Story by Rich Fisher, Correspondent
Shortly after the most glorious day of his soccer career, Jake Nerwinski recalled his darkest days.
The two time periods are what make him such a compelling, feel-good story.
On Jan. 13, Nerwinski was the seventh overall pick in the Major League Soccer Super Draft, chosen by the Vancouver Whitecaps. It was the culmination of a dream he thought might never happen during his junior year at Notre Dame High School, Lawrenceville.
The draft occurred on Friday the 13th. Fortunately for Nerwinski, he had used up most of his bad luck in soccer six years earlier.
Due to an extreme growth spurt as a junior, in which Jake sprouted eight inches, his body had trouble keeping up to its new proportions. Not just coordination-wise, but health-wise. After leading the Irish in assists as a freshman and in overall scoring as a sophomore, Nerwinski struggled through an injury-plagued junior season (but still performed well).
Things got worse in the spring and he could not play travel ball with his New Jersey Soccer Association 04 Developmental Academy team. That’s when college recruiters are at their most abundant, but with his body breaking down as he grew up, Jake was unable to impress them.
“That was one of the most difficult times in my life,” said Nerwinski, a member of St. Ann Parish, Lawrenceville. “Soccer is what I wanted to do and play in college. It was always my goal to play in a Division I soccer program. But here I was injured and not playing. At that point I didn’t believe it would happen. I wasn’t getting looked at and not a lot of schools could see what I could offer.”
When he finally healed, Nerwinski worked tirelessly. He was determined to be at his best as a senior in hopes some school might give a late look.
The effort produced a school-record 21 goals and 19 assists, along with All-State recognition and his fourth straight All-County berth. But it was a little late in the game and most of his scholarship overtures came from mid-major programs. The one high-profile school that “offered” was the University of Connecticut, telling Jake he could join the top-ranked Huskies as a walk-on with no scholarship.
Nerwinski and his parents, Kevin and Judith, weighed the options and Jake was confident in his abilities to get on the field in Storrs. Mom and dad were confident too, and wrote the tuition check.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Nerwinski went from a practice player in preseason to starting the final 15 games of his freshman year and every game thereafter. Playing as an attacking outside defender on the right side, he collected five goals and 17 assists while performing a lot of the dirty work that let the scorers enjoy the glamour.
Coach Ray Reid raved about Nerwinski’s intangibles, which earned him three All-American Athletic Conference berths.
“Ray loved the kid and I love the kid,” said Rutgers coach Dan Donigan, a former UConn standout. “I’m very happy for him and I’m proud of him. I know what it’s like to go up there and play the schedule they play every year. It’s a grind. He represented himself, Notre Dame and Mercer County very well.”
Donigan’s words came on the eve of the MLS Player Combine, to which Nerwinski was invited. That made him automatically eligible for the Super Draft and Jake went on to be one of the top performers that week in both testing and games.
His stock rose and his shock rose when Vancouver picked him within the first 25 minutes of the draft in Los Angeles’ Convention Center. A whirlwind carried him onto the stage, where he made a speech, then got whisked backstage to face more reporters than he’d ever seen in his life.
Five days later, more than 100 close friends, family members and former teammates celebrated his achievement at a going away party at Mercer Oaks Golf Course, West Windsor.
“I wasn’t able to catch it live, but I watched all the videos,” said former ND teammate Mike Tattory, a member of St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square. “I shot him a couple texts, busted his chops a little bit about the nerves he had on stage. But it was surreal watching him go through all that. He’s done a great job handling everything. With everything he’s done leading up to it, he deserves it. It was cool to see.”
“We both thought he was a very good player in high school but [the MLS] is not something you think about,” added Dean Stephan, another former teammate who is a member of St. Joseph Parish, Millstone. “It’s pretty amazing. It’s a little bit unreal, going from being on the same team as him to seeing him at the draft speaking in front of all those people. It’s kind of crazy to think we started at the same point. But we’re happy for him and wish him nothing but the best success.”
Also on hand at Mercer Oaks was former Irish coach Mike Perone, who coached Nerwinski’s father, his uncle Frank and several of his cousins. Perone watched Nerwinski go from a “shrimp” as a freshman to a huge presence in four years.
“I would never foresee Jake as an outside back playing in a professional league,” Perone said. “I thought Jake was an outside mid, maybe at a real good school. He just got so much more physical and bigger at Connecticut, and when he went to this combine he tore it up. He did the same thing when he went to
Connecticut.”
Nerwinski is currently in Wales at Vancouver’s preseason training camp, where he hopes to earn a starting berth.
“I think it’s kind of like college all over again,” Nerwinski said. “Coming in you’re not guaranteed anything.”
He realizes, however, no matter what happens this is a tremendous experience for him, if only for the places he gets to see.
“I’m going to Canada, I’m going to a beautiful city that a lot of people always talk about and want to live there,” he said. “I think it’s a cool experience. I’m going away from the norm. I need to get thermals, get a big winter jacket and everything.”
While everyone from Perone, to Donigan to Nerwinski himself feels that the training and conditioning Jake got at UConn was the key to getting drafted, Perone noted that the talent was always there.
“He’s just a good player,” Perone said. “He’s unselfish; he’s just the kind of kid you want on a team.
“The one thing me and Zig [assistant Ziggy Zegarski] did was criticize him a lot,” he added with a laugh. “I don’t think we taught him a whole lot of soccer, he did that on his own. But the one thing we did was keep him humble.”
When asked if Nerwinski is still humble, his former teammates could not resist.
“He’s definitely still humble,” Stephan said with a grin. “If he’s not humble, me and Mike will knock him back down a little bit.”
“He might be better at soccer,” Tattory added, “but in pool basketball and poker, we got him beat.”