By Lauren Knego

@dailyrecordspts

If it wasn't for his older brother Luke, Mount Olive graduate Zack Heeman wouldn't have become the athlete he is today.

Zack Heeman is currently gearing up for his freshman year at Rutgers University and is trying to earn a starting spot on the football team's offensive line as the Scarlet Knights prepare for their first season in the Big 10.

Heeman played football and basketball growing up, following in the footsteps of his brother Luke. Zack, who stands at 6-foot-7 and 270 pounds, graduated from Mount Olive as a 1,000 point scorer and a two-time Morris County Tournament champion in basketball, a Group IV First Team selection and First Team All-Morris County selection in football and also set the Mount Olive school shot put record his senior year with a toss of 51-feet 3-inches.

"He's the first one to really get me into football and basketball, I always followed in his footsteps and everything that he did," Zack said of his brother. "So when he played football, I started playing football. When I was younger I couldn't really play, I had to watch so I would go to his games, go to his practices, both football and basketball and then when it was my time to shine I wanted to try and be as good as him."

Zack and Luke played on the basketball team together when Zack was a freshman and Luke was a senior, and even when Luke went away to college at the University of Illinois, he was still Zack's biggest fan.

"I played basketball my freshman year and his senior year," Zack said. "He wasn't as tall as me and not necessarily as naturally gifted in certain aspects, but he was always a hard worker and that was always one thing he had over me, he always worked harder than me and that was always something that kept me motivated, kept me working to try and be as hard a worker as he was."

That motivation kept pushing Zack even after Luke committed suicide on Sept. 25, 2012, when he was only 19 years old. Zack had just started his junior year of high school, but he didn't let his brother's death keep him from moving forward.

"It happened Zack's junior year so it hasn't been that long and it's made Zack very, very determined," said Zack and Luke's mother, Jenny Heeman. "Not that he wasn't before, but he's doing this not only for himself but also for the memory of Luke and he's got the drive there, a lot of it was already there. He idolized Luke, he followed in his footsteps, if Luke was playing soccer, he wanted to play soccer. I used to have to make Zack sit and do his reading and he would get mad at me because Luke was out playing soccer."

After his junior season, Rutgers, which had just announced it was joining the Big 10, offered Zack a football scholarship. Having lived in Wisconsin, the allure of playing teams he and his brother had grown up watching was a big reason why Zack committed to Rutgers.

Zack has been in camp only a couple of weeks, but the difference between high school football and college football is evident.

"August camp, I think all the freshmen are struggling at first but it's exciting, it's tough to get used to the speed and get acclimated," he said. "The drills, just running through a drill it's just faster. The first couple practices I was spinning a little bit but after a while I started to get settled in and I think I'm starting to become the best player I can be."

Rutgers offensive line coach Mitch Browning believes that Heeman has a lot of potential.

"He's extremely intelligent, very athletic, he's doing a great job, he's got tremendous upside and he's going to be a good player," Browning said. "He's gotten better every day and he's got a great attitude and a great work ethic, he's only going to get better and better. So who knows, sometimes when you least expect it the opportunity comes and I'm sure he'll be ready to jump in and do the job."

Even though Zack is away at Rutgers, it hasn't stopped him and his family from celebrating Luke's life and spreading the word about suicide prevention and awareness. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a person in this country dies every 13 minutes from suicide and in 2011 it was the 10th leading cause of death for Americans. During that year, about 90 percent of all people who died by suicide were suffering from a mental illness, most often depression.

According to the Heeman family, Luke was dealing with depression at the time of his death. He had left the University of Illinois and had moved back home, but his family had no idea just how deep Luke's depression went.

"I think that the kids don't know where to go for help," Jenny Heeman said. "Even as a parent I probably could have used more information than I had, and there are a lot of resources out there."

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One of those resources is the AFSP, which according to its website strives to promote "understanding and preventing suicide through research, education and advocacy."

"It is our hope that we are able to have an open conversation that depression and addictions are real illnesses that can sometimes be fatal," AFSP president Robert Gebbia said in a press release on the death of actor and comedian Robin Williams. "We have to do more to prevent such tragic deaths through greater awareness of mental health issues, warning signs, effective interventions and treatment. Suicide is preventable and we all have a role to play to end the tragedy of suicide."

Zack and his family are also big advocates of spreading the word on awareness and prevention. Zack said his family and one of Luke's friends went to Wisconsin to participate in an Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention walk, which is sponsored by AFSP to raise money and awareness.

The Heeman family is also starting a Luke Heeman Scholarship Fund at Mount Olive High School and are also organizing a basketball tournament at the end of August to raise funds for suicide prevention. It's going to be a 3-on-3 and a 5-on-5 tournament the weekend of Aug. 29 in the Mount Olive area. Half of the money raised will be donated to the Mount Olive travel basketball association and the other half to a suicide prevention fund that the family has started.

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"I was very happy with the idea because it's important for people to understand the symptoms and what to do if someone is contemplating suicide," Jenny Heeman said of the basketball tournament. "There's a lot of information out there, I just think that people have such a stigma to it, they don't know where to go. The more you talk about it the more out in the open it is and hopefully it will prevent it from happening to someone else, and that's our goal."

Zack hopes that he himself can one day start going around to local schools and start talking about prevention and awareness by telling his own story. Despite the loss of his brother, Zack believes that some good can come out of such a tragedy.

"For us, obviously we lost my brother, so that awakened us and opened our eyes to what can be," he said. "But the main thing we've looked at is the eight-year span of high school and college and everyone looks at it as such a huge part of your life, if you don't necessarily achieve the steps that you want to achieve, then your life's a failure. I'm probably going to try and branch out and start speaking myself to help out kids and really reiterate that even if something doesn't work out necessarily how you want to, life goes on and the next day will come so that's what we're trying to talk to kids about and really trying to make a difference."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: 973-428-6674973-428-6674; lknego@gannett.com

For more information about suicide prevention and awareness:

American Foundation For Suicide Prevention: afsp.org

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK1-800-273-TALK

New Jersey Hope Hotline: 1-855-654-67351-855-654-6735

Morristown Memorial Hospital Psychiatric: 973-540-0100973-540-0100

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