Former Tribe athlete Nathaniel Heilig setting records at Tabor College

Jim Irish

August 31, 2021

Special to the Bastrop Advertiser

Former Bastrop Tribe athlete Nathaniel Heilig made his college football debut for Tabor College last Saturday and set two school records and tied a national record.

Tabor defeated Arkansas Baptist 29-14 in its season opener at Hillsboro, Kan.

Heilig, a 5-foot-8, 160-pound freshman, kicked five goals and scored 17 points, both school records for kickers.

His eight field goal attempts in the game tied the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) record.

“He’s the first six-man player I’ve ever been able to recruit and sign,” Tabor head coach Mike Gardner said. “What I liked about him was how fast he was to the ball on extra points because you don’t have a lot of time or protection in six-man football.”

Heilig accounted for Tabor’s first 15 points in the contest.

Heilig converted field goals of 20 and 29 yards in the first quarter, 26 yards in the second, and 47 and 33 yards in the third quarter.

He missed field goals of 31, 33, and 27 yards.

Heilig also converted both of his extra points.

“Kicking is 80% technique; (Heilig) has good technique,” Gardner said. “He’s gonna need to work on learning how to kick in the wind.”

Gardner said Heilig kicked into a 16-mile-per-hour headwind during the game.

In addition, Heilig, who is on a partial scholarship, handled kickoffs and averaged 58 yards on eight kickoffs with five touchbacks.

In three seasons with six-man team Bastrop Tribe, Heilig scored 472 points and kicked a 51-yard field goal.

“A true weapon,” Tribe coach Brent Golemon said about Heilig.