ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Jake Bokorney

Jake Bokorney has been playing soccer since the age of 4 and cannot imagine his life without the sport. Bokorney loves soccer so much that he plays not only for Cardinal Mooney High School’s team, for which he is a captain, but he also plays on the U17 FC Sarasota Soccer team, the team that recently won the Sun Bowl. Watch video below!

What is your favorite thing about soccer?
The thing I like most about soccer is how you’re always moving and there’s not much standing around waiting for the play to start. You kind of get to think on your toes and be really creative.

Who is your favorite soccer player?
My favorite soccer player right now is Cristiano Ronaldo, because of how creative he is with the ball.

What is a misconception people have about soccer?
People usually think soccer is usually for like the weaker (people), because we don’t have to wear pads and it’s not a full-contact sport like football. But you can’t play it with pads, and there are a lot of injuries that people just don’t see.

Any goals before you graduate?
One of my main goals before I graduate is to win districts for my high school and maybe go onto regional and see how far we can get in there, because in all my years we still haven’t won districts. We’ve gone to the finals twice and lost in PKs (penalty kicks), and I just really want to win now.

How about plans for the future?
In the future I’m hoping to play for college, hopefully a D1 (Division 1) school and then from there just kind of see where it takes me.

Contact Rachel S. O’Hara at [email protected]