SGF Soccer

Southwest Missouri's Soccer Resource

Jack Jewsbury Enters 10th Year in MLS

UPDATE – as Jack noted in a tweet, its actually his 11th season of play!

Jackie, as he’s fondly called here in Springfield, was drafted in the fifth round (43rd overall) by Kansas City in the 2003 MLS SuperDraft. He’s beginning his 10th season as a pro in Major League Soccer having played in 259 games, starting 205 of them, 63 of them in a Portland uniform in the two years since he was traded by Sporting KC.

He made his 2013 season debut March 16, starting and playing 70 minutes of a 1-1 draw against Seattle, after sustaining a hamstring injury that kept him out most of preseason. He step on the pitch again Saturday for the Timbers, playing a new role yet again in a career that has been defined by a willingness to do whatever the team needs.

Portland at Colorado
Saturday March 30, 5:00 PM CDT
at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park

Jack recently joined Twitter, you can follow Jack on Twitter. I’m proud to saying he follows SGFsoccer (do you?) as well as Kickapoo Soccer and Buddy Coulter, a former Club teammate and Glendale foe of his.

He’s got 1260 followers, but glancing at the list doesn’t show many Springfield fans. There have to be 100 soccer players here who want to become the second Springfield native to reach the pros, aren’t there? Let’s follow Jackie and remind him of the fans he has here in his hometown. Use the hashtag #JackSGFtoRCTID to let him know you are a hometown fan!

Here’s more on Jack’s new role for Portland. Go Timbers!

Jack Jewsbury’s new duties: “The ideal role for him at this point”

There were plenty of questions surrounding Jack Jewsbury heading into 2013.

The veteran midfielder – the Portland Timbers’ captain the past two seasons and club’s only MLS All-Star selection from their inaugural year – had missed most of the preseason with a hamstring tear. The injury and return to fitness prevented him from playing in Portland’s first two games.

Meanwhile, newly-acquired midfielder Will Johnson was named the team’s on-field captain while Jewsbury was tabbed “club captain,” a distinction new head coach Caleb Porter said is often reserved for esteemed veterans. It was easy to see Jewsbury’s role on the pitch being significantly diminished in his 10th MLS season.

That was, at least, before Saturday’s 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders. Jewsbury got his first start of the season and played a crucial role as a defensive midfielder. READ MORE

I first interviewed Jack in January 2006, as I entered my second year of covering the game in Springfield.

In 1998, as a senior, he scored a state-record 59 goals in 27 games, and his career total of 124 goals is third in state history.

Jackie started 79 games for the Billikens, scoring 38 goals including 13 game-winners. One of his biggest goals was the winner in the NCAA second round against New Mexico his senior year, when he was a second team All-America and first team all-Conference USA. Jackie was the Conference USA player of the year his sophomore year of 2000, leading the Billikens in scoring with 31 points. That year, he scored a hat trick against South Florida, and beat Rutgers with a header in overtime. He also had 25 career assists, for a total of 101 points. He was inducted into the SLU Hall of Fame in February 2011.

He appeared in two games (1 start) that year as a rookie. He started in the 2004 MLS Cup, in which the Wizards fell to D.C. United, while also being part of the 2004 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament, leading Kansas City to the U.S. Open Cup title with a 1-0 win over Chicago. He also started and played the full 90 in a 2006 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup loss to Chicago.

He joined the Timbers in 2011 following a trade from Sporting Kansas City. Named the club’s captain by head coach John Spencer on March 11, Jack went on to set new career marks in points (22), goals (7) and assists (8). He became the Timbers’ first MLS All-Star when he was selected to represent MLS in the AT&T 2011 MLS All-Star Game against Manchester United on July 27 at Red Bull Arena.

Jack followed that up in 2012 by finishing second on the team in games played (32), minutes played (2,765) and tied for third in scoring with 10 points from three goals and four assists.

Jack’s birthday is April 13th. The Wizards played an exhibition game against Missouri State on his 25th birthday in 2006, maybe we can come up with another Twitter hashtag event for his 32nd birthday, the day before Portland plays San Jose on national TV (NBC Sports). Hopefully we can get close to matching his daughter’s enthusiasm for the game and her father…