Soccer season may have ended in the fall, however, some of the Jonathan Alder athletes are already getting back into training and games on club teams.  Club teams are teams not affiliated with a school and have players from several different high schools. Some of the teams near J.A. are Club Ohio, Ohio Premier Soccer Club, and FC42.  These teams give players a chance to keep playing and improving during the school off season.

Players will spend many evenings and weekends training for their seasons, as well as playing in a league the teams will also go to tournaments around Ohio or even the country.

Freshman Garrett Ferguson is in an unusual predicament because his club coach is a coach at J.A., Craig Devine.  Devine has been coaching with FC42 since 2016, and before then he was the head athletic trainer for the Columbus Crew from 2000-2005 and 2014-2016.

This year, Devine is coaching a few players from Jonathan Alder, including Ferguson, who’s excited for this upcoming season.  Ferguson said, “It’s an interesting experience playing on a club team with the same coach as my school team. It’s a good transition straight into the same kind of learning process.  It also helps you build off of what you learned during the school season because the same kind of expectations and practices are the same. Devine is the best coach that I have ever had and it’s beneficial to learn from him in between seasons.”

Soccer is a really competitive sport, and club soccer can give players the extra edge to rise above the competition.