Nov. 5, 2004
By Adam Zundell
Maryland Media Relations
Recruiting an athlete is like predicting the weather: you're never 100 percent sure what you're going to get until it finally arrives. As a high school senior, Jason Garey was dark, billowing storm clouds scoring an insane 73 goals, yet most college coaches refused to predict a drop of rain. He was the Louisiana Player of the Year, went to camps around the country, sent highlight films, but often got the response that he "wasn't the type of player that they were looking for." Apparently, some colleges weren't looking for a player who could find the back of the net like a mouse sniffing around for cheese.
Granted, Louisiana isn't exactly a hotbed for soccer prospects, but recruiting comes down to one simple question: Can the kid play? Forget about who the competition is, the awards, the national teams; Can the kid play? Jason Garey knew he could play, as did Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski. Now, they're letting the country in on their little secret.
Soccer hadn't really migrated into the bayou when Garey was growing up. His dad Rick built goals out of plastic pipes and gill netting - the soccer version of a peach basket and a leather ball -- so that Jason could practice in the backyard. There was no youth league at the time, so his parents got that started as well.
So even though Garey grew up terrorizing the competition, college coaches weren't making the trip to Gonzalez, La. It took the help of a name familiar to the Maryland soccer program to help Garey get on major colleges' radars.
"Scott Buete's older brother, Gary, came down and took over the Baton Rouge Soccer Club, and that was huge for me," Garey says. "He taught me all about the college selection process and how to try for scholarships. I would always get to practice an hour early and we would work on shooting."
Through the Buete connection, Garey was introduced to the Terrapin soccer program. The Terps were interested from the start, with Cirovski having a reputation for snagging top-quality players with, as he phrases it, "short resumes." That interest went a long way with Garey.
"Maryland was the only school that was there from the beginning and kept coming to see me," Garey says. "I wasn't their top recruit, but they still showed that they wanted me. I remember them [Cirovski and former assistant Jeff Rohrman] calling me after they had trouble scoring and got beat by Clemson, they told me, `We need a forward. We need you to come in.'
"It's not about what your resume says before college, it's about what you do when you get here," Garey adds about others' evaluation of him.
Since his arrival in College Park, all he is done is score goals. Garey is a pesky forward that is constantly harassing defenses into mistakes. He won't overwhelm you with his footwork or try to make you miss with six moves, but when the game is over, more often than not, he's done his damage.
"A lot of the goals I get from hard work," Garey says. "I'm not a tricky player, I'm a direct player. I need people to get me the ball and good service from the midfielders for me to be successful, and when I get those good balls, I just try to do my job which is to finish."
Playing with a Louisiana-sized chip on his shoulder, Garey works just as hard off the field as he does trying to score a goal. He is one of the top students on the team, maintaining a 3.4 GPA in finance.
"It's one of the hardest things I've had to do, and it's one of the most rewarding," Garey says of balancing soccer and classwork. "It's tough, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I think it builds character. I think work ethic carries over into everything I do. I couldn't imagine being a regular student."
An aspiring financial advisor, Garey will stick to the green on the soccer field for now. As the leading scorer for one of the nation's top programs, Garey still sees room for improvement.
"I've always had a problem holding the ball and playing with my back to the goal, I give the ball away too easily sometimes and my touch isn't as good when there is a lot of pressure on me," he admits, making it sound as if another goal might never come his way.
But Jason Garey isn't into the prediction business. He'll leave that to weathermen and college coaches.
