THE LEAD
Jay Heaps (Longmeadow, Mass.) departed as Revolution coach Sept. 19 after nearly six seasons on the job. Revolution executives decided to dismiss the longtime stalwart after the club saw its path to the playoffs narrow significantly after a pair of road defeats at Atlanta United and Sporting Kansas City during the previous week.
Those defeats did not instigate the move, according to Revolution general manager Michael Burns (Marlboro, Mass.). Instead, the club acted after assessing the overall trend in results over the past two seasons and the likelihood of missing out on the postseason for a second consecutive year.
