Jones joins the Internationals Soccer Academy in hopes of being recruited

While most students choose to play for their high school sports teams, Junior Rees Jones decided to try out and join the Internationals Soccer Academy as a right back and defensive midfield player.

This is a much more exclusive team that features the highly skilled soccer players from across the Northern Ohio Region. In addition to the Northern Ohio Team, there is only one other academy team found in Ohio; the Columbus Crew. With only one other team hailing from Ohio, Jones’ team travels to play against other teams from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.

The Internationals Soccer Academy requires intensive tryouts to ensure that they are enlisting only the best players in the region. Within the tryouts the players must perform drills for the coaches to show off their skills. Jones recalls that about 20/60 players were chosen to be on the team.

However, only 18 players can go to each game and only 14 can actually play during the game, which creates competition even within the team. Having 18 players at each game is a higher level academy rule, while having at most 14 players during each game is due to having three substitutions. Even with the higher level competition on the team, Jones has successfully been on the team for four years.

With a soccer team as exceptionally talented as Jones’ team, it is vital that they continue to practice four times a week for a ten month season, which requires him to make the trip to Medina for each practice. With the team’s devoted dedication and evident talent, it is unsurprising that about 90% of those on the team are recruited to play in college. To push the team further, the coach, George Nanchoff, was a former soccer player that played on the U.S. Olympic team in 1980.

While the choice between joining the AHS soccer team and the Academy team was difficult, Jones said, “I decided to play Academy because I want to play at a higher level and improve to the best of my ability. Also the exposure to college coaches is a lot higher in Academy than high school.”

With the ability to improve his skills, Jones and his team are also given the opportunity to exhibit their skills in two showcases each year. Within each showcase, one in Indiana and the other in Texas, there are about 100 academy teams and 30 division one college coaches. The showcase allows the Academy teams to gain more exposure and give more opportunities to be recruited in the future.

Looking towards the future, Jones said, “We are hoping to make playoffs this year and next year too. For me I hope to play division 1 college soccer.”