Jaden Jenkins '23 Recruiting Profile

***Update 2024   

I made the decision to return to the states after a year at the Steve Gerrard Academy in Liverpool, UK to play college soccer while I had years left of NCAA eligibility. I am currently enrolled at Huntingdon College in Montgomery Alabama and used my transfer credit from my Associate's Degree. I am now enroll to earn my Bachelors Degree in Business while playing on the Mens Soccer team. #HawkEm

***Update 2023

I am currently enrolled at the Steve Gerrard Academy in Liverpool, United Kingdom training and playing. I will return to the states with the team to participate in the 7 Elite Tournament in February 2024. It is in St. Georges, Utah and I can't wait to load up on Body Armor which is not in the UK yet!!

#SGA #Liverpool

I have loved sports since I was little. I can play a variety of sports but I have chosen to focus on the game of soccer. I attend a magnet school in Augusta, GA and the threat of no sports and all academics led the administration to add some sports to keep athletic scholars. We don’t have a lot of sports but I have chosen soccer to focus on since track and field season runs alongside soccer season and it is discouraged to try to do both. I know if we had a baseball team or basketball team, I could have excelled on those as well. 

I played for the Family Y teams when I discovered my love for soccer at the age of 7. I was drawn to it and always watched soccer on television and on YouTube. I would watch the moves and the plays of soccer teams in english and in spanish. Although I was not fluent in spanish, I understood the moves and strategy. The Family Y Sports Director asked my mother once, did I watch soccer on television and when my mom said yes, she said she could tell with the moves I would make on the field. I learned that the more I studied the game, the more I would be able to develop my skills and my game. I would attend soccer camps in the summer with the local travelling leagues and longed to join a team. It was not until I reached high school that my parents decided to invest in a soccer club. 

I learned a valuable lesson my first time on the soccer club team and that was the struggle of playing on a team designated by birth years. I was one of the oldest on the team and only a couple of us really knew the game. It was frustrating losing game after game because the skill levels were not matched. Still, I played like it was my last game and tried to mentor the rest of the team. After a losing season, I learned that no matter what the circumstances are, you play your best game. 

I have learned that eating healthy and drinking water helps you on the field. Cardio is important and I am always training because soccer season never ends for me. 

My goals in high school are watching my academics while excelling on the field. My parents have taught me that they go hand in hand. I watched one of my friends' soccer and baseball careers snap when his leg snapped in a Family Y game as we were going for the ball. The pain, the healing and the recovery for him showed me early on that your career could be in jeopardy with a blink of an eye. So safety and health in play is important to me and that is why I train and stay focused on working out and studying the game.

I want to play for a really good soccer team in college or help make them good! My future plans are to follow in the path of my favorite soccer player, Kylian Mbappe. He is young and setting records where he plays and I love to watch his career. There are others that have influenced me and I watch them all. I haven’t figured out what career path I want to take, but I am on the engineering pathway in high school. I will have to decide my future career path soon as I seek the college that I will attend.

I like the fact that I work on ball control and know how to maneuver out of 3 soccer players that are on my. I work on foot skills a lot as it makes me competitive in the game. In the 2020-2021 season of my sophomore varsity year, I received Most Valuable Player and that meant a lot to me. My coach and my team recognized my hard work and I was grateful to receive that trophy on honors day.  

In closing, I know wherever I land and whatever team I play for, I am giving my best and want to continue growing in soccer. In the words of my mentor Mbappe, "We must always set the bar high, otherwise, we do not progress."