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Going Pro in Something Other than Sports: Bucknell's Gabriel Heiber Eyeing Medical School Future
By Todd Merriett, Bucknell Athletic Communications
Published in the October 11
Bucknell Football Program
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- There is a
commercial that airs during the NCAA Basketball Tournament that
states there are 380,000 student-athletes and just about every one
of them will go pro in something other than sports. That statement
is particularly true of student-athletes at Bucknell, especially
Gabriel Heiber.
Instead of following in the footsteps of recent Bison graduates
such Sean Conover (football), Hope Foster (women's basketball) and
John Griffin or Charles Lee (men's basketball), who obtained
outstanding educations and still signed professional contracts, the
men's water polo senior has his eyes focused clearly on becoming a
doctor.
In the summer of 2007 the entire men's water polo team, even a
newly graduated senior, took an overseas training trip to Eastern
Europe. The whole squad was there, except Heiber, who was stateside
completing an internship in a pre-med program at Yale University as
his junior year approached.
Heiber, a co-captain on this year's Bison squad that is 9-10 after
this past weekend's competitive SoCal Tournament in Los Angeles,
Calif., can appreciate the value of education since it was taken
away from him as he was growing up.
When Heiber was 16, he and his family went on vacation to visit his
grandfather in Miami, Fla. At the time Venezuela was experiencing
plenty of political unrest and Heiber had not been attending school
because they were closed. That vacation has now lasted six years
and Heiber has still not returned to his home country on a
permanent basis.
The first six months Heiber was in Florida he lived with his
grandfather, but then his mother, Simy Bendayan de Heiber, made the
move to help him out as he progressed through high school. Heiber's
father, Dario, continued to live in Venezuela, but made many trips
back and forth from the South American country to southern
Florida.
"It was a tough time, especially for my mom," remembers Heiber
about the transition to the United States. "My brother left home
pretty early too, so my leaving made it tough on her. But, it all
worked out great"
Part of the reason the situation worked out was Heiber's remarkable
water polo ability. Despite hailing from a country known for
producing baseball players like John Santana (Mets) and Bobby Abreu
(Yankees), Heiber was first exposed to the sport in sixth grade.
After moving to Florida he joined the team at Miami Beach High
School and helped the talented squad to back-to-back state titles
in 2003 and 2004. Heiber was not the only Division I prospect on
the team that won more than 60 consecutive games at one point and
was coached by a 1972 Olympian. Heiber's teammates scattered to
UCLA, Stanford, Fordham and Redlands, one of the best Division III
water polo programs in the nation.
"Coach was relentless in making us achieve what we were going for,
which was a state championship," recalls Heiber, who is trying to
help Bucknell to its first conference title in more than 20 years.
"We had an outstanding group of guys who had outstanding chemistry
and went on to great places."
One of those great places was Bucknell, Heiber's home for the last
four years. Coming out of high school he knew he wanted to attend a
school with great academics to pursue his pre-med goals and one
that had very good water polo. Bucknell was the perfect fit.
"I knew about Bucknell because of water polo," explains Heiber, who
is one of three seniors on this year's young team that features 10
freshmen and sophomores. "I came and visited and liked it. I knew
there was a great group of guys here and it was a great school and
it has worked out."
Among the veterans who Heiber knew from previous encounters in the
small water polo community were Brad and Kyle Roslyn and Aaron
Platshon. After filling a secondary role to many talented veterans
like the Roslyns or Jason Rechel or Mark Masterson, Heiber has been
forced to step into more of a leadership role this season.
"Gabriel is as passionate a leader as I have ever seen on a team,"
praises first-year Bison head coach John Abdou, who joined the
program as an assistant just prior to Heiber's freshman year. "He
has had that passion for water polo from day one and it is special
to see how that passion has been focused into leading this
team."
While Abdou has seen development from Heiber, the center forward
claims he has not changed much as a senior. That claim does not
show up in the statistics where Heiber surpassed his career high in
goals this past weekend and is well past his previous career high
with 36 points this season just two-thirds of the way through the
regular-season schedule. A veteran of 111 career games, Heiber
broke the program record for ejections drawn earlier this year and
now has 163 in his four years, including a team-high 44 this
year.
Known as a physical player, the solidly built Heiber can often be
seen thrashing around in front of the goal. His improvement over
the years can be partly attributed to Abdou's presence. The
California native worked closely with Heiber and classmate and
fellow captain Alex Lampley when he was an assistant coach. Abdou
held down the center forward position during his playing days at UC
Irvine.
"It is easy to say we have the best center tandem in the CWPA this
year," lauds Abdou.
Heiber's freshman campaign at Bucknell was Abdou's first as an
assistant, helping them develop what will likely be a long-lasting
relationship.
"Coach Abdou is many things to me," says Heiber with sincerity. "He
is a big brother, a mentor, a friend and a coach. There's
definitely a special bond. A coach always gets to see his athletes
go through a four-year cycle. For him it was different because he
was going through the cycle with us."
That cycle will conclude later this fall when the Bison conclude
their campaign and Heiber is not looking forward to it, but he
knows it is inevitable.
"My biggest goal is to finish the season with no regrets, knowing
we have done as good as we could have done and trained hard
throughout the year," explains Heiber, who has gotten used to the
familiar 6 a.m. practices in Kinney Natatorium.
"At first I thought it was tough and that I would never get used to
such a thing, but now I am used to it," Heiber smiles. "This
morning was crazy. I had my alarm set for 5 a.m. and at 4:50 a.m. I
was already awake! For the past two months I haven't slept past
6:30 or 7:00. As athletes we aren't really normal college
students."
While Heiber, who is a biology major with a grade-point average
well above 3.0, has adjusted to the morning workouts, it remains to
be seen if he will thrive in the late-night study sessions that are
sure to be part of his life in the upcoming years as he pursues his
medical degree. Based on his success at Bucknell, it is almost a
guarantee Heiber will pass with flying colors.
Now he just has to figure out where he will be taking those
classes.
