By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/21/24
Bishop Shanahan’s Jon Heisman is the winningest boys’ lacrosse coach in PA history, a two-time PIAA champion, a pre-PIAA state champ, and an Eastern PA Chapter member of the USA Hall of Fame.
Now he is receiving another honor: a trip to the Interscholastic Lacrosse Coaches Association (NILC) Hall of Fame.
Heisman was informed this week of his induction, which will be held on Oct. 12 in Jericho, N.Y. on Long Island.
Heisman guided Springfield-Delco to a state crown in the old Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association in 1992. He also lost in the state finals three times (1994, ’96, ’97) and reached the Final Four six times. He later coached at West Chester East for six years and then took over at Bishop Shanahan in 2010. There he won Ches-Mont League titles in 2013-15 and took the Eagles to back-to-back District 1 and PIAA 2A championships in 2018 and 2019.
Last year, Heisman broke former La Salle coach Bill Leahy’s state mark of 512 wins as a boys’ coach (Radnor’s Phyllis Kilgour has the overall record of 574 wins). Heisman now has 533 wins after leading the Eagles to a 16-3 campaign and a runner-up finish in the Ches-Mont this spring.
“I have to credit my great staff and my wife, who lets me do what I love,” said Heisman. “It’s been a nice ride, but I have a lot left.”
Heisman, who is 67 likes to say he’s going on 48. He played lacrosse at Henderson High in the 1970s and started for four years as a defenseman at Ithaca College. He credits Bob Brinton – his coach at Henderson and later the coach at Penn and West Chester College – and Paul Stankewicz as the first mentors who inspired him to pursue coaching. At Ithaca, Bill Ware was a strong influence as head coach. Two other strong influences at Ithaca were players, three-sport standout Alan Howell, who mentored Heisman as a young defenseman; and Johnny Mouradian who years later became head coach of the Philadelphia Wings.
“I give credit to Bob Brinton and also to Paul Stankewicz, who was my JV coach,” said Heisman, who was named Phillylacrosse.com Co-Coach of the Year in 2018. “I got the fundamentals right from the start. Then I was blessed to play at Ithaca under William Ware.”
Heisman coached one year as an assistant at Ithaca and came home to coach at Episcopal Academy under legendary coach John Wynne. He then served as an assistant at West Chester East before taking over at Springfield-Delco where he coached such standouts as Kyle Sweeney, Greg Gurenlian, John Brasko, Drew Adams, Tom Slate, Greg Campbell and Dan Woods.
Bishop Shanahan was dominant in the AA class in 2018 and 2019, but he says this 2024 season was also very gratifying since Slate came onto the staff along with Jeff Spano.
“We had a great year,” said Heisman. It was one of my favorite years; we only had one first-team All-league pick, but the team played really well and placed second in the league.”
Heisman has been saying the past few years that he feels he can continue coaching for many more years. His enthusiasm has not waned at all.
“It never gets old,” he said. “The friendships I’ve developed at these high schools have been special. Coaching is what my life is. What I savor are the relationships with the players and coaches.”
