Joseph Jackson '18 Recruiting Profile

My dad says I was kicking a soccer ball as soon as I could learn to walk. I love soccer and have played all my life. We have season tickets to Real Salt Lake and it just seems like I am either playing, studying or watching soccer in my free time outside of school and studies.

(UPDATE)    Named to Utah All State Team as Honorable Mention

(UPDATE) Named Defensive Player of the Year for Wasatch High School

(UPDATE) Just finished club season leading our team with 22 Assists and a Team Championship.

I have been on a competition soccer club team every year since I was 9 years old. I have led my team in either assists or goals every single season and every single tournament - sometimes leading both in goals and assists but I absolutely love getting assists more. As a sophomore at Wasatch High School in Utah - I played Varsity, lettered on the Varsity team and played a lot of minutes including a majority of minutes in the playoffs. I also played on the JV team leading that team in both goals and assists as well.  It is exciting getting ready for summer tournaments right now with my club team and our fall season and then back to the Varsity team in the Spring.

I am a team player - I truly love to make the pass that leads to the goal or leads to a nice shot on goal. I will give everything I have on both offense and defense. My strengths are my speed (my dad was a college sprinter at the University of Utah) and my stamina (I cross country ski for Soldier Hollow Ski Team in Midway, Utah in the Winter).  I like to watch the greats make moves and then practice those over and over outside.

I am very serious about being a good person, no drinking, no smoking, eating healthy and treating others with respect. I have concentrated on my grades and school classes a lot and with some great help from teachers I have seen my grades increase from my freshman year at 3.3 GPA to 3.7 GPA during my sophomore year and I plan on continuing that focus. My dad asks if it is a lot more fun to see a bunch of A's on my report cards instead of B's and I agree. My Dad achieved 2 Master's Degrees from the University of Minnesota and did his undergraduate degree at the University of Utah while he was on the college track team as a sprinter. My mom is a registered nurse. I have an older brother who has already graduated from college with a degree in business and is a professional road bike racer on the Shimano team, another older brother who is in college right now and then an older sister who is studying in Berlin, Germany right now. I have one younger brother who loves soccer as much as I do.

To show my commitment to soccer - I have spent several weeks the last few years at the Grande Sports Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona. Also, I was just notified by Stoke City Academy that I have been invited to their camp in Rome, Georgia as a selected player by invitation only to try out for their academy - they had coaches and trainers in Utah in June this year selecting players to go back to this invitation only camp. But what I really want is to go to college and get my college education and to play soccer as my goals.

Other activities - I just have to finish my actual Eagle Project and then I will have my Eagle in the Boy Scouts of America. I am active in my church organization.

Thank you for considering me for your program,

Joseph Jackson