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Former Statesville High student to compete with U.S. U-17 soccer team
Photo courtesy of Jared Watts
Statesville native Jared Watts, shown here in an international game against Gambia, will travel to Nigeria this week to compete for the United States in the U-17 World Cup
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Published: October 19, 2009
Jared Watts has played soccer in Mexico, where 6,000 locals showed up for the sole purpose of rooting against him.
They cussed him in Spanish and then booed when the American national anthem blared over the loudspeaker.
He's also played against Brazil, Russia and Turkey at their home stadiums. The games were broadcast on national television, and the stadiums were shaking with noise.
"It was pretty wild," Jared said.
To find the beginning of Jared Watts' soccer roots, though, you have to dig deeper into the past.
Just peer back to his childhood, into the backyard of his Statesville home where he used to play soccer against older brothers Michael and Clark for hours and hours.
"You can probably imagine how that worked," said Steve Watts, father of the three Watts brothers. "Jared took the beatings in those early soccer battles. That's the way it works in most families, with the youngest one taking the beatings early, and our family was no different."
At a young age, those are the battles that helped define Jared, who has grown up in Statesville.
Yes, he lost against his older brothers. All the time, actually.
But he learned to compete, to play at a higher level. It's clearly paid off.
"Oh I never beat them," Jared said with a chuckle.
"But I always went out there anyways. It helped me become better, helped me get to where I am today."
Where he is today is impressive — a member of the national United States Under-17 team,
Even more impressive is where he'll be Tuesday — on an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean, on the way to play in the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria.
"I've been down in Florida, coming into my third year, and this is what we've worked for," Jared said. "It's why we've gotten up early, lifted weights early ... when you play soccer, this is what you dream about.
"I'm treating it like a big adventure."
Watts is in Florida with the rest of the U-17 team at IMG Soccer Academy.
It's a full-time residency for those who attend area prep school Bradenton Academy.
He was selected to the team after a magnificent freshman year at Statesville, and several previous years of building his name up on a nationwide level.
"We were very pleased when we heard he had been selected," Steve Watts said. "Of course, that meant he was going to Florida, but it wasn't a tough decision as a parent because that's the premier place in soccer. It was a great opportunity for him."
Watts and the rest his U-17 team have a pretty special opportunity over the next few weeks.
The set-up for the U-17 World Cup is practically a mirror image of the official version.
A total of 24 teams qualified, and they are clumped into six groups of four teams.
Each country plays three matches against the other teams in its group.
The top two finishers in each group move into the second stage, and four other third-place finishers join them in a 16-country bracket.
The U.S. is in a group with Spain, Malawai and the United Arab Emirates.
Watts and the Americans open play Oct. 26 against Spain, one of the tournament favorites.
"They're tough," Watts said. "Soccer is such a cultural thing. That's their livelihood, that's how they're going to make it. It's just different in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, some of those countries."
The United States is known for having one of the best, most consistent U-17 programs. It's the only country in the world to qualify for every World Cup since the inception in 1985 and has had current American stars Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson and DaMarcus Beasley.
Watts, who has committed to play at Wake Forest University next year, still has several connections to the area.
His girlfriend is a senior at Statesville High. He has family in town, and he still follows Statesville's soccer team.
After representing Statesville for nearly three years, though, Watts departs to Africa with a much weighter representation.
The weight of a country.
It's a load he's willing to carry.
"Every time you put on that national team jersey, you have that patch on your shirt over your heart, it's something special that not many people get to experience," Jared said. "You get to represent millions of people. It's the greatest country, and you want to do your best to represent them. You know, people are fighting for us. My brother (Michael) is going to go into the military, and you just do it for people like that and people that you really care about."
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