NEWPORT NEWS — Coming out of Gloucester High, Hanna Heaton had her mind set on playing Division I soccer. And so she did at UNC Wilmington, where she started 16 games as a freshman midfielder.
Yet something was missing.
“I got a full ride and I played a ton of minutes,” Heaton said. “But the soccer wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.”
That sent Heaton on a path that led to Christopher Newport University in the fall of 2023. Now a senior, in only 53 games, she is third among CNU’s all-time leaders in assists (26), sixth in shots attempted (197), and eighth in points (74).
Heaton’s 2024 season — 14 goals, 17 assists, 45 points — is one of the greatest in program history.
“She’s been a key component to how the team operates,” CNU coach Jamie Gunderson said. “She’s very creative, and very dynamic, when she gets the ball. That helps the other players around her because they have to get in the right areas where she’ll find them.
“She’s not scoring as many goals as she probably wants (three in nine games), but she’s still setting up a lot of goals for us. Everybody we play is keying on ‘find 11, find 11, don’t let 11 do things.’ She has to navigate.”
Eleven is Heaton’s jersey number, and it wasn’t a random assignment. Craig Heaton, her father, wore the same number as a CNU midfielder from 1990-92. Father and daughter both have 11 tattooed on their arms.
Family is top priority for Hanna. She speaks with pride of her parents — Craig, who retired from the Coast Guard in 2015 and is now tugboat captain with Vulcan Materials, and Amy, an administrative assistant with Gloucester County Public Schools.
Hanna grew up idolizing her brother, Camden, who also played soccer at Gloucester.
“My entire childhood was me wanting to be my brother’s best friend and his mini-me,” Hanna said. “I was always dressing like him in the soccer outfits, and I learned to skateboard like him.”
And there’s Ethan Baker, her boyfriend of almost nine years (since seventh grade). Also a Gloucester graduate, Baker attends the Apprentice School as an X31 electrician and is on the wrestling team. Heaton said he encouraged her to major in cybersecurity.
Wilmington was just too far away.
“When soccer season ended in the fall, I would come home every weekend,” Heaton said. “I drove 4½ hours there and 4½ hours back to see my family and my boyfriend. I knew I wanted to come back home.”
When it came time to choose, Division I, II or III didn’t matter. The right fit did. And if anything sealed the deal, it was an exchange with then-James Madison midfielder Madie Vincent,a friend from the club soccer circuit.
“She’s a really good friend of mine, and she had also entered the portal,” Heaton said. “She reached out and asked where I was thinking about transferring. I was like, ‘Probably somewhere close to home, CNU, Virginia Wesleyan, VCU’ … just throwing out names.
“She was like, ‘I’m thinking about going to CNU also.’ And I was like, ‘Great, let’s go together!’ And after speaking with Jamie, I knew this where I needed to be.”
Because Vincent (Smithfield High) transferred to CNU as a rising senior, she and Heaton played only one season together. The Captains finished 19-0-3 that fall.
At CNU, Heaton has found a winning culture. Ranked No. 3 nationally with a 7-0-2 record, the Captains have made eight consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament with two Elite Eights (2022, ’23), two Final Fours (2018, ’24) and a national championship (2021).
“I’ll never forget warming up before my first conference championship game here,” Heaton said. “Having played at Gloucester and Wilmington, I had never been in an environment like this. It was a high-stakes game.
“I was telling my teammates about it, and they’re like, ‘Hanna, we’re here every year. This is normal for us.’ And I’m like, ‘sor-eee guys!’ I’ve really loved it here.”