Heneghan gets his shot to realize the dream

“Definitely a dream,” Heneghan said. “I think anyone who grows up playing football dreams about having the chance potentially to play professionally. I know I wasn’t looking this far ahead when I was in high school. I was just trying to do the best as I could at Menlo.”

Heneghan is finished with his course work at Dartmouth and is set to graduate in June with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He will be flying home from New Hampshire Wednesday to report to 49ers minicamp in Santa Clara Friday.

“I know nothing significant is really guaranteed,” Heneghan said. “So I’m really focused on one day at a time and hoping to be involved with everything I can be involved with.”

Heneghan grew up in Atherton as a fan of the 49ers, and started following the team in his youth going to games at Candlestick Park during the era of quarterback Jeff Garcia. He started playing football on the Peninsula Pop Warner circuit, seeing time with both the RWC 49ers and the Menlo-Atherton Vikings. He played mostly tight end and linebacker in those days, and didn’t start quarterbacking until his eighth-grade year.

As a freshman at Menlo, he was a fourth-string quarterback on the junior-varsity team. Then as a sophomore, he took his game to another level, not only earning a spot on the varsity squad but taking over as the Knights’ starting quarterback.

“I discovered the weight room and started seriously training, and working on football skills specifically,” Heneghan said. “That was a big reason for me in getting quicker and more agile, and also improving my throwing accuracy.”

Through three years as Menlo’s starting QB, Heneghan passed for 7,687 yards. As a junior in 2012, he led the Knights to the Central Coast Section Division IV championship game, just the second time in school history the program had reached the title game. Menlo lost to rival Sacred Heart Prep in that one 13-7.

After two seasons as a reserve at Dartmouth, Heneghan earned the starting job in 2016 as a junior. He went on pass for 2,725 yards as the Big Green put up a 4-6 record. He totaled 4,900 passing yards on the nose in his collegiate career.

“My four years in college were great,” Heneghan said. “I feel like I grew … as a player I grew in every facet of my game.”

In 2017, Dartmouth finished in second place, one game behind Ivy League champion Yale. The Big Green actually defeated Yale 28-27 on Oct. 7, 2017 in a big comeback after trailing 24-7 at the half. Heneghan threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns.

Back-to-back loses to Columbia and Harvard later that month sealed Dartmouth’s second-place fate. Heneghan attempted to lead another comeback against Harvard. Trailing 25-14 with 7:21 to play, Dartmouth drove 80 yards in just over four minutes to score on a 6-yard Heneghan run; then he scored the 2-point conversion on a pass to Dylan Mellor. Dartmouth forced a punt to get the ball back with 1:36 remaining, but Heneghan was intercepted in the closing minute to seal Harvard’s 25-22 win.

“We felt like we were just a few plays short of winning the league,” Heneghan said. “We obviously finished high in the league but were disappointed not to finish higher than that. But we were proud to finish where we did.”

The last Menlo player to make an NFL roster was John Farquhar, who graduated in 1990. He went on to play at Duke before spending five seasons as a tight end in the NFL with the Steelers, Saints and Buccaneers.