North Penn’s Jones relishes chance to train at Real Madrid
Presented the opportunity of a lifetime, one of the first things Josh Jones did was call his high school coach to apologize.
Jones, a junior midfielder on North Penn’s boys’ soccer team, was one of 32 players selected by Adidas from a national pool who got a chance to spend nine days training at Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid and scrimmaging several La Liga academy sides this past August. With the trip coinciding with the Knights’ preseason, Jones felt like he was shirking his responsibilities as a co-captain.
Jones can laugh about it now and the experience of seeing one of the best clubs in the world has helped him off to a great start this fall.
“I told him he didn’t have to apologize but he was going to have to run training when he got back,” Knights coach Paul Duddy said last week. “I said learn everything you can, then come back here and teach it to us.”
A 6-foot-4 midfielder, Jones is a three-year starter at North Penn where he has played several positions but settled in as a holding mid and target man this fall. He’s got his share of goals, many off headers on set pieces and provides a line of defense in front of the backs with his ability to win the ball in the air or on the ground.
Jones was nominated for the trip by his Ukranian Nationals club team and was selected from a large group of national candidates. While the Adidas sponsored group pulled from across the country, Jones had some local company with him.
Pennsbury’s electric Nyles Cayemitte, a senior who plays club soccer with Yardlely Makefield Soccer, was also part of the Generation Adidas Select squad. The whole select team got pretty tight in a short amount of time and Jones said he’s friends with pretty much everyone who went on the trip.
“It was insane, it was a lot different than playing over here,” Jones said. “It was so cool to see the facilities and all the great players. Over there, the game is a lot quicker and it gave me a taste of what the professional life is like.”
The select team trained at Real Madrid’s training complex for the first seven days, then played exhibition games against the academy teams of Leganes and Rayo Vallecano. Jones said the Real Madrid first team’s training sessions were blocked off but he did get a glimpse of forward Marco Asensio going through a physiotherapy session.
“They’re a lot more committed over there and soccer is all day, every day,” Jones said. “If you want to make it there, it takes a lot of hard work.”
While he was overseas, Jones was still in contact with his teammates at North Penn, texting Carter Houlihan and others almost every day. Even getting a chance to train at one of the top facilities in the entire world, Jones still couldn’t help but feel guilty he wasn’t back working out with his North Penn teammates.
“I felt really bad, I don’t like missing preseason because it sends a bad message that you can skip it,” Jones said. “I didn’t even know I was nominated until my club coach told me, so I was kind of in shock.”
SETTING THE TABLES
The Philadelphia Catholic League boys’ and girls’ soccer seasons are entering their final few weeks before playoffs but there’s still a lot to be determined in the standings.
On the girls’ side, prior to the results of Monday’s set of fixtures, Archbishop Ryan topped the table at 7-0. Trailing the Ragdolls and tied at 5-1 were defending PCL champion Lansdale Catholic and Archbishop Wood, with both teams’ sole loss coming to Ryan.
LC faced Conwell-Egan on the road Monday while Wood was at Bonner-Prendie on Monday. Wood visits Archbishop Carroll (4-3) on Thursday afternoon while LC will be at St. Hubert’s (4-3) the same day. The two rivals get their head-to-head clash on Oct. 7 at Lansdale Catholic.
The boys’ table is very intriguing heading into Tuesday’s set of matches. Archbishop Wood, the defending champion, holds the top spot with a 7-1-1 record heading into Tuesday’s PCL championship rematch with Roman Catholic at the United German Hungarian Club. The Vikings also host 7-1 La Salle on Friday in a very difficult week.
Recent La Salle-Wood meetings have come down to the slimmest margins, including Wood’s spot kick shootout win over La Salle in last year’s PCL semifinals, so there’s good reason to expect the same later this week.
La Salle finds itself tied for second with 7-1 Father Judge and 7-2 Roman while the defensively stout Lansdale Catholic is right behind at 6-1-1. LC hosts Judge on Tuesday afternoon and the Crusaders will hope their success in the back line holds up. The Crusaders and goalkeeper Kellan Ward have allowed just a single goal in PCL play, coming in their 1-0 loss to Roman last Tuesday.
PW IN FINE FORM
There aren’t many teams playing as well as the Plymouth Whitemarsh girls’ soccer team right now.
The Colonials have won five straight matches, four of them in SOL American play and have done it outscoring opponents 10-1. Now 8-3 overall, the surge has also vaulted PW to a 6-2 record in the American, moving the Colonials into a second place tie with Abington and just a point behind conference leader Hatboro-Horsham (6-1-1).
Fittingly, the highlight win of the five-match run was PW’s 2-0 defeat of the Hatters on Tuesday which was Hatboro-Horsham’s first loss of the season.
Defense has carried the day for the Colonials, with junior keeper Devon Skiles and defenders Ava Schreiber, Kaitlyn Flanagan, Gabby Cooper and Bella McNew working on the same page. The entire back line is made up of underclassmen and they contribute in the attack as well, with Schreiber scoring the lone goal in Thursday’s 1-0 win over Wissahickon.
Offensively, junior Max Leszczynski has helped fill the role vacated by Alyse Caffery (Shippensburg) graduating and the Colonials are gaining confidence scoring off set pieces.
This week, the Colonials have an away match at Springfield Twp on Wednesday and host Cheltenham on Friday.
ABINGTON’S NEW DAY
Last week was a difficult one for Abington’s girls’ soccer team.
The Ghosts played four matches in five days, winning the middle two in SOL American play but ending the week with a 6-2 setback to Neshaminy on Friday. Defensively, it’s been a struggle at times for Abington, one made more complicated with two backs getting injured in Friday’s loss but the Ghosts can score.
Even after graduating 11 seniors, the Ghosts have some quality pieces. One of them is just a freshman in center midfielder Maura Day, who scored on a terrific free kick for the first goal against Neshaminy.
“She’s excellent, she’s been a godsend and I can’t say enough good things about her,” Ghosts coach Rick Tompkins said. “She completes a higher percentage of passes than anybody on the team, she plays with composure, she hits a decent ball and she’s been consistent all season long. I hardly ever take her out.”
With last year’s state player of the year in Cam Lexow now at Virginia, Abington needed someone to step up as the advanced midfielder and Day has done a nice job with six goals and a team-best five assists on the season.
“She should be an all-league player,” Tompkins said.
Up top, Casey Touey has continued to score and currently has 13 goals entering the week but hasn’t had the easiest time doing it.
“She is frustrated but she doesn’t let that affect her play,” Tompkins said. “She gets beaten up and doesn’t always get the calls and gets annoyed when she doesn’t. But that’s a good thing and she’s a gamer.”
Tompkins also cited the play of center back Emily Friel, a natural outside back who moved to the middle to try and help shore up the defense.
“She’s really improved from last year to this year,” Tompkins said. “She’s in the middle for us, doing a pretty good job and gives us a lot of leadership. There are things here that are good but we have some holes.”
