Someone to watch over him

Published - October, 25, 2007
Someone to watch over him

Chuck Corder
ccorder@pnj.com

Joann Owens won't miss a Pensacola High School football game this season.

Every Friday night — you can book it — she'll be watching. Her face dressed in one of her signature smiles as her boy Jasper Heard, a Tigers linebacker who leads the team with 65 tackles and four sacks, delivers one of his signature hits.

Don't look for her, though. Joann Owens can't be found in the

bleachers, clapping and cheering each time the public address announcer calls

No. 2's name out

after a tackle.

She died last December, complications from a new

kidney that quit on her.

Heard, 19, won't quit, though. Won't quit believing she follows his every move. Won't quit until you understand what this woman, stripped of life at 38 years old, did for him.

"My momma's watching me," Heard said.

She always did. Just never on the football field.

Owens battled kidney trouble for most of Heard's childhood. Dialysis treatments kept her from seeing him blossom into a star at

Woodham High his freshman and sophomore seasons.

And, boy, was he blossoming. Still just a sophomore, Heard already had letters piling up from Florida, Auburn, Clemson and North Carolina State among the many suitors.

"When you watched film, you couldn't help but notice him around the football, making plays," PHS coach Mike Bennett said. "We just though he was a great player. Someone with a lot of speed who could get around the ball. And when he hit you, you knew you were hit."

Heard would run home after each Friday and tell his mother about the night he had, the pain he inflicted.

Then, good news came. Owens received a transplant in December 2005. But a few months after the transplant, something was wrong. Owens felt sick, felt weak.

"She didn't tell us for a while," Heard remembered. "She didn't want us to panic."

But there was reason to panic. The transplant, doctors later discovered, had been cancerous.

With seven mouths to feed, and his mother not working, Heard made a hard decision. Football was over.

"We were already struggling," he said. "I knew I had to help out. (Football) was something I really loved, but it was a sacrifice I had to make."

While his teammates headed to practice each afternoon, Heard left for his job at KFC. He managed to remain close to his Titans, though, showing up on Friday night.

He'd stand on the sidelines, sticking his head in huddles to encourage his brothers. If Jasper Heard is one thing, it's intense whether he's in or out of uniform.

"He'd tell me to keep my head in he game, wouldn't let me get down and helped me stay focused," said PHS defensive lineman Tony Thomas, one of Heard's closest friends who also played at Woodham. "Ain't nothing changed. He was still the same person."

Even when another December rolled around. Owens finally lost her valiant battle with the cancer, which had then spread throughout her body.

She fought longer than doctors expected. Guess we know where Heard got that from.

"God blessed her with an extra three days. That's how strong she was," Heard said. "It was sad, but me being a big brother, I can't show that much emotion. Being 13, 14, 15, that's a ruin to your life."

He refused to accept defeat. Heard found victory in death, cherishing the ripple effect his mother had on him and others.

When moments finally did present themselves where he felt himself breaking down, Heard leaned on older brother Demetrius to help steer him back to the right path their mother first put them on.

"If I didn't make the right choice, I'd probably be locked up or dead," he said. "She saved me from that."

Owens played savior to many of Heard's friends.

"She was one of my second moms," Thomas said. "She's a kind-hearted person. It shows off on (Heard). As much as he misses her, I miss her, too."

The pain didn't really go away for Heard until he finally got his first hit in the kickoff classic against Escambia.

His uniform was different. Not the energy. Not the licks.

"It felt so good to be back on field," Heard said. "I missed the togetherness and team effort."

And for the first time, Owens is getting to see all of it.

"Every tackle I make, every sack I make, everything positive thing that comes to my life is because of my momma," Heard said. "She was a life saver. Like a guarding angel."

And his momma always will be watching.

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http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071025/SPORTS/710250339/1002