- November 27, 2024
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Every time Mainland’s senior Zack Van Heusen walks into Stan Lee’s United Martial Arts facility in Ormond Beach, Lee tries to encourage Van Heusen to return to the sport Van Heusen once dominated.
In the sixth grade, Van Heusen went to Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex to compete in the International Martial Arts Festival, a competition that welcomes fighters with different styles from all over the world. Under Lee’s tutelage, Van Heusen won the gold medal, although he was the smallest kid in his division.
“Going into the tournament, I didn’t think I had a chance, but I made my first opponent tap out in nine seconds, so my confidence grew, and I felt like I was going to win,” Van Heusen said. “Stan coached me through the whole thing, and it was just crazy. My mom is a really loud person, and I just remember her screaming louder than everyone in the building. It was really cool.”
After winning gold, he returned back to Ormond Beach and continued to train with Lee until he was awarded a black belt in Stan Lee's self defense system which includes some grappling from Brazilian jiu-jitsu, punching from boxing, kicks from Tae Kwon Do and takedowns from wrestling and judo.
“That was the proudest moment of my life,” Van Heusen said. “It was tough to get Stan Lee’s approval; he is very strict, so when I got that belt, it just meant so much to me.”
Van Heusen returned to the Martial Arts Festival the following year, and he finished with silver.
“While second place was still a huge accomplishment, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t win gold,” he added. “There were more people in my division, but I still felt that I should’ve been able to win.”
After two Top 2 finishes in a worldwide tournament, Van Heusen, one of the best young fighters in the world, gave up the sport to play soccer.
“I just didn’t have the motivation for it anymore,” he said. “I really loved soccer and that it’s a team sport.”
Van Heusen has been playing soccer for Mainland throughout his high school years. Although he hasn’t won a gold or silver medal in soccer, Van Heusen has celebrated a number of times with a team, as opposed to alone.
“When we tied with Seabreeze this year, I was so happy,” Van Heusen said. “Mainland soccer hasn’t won or tied with them since 1996, so to see my coach’s reaction was really cool.”
While he hasn’t achieved the same level of success on the soccer pitch as fighting on a mat, Van Heusen still believes he made the right decision to walk away when he did.
“There are times when I think about where I would be, if I had stayed in martial arts and took it seriously,” Van Heusen added. “I’m pretty sure I would probably be fighting in the UFC or something along the lines of it. I was probably better at fighting than soccer, but I love soccer, and I want to play in college.”
