Freshman Heinen brings size, basketball IQ to Panthers

You know, there’s a saying for athletes like Carson Heinen.

“He’s a freshman!”

Choreographed claps follow the chant, used by mocking home crowds to let the opponent know that the guy who just scored on them isn’t even supposed to be on the team.

Heinen certainly didn’t expect to walk into Powell High School and join the boys varsity basketball team; he had goals, but kept them modest.

“I thought I was just going to be with my buddies on freshmen, then maybe go up to JV,” Heinen said.

Even though Heinen started practicing with the freshman squad, varsity head coach Chase Kistler knew the 15-year-old had more to offer, and Heinen is now logging big minutes as the Panthers’ only ninth-grader.

While watching summer league and open gyms, it became clear to the third-year coach that Heinen was more than his imposing 6-foot-3 frame. He wasn’t a football player miscast in a mesh tank top. He was a basketball player.

“He has a sense of basketball,” Kistler said. “He has that vision, he can see what’s happening on the court. He has very soft hands with the ball, he makes smart decisions. So I knew even from summer league he was going to be one of the key guys.”

The season is young, but through four games Heinen is the Panthers’ leading rebounder (seven per game) and second-leading scorer (9.8 points per game) while shooting a team-best 74 percent from the field (of all players with at least three shot attempts).

His impact has been undeniable, even as he’s learned to adjust from middle school to high school.

The ascension through the ranks was quick, but the adjustment to the bigger, faster game wasn’t as immediate.

“It’s a lot different game, actually, going from eighth grade and travel basketball to varsity is a lot higher intensity, a lot bigger guys,” Heinen said.

His first game, a 47-44 loss to Newcastle, started with nerves. Heinen was about to experience his first official competition against 17- and 18-year-olds — adults, technically — and he admitted he felt intimidated by the prospect of going against older, bigger guys.

“First tournament, first game at least, it was just scary — butterflies,” the soft-spoken but confident Heinen said. “But once you get out there, it’s easy I guess. Just let the game come to you. After the first minute or two, you just settle in.”

Heinen settled in to lead the Panthers with 12 points in what would be the first of three Panther losses by four or fewer points.

It was his first high school game, but Heinen is hardly inexperienced. He’s played competitive basketball nearly half his life.

“With my freshman friends, we’ve been playing travel basketball since third grade, competitively,” Heinen said. “We’ve been playing together, getting better, going to really good tournaments just working together getting better.”

Heinen’s years at Powell Middle School consisted of Cubs football in the fall, Cubs basketball in the winter, and travel basketball from February until summer.

“When he was younger he learned the fundamentals, you can tell,” Kistler said. “He learned how to dribble, pass and shoot, where some kids are not learning those, all they’re worried about is how to shoot the three. I think he focused on the right things, so it came easier for him — and his size did help.”

Heinen’s physical gifts (Heinen played tight end and defensive end for the Panthers football team, first on JV and then on varsity) will be an asset, but won’t alone make him effective in Wyoming’s Class 3A.

“He’s not always going to be the bigger guy, so now he’s going to rely more on his ball handling and good shooting. He’s going to have to rely more on his game than just being bigger than the other guy,” Kistler said.

Now that Heinen has established in the infancy of his prep career that he can compete on the varsity level, he’s working on becoming the two-way player he envisions he can be.

“I think I’m balanced, I like to get rebounds so I work on that a lot, boxing out,” Heinen said. “Taking a weighted ball, exploding, working on that. I focus on both (offense and defense).”

His teams were often so dominant at Powell Middle School that it wasn’t necessary for Heinen to be a vocal leader, something he wants to do more of in high school.

“Even though I’m a freshman, I feel like I have a voice,” Heinen said. “In eighth grade I didn’t really do that too much. Being a defensive leader, being someone who gets the team up when the older guys are down. And they do that to me, it’s vice versa.”

Kistler was at first unsure how the upperclassmen would respond to a freshman on varsity, but Heinen’s familiarity with some of the players through football, his thoughtful demeanor and unselfish style of play ingratiated him to the team.

“He cares about everyone. If someone makes a bad choice, he’s upset for them. He’s very mature for his age. He’s a great kid,” Kistler said. 

Drawing double teams and kicking the ball out to wide open shooters has also helped Heinen make fast friends. He’s third on Powell with 1.8 assists per game.

“He’s shooting the ball when he’s open, but he’s also finding the open people when they double down on him,” Kistler said. “So I think as long as he keeps his unselfishness and willingness to be coached, I think he’s going to improve. Sky’s the limit for him.”

The Panthers have yet to play a home game (they host Douglas on Jan. 16), but it’s only a matter of time before Panther Gym echoes with the voices of Powell High School’s student section reminding their guests that Heinen is, again, a freshman.

And that’s a fact that keeps Kistler excited for the future — one that’s promising, though he’s quick to remind that it’s not assured.

Kistler wants to keep Heinen hungry in order to become something truly special by the end of his Panther career.

“He’s got a lot of potential — if he stays a student of the game,” Kistler said, after a protracted pause. “But now it comes to how hard he trains. How hard is he getting in the weight room and getting on good weight? How is he staying in condition? Is he doing the running? That’s where you see the difference between good athletes and great athletes in high school — who trains and puts in the extra hours, and who just kind of shows up for practice?”

Kistler knows all the potential pitfalls that can trip up promising young athletes, though he doesn’t expect Heinen to fall victim to them.

“And I don’t see him going that route, I see him putting in the extra work,” Kistler said. “Like I said, sky’s the limit — it’s up to him.”