After a contending run with the Inglewood Sentinels football team, senior quarterback Jared Heywood will take his talents to the University of Rhode Island. He worked hard in order to graduate early while putting up a winning performance on the field.
His efforts at the quarterback position earned him 2019 Pioneer League Player of the Year. Heywood worked in the spring to build trust with the Inglewood offensive players, and the results can be seen in his passes. Heywood hit his targets with ease, completing 154 of his 195 attempts this season.
The three-star athlete made over 400 passing yards during five games and had one game where he racked up over 500 passing yards according to MaxPreps.
This season, Inglewood had a 10-0 run and clinched the Pioneer League title. The Sentinels made a run deep into the Division 13 Southern Section playoffs, coming short in a 41-42 loss against the Esperanza Aztecs in the Semifinals.
Reaching the second round of the playoffs was a highlight for Heywood, the Sentinels defeated the Santa Monica Vikings 60-21. Heywood made 16 passes for 406 yards and five touchdowns in the matchup.
“Doing what we did is pretty special to me,” he said. “It wouldn’t have happened without the offensive linemen and all the hard work and practice that they do.”
Despite his success on the field, Heywood knows that his school work is top priority.
“In my household, grades have always come first,” Heywood said. “Getting my grades right, if you got to skip practice, you got to do what you got to do to make sure that your grades are right.”
In order to graduate early, Heywood took college courses; learning about journalism, economics and communication.
“I like journalism a lot, I like when we was talking about technology and how journalists use technology to give out their own articles,” Heywood said. “Communications is pretty interesting, learning the different types of how you can talk to people.”
Heywood’s favorite high school class is math; during the fall semester, he was taking precalculus.
“I’ve been a fan of math for the longest, my dad is good at math,” he said. “It kinda just fell on me that math was a subject that I would always love, I’ve always been pretty good at it.
The teachers and counselors at Inglewood high school have helped him prepare for college by mentoring him through the SAT application process and monitoring his academic performance.
“The support from the teachers and the community of the school has been great,” Heywood said. “Nothing but love from the faculty and staff from the school with the athletics side of it but also from the academic side of it.”
A hobby of Heywood’s is keeping up with the latest sneakers that come out. Growing up, the Jordan Retro 11 is the shoes that made him a sneakerhead. He aspires to get a pair of the Jordan Fragment 1.
“You have to learn how to balance certain stuff,” Heywood said. “Balancing football, balancing school has been a challenge, so I haven’t really been up to date with the latest shoes because I’m trying to get ready for college.”
