By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
Jared Jeffrey is on a fast track to professional soccer stardom. He is moving so quickly, in fact, that even though he’s been drafted and signed by Belgium’s Club Brugge he can’t play until he turns 18 on June 14. The contract is for three years and is especially unusual because European teams rarely pursue young, foreign players.
Jeffrey’s American status is rock solid, because he recently was named Boys Player of the Year by Parade Magazine after spending two and one-half years with the U.S. Under-17 National Team in Bradenton, Fla. He returned home to Richardson, Texas, in January to complete his final high school semester on-line and will graduate one year early.
Being named the nation’s No. 1 high school player “definitely is a great honor,” the 5-foot-10, 160-pound midfielder told MaxPreps. “It wasn’t something I really was expecting.”
While playing a brief waiting game, Jeffrey currently is “working out a lot on my own and training with the Dallas Texans (his former club team).” He also made a quick trip last week to Belgium to rent an apartment. He says there should be no language barrier, because most Belgians speak English.
The young phenom also got a fast start playing soccer. He was just four years old when he joined the YMCA program in Garland, Texas. At age seven he moved to the Dallas East Soccer Association and by 10 he was with the outstanding Dallas Texans club team. He noted, “The Texans won the Classic League three years in a row and were the best young team in Dallas for awhile.”
“I was kind of a natural,” he conceded. “I always enjoyed it because I was one of the better players. I’ve always been a competitive person and my teams won a lot. I was definitely a dribbler and passer. I had really good coaches and picked up a lot from them. I’m not a blazer, but I can out-run people. I have good endurance.”
During his six years with the Texans, Jeffrey was coached by veteran Marcio Leite, who recalled, “He was a good athlete and had special potential. He went select and trained four times a week. We put him through drills and he grasped it all just like a sponge. He was very good at beating one, two or even three players.
“He lost some speed at age 12 because of a growth spurt, but he was always smart and very good at reading the game – at understanding the directions and angles. He would go at people. He was good at bending the ball and shooting with his right and left foot. He was always right there at the top of the group. He is a dream player.”
Leite credits Jared’s parents, Jim and Betty Jeffrey, for their outstanding support. Both were athletes at Texas Christian University. And they have three younger soccer-playing daughters who all are great prospects. Juliann is a sophomore, Jana an eighth grader and Jamie a fifth grader.
Texans founder and club manager Hassan Nazari told MaxPreps, “I was fortunate to see him grow. He was one of those guys who truly practiced every day. He knew what he wanted from Day One. When he was 12 years old, he would come to practice (early) at 4:30, work with his team from 6 to 7:30 and stay from 7:30 to 9 with the older group. Later he would go indoors. He is a soccer junkie.”
From grades three through eight, he attended St. Mark’s in Dallas where he starred in basketball and track. He was a point guard who averaged “about six points and a bunch of assists.” In track he ran everything from the 400 to the two-mile. “I won every race I was a part of,” he said proudly.
However, as he prepared for his freshman year, he faced a momentous decision: continue the successful things he was doing or move to Bradenton, Fla., and became a part of the national soccer program. It would be a gamble, because the national team cuts players every six months.
“It was a tough decision,” Jeffrey conceded. “I had played on the Under-15 National Team (games in Florida, California and Mexico) and attended five or six week-long camps. There was a little bit of hesitation, but I talked it over with my parents for a couple hours and it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. It could help me get a college scholarship and I always had dreams of going pro. It was my No. 1 goal and it became a reality. It was really exciting and pretty prestigious.”
So Jeffrey joined 39 other invitation-only, select players from across the country and enrolled at the Edison Academic Center.
“It was definitely a pretty big adjustment,” Jeffrey admitted. “The first two months were the hardest, but I had a good support system and we had 40 guys who loved to play soccer. The first semester we played Brazil in Bradenton and lost, 1-0. It was really about adjusting and staying on the team. I grew up a lot. We got to the finals during a tournament in Ireland. I played well and scored a goal against Finland. I might have scored seven or eight goals my first year.”
Jeffrey calls his sophomore campaign “definitely a big year. We played Brazil twice and tied both times (2-2). I was captain and had one assist in the second game. We qualified for the World Cup in Jamaica in April and had a 3-1 record.”
The summer of 2007 also was big – particularly for Jeffrey – because the U.S. team played three “friendly (exhibition)” games in Belgium and won all three. The Americans defeated Club Brugge reserves, 3-1, Circle Brugge reserves, 2-0, and Germany, 3-0.
Club Brugge officials got a great look at Jeffrey and they obviously liked what they saw because they later signed him. Looking back, he noted, “At that time I didn’t think much of it, but it was a really beautiful city.”
Later in 2007, the American teenager experienced his greatest thrill and his biggest disappointment during the U-17 World Cup in South Korea. Losing the first game was crushing, but just playing in the world-famous event was a dream come true. Though his team lost three of four games, Jeffrey was able to contribute a goal against Tunisia and an assist against Belgium.
This past January Jeffrey was invited to play with Club Brugge – as sort of an official tryout – during a trip to Turkey. He started one game and got an assist. He played the last 15 minutes of the second contest.
Because he is graduating early, Jeffrey has combined his junior and senior years. Still, he has compiled a superb 4.0 GPA. He enjoys math and might go into law some day. He actually had planned at one time to play soccer at Duke, but his pro future unfolded before he could sign a national letter-of-intent.
Jeffrey, who has broken his right wrist twice and his left arm once, realizes his biggest need as a budding professional is to “work really hard on my fitness and strength. Most of the guys are 25 years old and over, so it’s going to be hard breaking into the first team. If I don’t make the main team, I’ll be able to play for the reserves. I have at least three years.”
His former club coach, Marcio Leite, has no doubts about the future. He says confidently, “I really think he’s going to do well in Europe, because he is going to be challenged and will absorb everything. He has his foot in the door right now – a sure thing.”
Ever the fast-tracker, however, Jeffrey already is looking ahead to his next goal: making the under-20 World Cup team in 2009.