Girls were in tears as Taylor Heatherington, coach of Space Coast Crew women’s team, told them he is quitting on Thursday, according to freshman Anastacia Devlin, who’s on the women’s varsity team.

“It was after practice and he had us in a little group,” Devlin said. “He pulled out a letter and went from that to explain how he loved the team, loved working with us, and had a lot of great memories with us but he needed to spend more time with his kids.”

Heatherington has a 2-year-old son and a newborn.

“I feel like it’s good for him to spend more time with his kids,” said freshman Pierro Gouin, who is on the men’s team. “Like that’s important, even the kids lives will be affected by that, so it’s probably for the better.”

Devlin said that while Heatherington only began coaching the team last January, the girls are going to miss him. 

“On Halloween he rowed with us, which I thought was really fun because he got an understanding of how the boat felt,” Devlin said.

Heatherington plans to coach the team throughout the end of January until the board finds a replacement.

By Raven Morgan