Heiser takes game to different level for Arrows

by Zach Borg, Weekend Sports Anchor
February 04, 2013 6:42 PM


Whether it's Tanner Heiser's shooting schedule...

"Every morning I wake up, we have lifting, and I usually go shoot for, like, two hours.  And then at night I'll probably go shoot again." Heiser says.

...or growing up playing against sister and current SDSU star Tara....

"(Who would win in a game of horse, you or your sister?)  Oh me!  We've already decided that several times."  Heiser says.

Scoring has never been a problem for Tanner, who holds the Watertown record with 44 points in a game, has over 100 three pointers in his career, and averaged 22 points per game last year.

"He has nights where he can really go off and put points on the board.  There's nights where I sit back and enjoy the show when he's playing well."  Watertown Head Coach Brian Norberg says.

But coming into his senior year, Coach Norberg challenged Heiser.

"I said, you're our best player, you need to become our best leader.  And he's really taken that to heart and done that.  We have some younger guys on the roster that he's taken under his wing and you can just tell he's trying to help them along."  Norberg says.

And Tanner's responded.  He's averaging 18 per game with a higher shooting percentage, more assists and, most importantly, more team wins.

"Senior leadership is really important.  It just comes naturally.  Like, what you have to do out there so you're team wins.  You have to notice what your team is doing well and what you're not doing very well." Heiser says.

"He's not a selfish kid at all.  He has taken a backseat a little bit in the scoring column to make sure that he's distributing the ball to other people on our team and, as a result, I think we're a better basketball team because of it."  Norberg says.

Proving leadership is more than scoring.

In Watertown, Zach Borg, KDLT Sports.