Mason Heintschel to continue football career at Pitt

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Now he can focus on just playing football.
After committing to continue his football career at the University of Pittsburgh in 2025, Clay QB Mason Heintschel can now worry about his final season playing for the Eagles.
Even with one season left, Heintschel is one of the most decorated quarterbacks to play for Clay, and he can have the peace of mind knowing he can focus completely on his final season with the Eagles.
Clay coach John Galyas talked about what makes Heintschel such a special player.
“His work ethic, for one. It’s always great when your best players are your hardest workers. We have a group of guys that really work hard and happen to be some of our best players,” said Galyas. “That, for one, and his leadership — he’s become a great leader — and embraces the role at quarterback, and he understands what comes with (playing) that position. He’s always positive, he’s never yelling, he’s always trying to lift (his teammates) up and make them better.”
“He’s such a good kid, comes from a good family, and we’re just so happy for him. This has always been a dream of his,” said Galyas. “We’ve been watching him since fifth grade. We knew he could play; what he didn’t know is what kind of teammate and leader he would be, and he’s just turned out to be a fantastic young man.”
Galyas talked about Heintschel’s reasons for choosing Pitt.
“He told me that it just felt like home,” said Galyas. “He’s got really good relationships with the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, and it just feels right, like it’s home.
“I think the plan was always going to commit before (his senior) season started, that way he could focus on the season, (but) I don’t think we thought it would happen this soon. He found his place; he’s really happy, content with his situation, and we support him.”
The Panthers are coached by Pat Narduzzi, who has been at the helm since 2015.
He was the defensive coordinator at Michigan State and Cincinnati under Mark Dantonio before that. He has a record of 65-50 and has won the Atlantic Coast Conference once, doing so two years ago when Pitt went 11-3 and 7-1 in the league.
Heintschel was named the ’23 Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division offensive player of the year and received honorable mention All-Ohio recognition in Division II last fall. In the regular season, he threw for 2,140 yards and 20 touchdowns on 183 of 293 passing (62.5 percent) and added 648 rushing yards and 13 scores on 112 carries.
During his sophomore season, Heintschel led the now-defunct Three Rivers Athletic Conference in passing yards and touchdowns. He completed 202 of 291 passes (69.4 percent) for 2,493 yards and 24 touchdowns.
Looking ahead, Galyas said the football team has to continue working.
“We’ve had a good offseason. We have a lot of multi-sport guys, so we haven’t had a lot of guys together. We haven’t had the full team together, but the guys are working hard. We need to shore some things up with our offensive and defensive lines and we’ve got a chance to be OK, and we’re working on that, for sure,” he said. “Mason’s our guy, and we’ve got to protect him, and if we can do that, we have a chance to have a pretty good season.”