as a family affair would be right on the mark.
Emily Heise, wife of Kevin Heise, is the head coach of the War Eagle’s girls’ soccer team.
After an opening play-off win over Bluffton (6-1) to start the the play-offs on May, 6 the team lost an over-time hard-fought game to traditional power Hilton Head, 2-1, three-days later to conclude a very successful 2025 season at 22-3.
Against Bluffton goals were scored by five different players. Leading the way with two goals was sophomore forward Caroline Cantrell. Cantrell finished the season with 21 goals and four assists for 46 total points. Junior Vanessa Coleman, junior Victoria Coleman, junior Bailey Lancaster, and freshman Maggie Ingram each scored one goal against Bluffton.
The top scorer on the team was Victoria Coleman with 32 goals and 22 assists for a total of 86 points. Lancaster finished the season with 47 points, with 11 goals and a team leading 26 assists.
Senior goalie Sophie Hoffman allowed only 12 goals all season in 1,460 minutes played. She had 14 shut-outs on the season.
Coach Emily Heise, who is expecting the couple’ third child in the near future, is assisted by Kevin Heise, Katie Clampitt, and Kenneth Smith. Kyle Heise is the team’s statistician.
