To paraphrase what baseball legend Reggie Jackson once said, ‘‘He is the straw that stirs the drink.” The ‘‘he” in this instance is Gaithersburg resident Jonathan Guzman, a 15-year-old soccer prodigy who has proven to be one of the best players at his age in the country.
Nothing can stop him on the soccer pitch, other than himself.
It’s been an up-and-down year for ‘‘Goose”, a star striker for the defending national-champion U-15 Baltimore Casa Mia Bays. After last July, when he earned himself the Golden Boot Award (given to the tournament’s top player) for his four-day performance at the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships in Frisco, Texas, it took awhile to regain the magic from last summer. From the academic ineligibility, which kept him off the Quince Orchard boys soccer team last fall, to the weight gain that Bays head coach Steve Nichols joked ‘‘made him look like he’d been at the buffet table for six months,” Guzman hadn’t looked like his typical game-changing self for a long time. But in leading the Bays back to Nationals at the Region I qualifier in Portland, Maine late last month, Guzman helped Casa Mia outscore five opponents by a combined 23-2.
He is officially back.
‘‘Jon’s the best youth player in our country for club soccer,” said Nichols. ‘‘It’s been an interesting year for him — unfortunately being ineligible for high-school soccer and just sitting around not playing hurt. Then honestly it was a bad spring but right before we went to Regionals, we locked him in for three weeks of training, five times a week. He got fit and he was unbelievable again, same old Goose. If he wasn’t involved in every goal, I’d be surprised.
‘‘He knows he’s good — it’s not a secret. It’s all fitness with him.”
Guzman has always been a thick-bodied forward with good speed and strength, but his conditioning became a problem not long after his performance at the 2007 Nationals. The tournament ended on July 29, and he did not play competitively again until late November, when the Bays began their U.S. Youth Soccer National League schedule, in which they faced the country’s top six other teams in their age group.
In the fall, Guzman had been invited into the prestigious U.S. Soccer Under-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla. He would have been one of 40 players on the U-17 National Team, but turned the offer down.
‘‘It was the big break after Nationals that did it,” said Guzman. ‘‘I was kind of just chilling. But I definitely know I have to do my best and work harder. I’ve been running on my own and I feel like everything’s on point right now.”
That an out-of-shape Guzman still managed to lead the league in scoring during the fall (five goals by the end of 2007, no one else had more than three) is a testament to his raw natural tools. His skills were validated even further earlier this month when he was not only named to the Adidas Elite Soccer Program (ESP), an Olympic Developmental Program which features 125 of the nation’s top youth players. In a camp filled with 16- and 17-year-old athletes, the just-turned-15 Guzman was named to the 18-man ESP All-Star Team.
The praise given him by Nichols is significant because the Bays have featured great players in their program’s history. Nichols, the 2008 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Coach of the Year, has coached national champions in each of the last five years, and has seen his share of great players. He mentored former Bay and current starting Maryland Terrapin midfielder Rodney Wallace (2007 Bullis grad). Also the head coach at McDonogh School, Nichols has coached arguably the best high-school player in the country, Chris Agorsor (incoming University Virginia freshman), at McDonogh and the U-18 Bays Academy squad. He feels that ‘‘Chris is just a freak of nature danger-wise, but Goose could be a better player.”
Bays assistant coach Brandon Quaranta believes Guzman’s future lies in the professional ranks, if he wants it badly enough.
‘‘I’m willing to go out there and say he’s the absolute best player in the country at his age,” said Quaranta. ‘‘He’s definitely the kind of kid that not only has the talent to become a pro, but it might be the best avenue for him. You assess situations with players differently. Some players in older groups, you think about what colleges they might go to. Then in cases like with Goose, some of those schools are probably not an option because of his grades, so they might want to go the professional route. Fortunately for him, he’s talented enough to maybe do that, but he’s going to have to continue to develop on the field and in the classroom too, if he wants to [maximize] his opportunities.”
So the future is now for Guzman. About to enter his junior year in high school, he plans to transfer to Gaithersburg and play for current Trojans head coach Keith Bauer, who coached him on his Forest Oak Middle School team.
The future could be bright, but he has some self-imposed obstacles he’s working to overcome. For now, his commitment lies with the Bays, who he’s hoping to help to a second straight national title later this month.
Should he play like the Jonathan Guzman of the 2008 Regionals, another title and individual honors would seem fit, pun intended.
‘‘I just feel good right now — I’m just ready,” Guzman said. ‘‘I’m just thinking about winning it again, getting the Golden Boot again.”
