This Colleyville standout loves playing basketball — and Chopin

Josh Heerman was 5 when he first started playing piano. It was a way to cope with being hyperactive.

Now, a decade later, he plays every chance he gets. In fact, the Colleyville Heritage sophomore is an accomplished classical pianist.

The 6-5 sophomore forward is also one of the Panthers’ top basketball players, something else he started at an early age, elementary school.

“My mom said I was hyper as a kid. I went to my grandma’s house and played the piano there,” he said. “I loved it.”

From those visits came piano lessons. It was there he fell in love with classical music.

“The teacher I went to taught it. Once I gave it a try I really liked it,” he said. “I started doing jazz piano also a few years ago, but basketball keeps me so busy I couldn’t give much attention to a second form. Besides, I love classical.”

His favorite artist is Chopin. He especially loves the etudes.

He practices at least an hour each day, along with lessons once a week.

Just like basketball, piano takes discipline. He said one helps the other, in fact.

“It does carry over. I remember in eighth grade, for example, I’d go to the Grapevine Rec Center and just shoot and work,” he said. “Around that time I started piano much more seriously. I had gotten a little lazy and wasn’t getting ready for recitals like I knew I should.

“But I realized both take discipline and practice to be successful.”

Especially now that he’s on the varsity. Just as the work gets harder the more he progresses in piano, it is the same for basketball.

“It’s a lot more work,” he said, chuckling. “Practices are a longer, and we play about 20 more games.”

Heritage coach Steven Hamrick said he can see the results of Heerman’s focus on the court.

“Josh is a terrific young man that has a bright future,” he said. “He is a very detail-oriented person. He is very coachable and he really take of pride in doing the little things correctly.”

Heerman plays about three recitals each year at venues throughout the area. He has one coming up in the spring.

His dad plays the saxophone. His older brother Matthew also played piano, along with playing football for a while and running track at the University of Arkansas.

Josh also wants to play in college, basketball and piano. He’s learning some pieces that he hopes will help get him into a program.

He tried running track in middle school, but he loves basketball too much, so he decided to make that his sport of focus in high school.

He has also tried another instrument, but realized nothing can replace piano in his heart.

“I tried playing the drums for about a year, and I picked them up pretty quickly. But I don’t have a drum set,” he said with a laugh. “And we have two pianos.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2018 at 3:04 PM with the headline "This Colleyville standout loves playing basketball — and Chopin."