In all sports, there are certain players who can just take over a game.
The kind of athlete where fans don’t need to understand the X’s and O’s to know something great is about to happen when the puck is on their stick or the ball is at their feet.
Foothills Women’s Football Club midfielder Mya Jones is one of them.
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While Calgary’s soccer community knows this, the coaches say it’s about time the rest of the country paid attention.
“She is one of the most exciting dynamic attacking players in the country,” said Foothills WFC Head Coach Lee Tucker. “I don’t mean Calgary and Alberta, I mean Canada. This girl needs a chance.”
Jones leads Foothills WFC with six goals in seven games this season, including a hat-trick in a dominant win over St. Albert’s Impact FC on July 3.
During the school year, she dazzled in strong campaigns with the University of Memphis Tigers, winning the 2021 conference Midfielder of the Year award along with her win as the 2019 conference Rookie of the Year.
While her main focus right now is the United Women’s Soccer League and her varsity team, Team Canada will always be on her radar.
“I’m really starting to become more of an attacking threat, looking to score more goals,” Jones said. “I’m going to keep playing and doing what I’m doing. I enjoy football, I love football, so if one day I get that chance then that would be fantastic.”
He previously represented Team Canada at the U20, U17 and U15 levels and captured gold at the CONCACAF Championship in 2014.
Now 20 years old, Jones’s next step would be to join the big team and play alongside players she admires like Janine Beckie, Jessie Fleming and of course the GOAT: Christine Sinclair.
“It’s a great atmosphere,” Jones added. “It’s very competitive, it’s new people coming in and out all the time, so it’s hard to get in there. Hopefully, I’ll eventually get a chance with the full national team.”
At the UWS, the second tier of the U.S. soccer pyramid behind the National Women’s Soccer League, Jones already faces NCAA stars, former pros and former national team members.
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With no professional women’s league in Canada, it’s essentially the highest level you can play at.
“She’s always had the ability, she’s always been the ‘prospect’ and the ‘potential,'” Tucker added. Now we’re just looking at it. Even if she gets that opportunity, she’s going to have to go and prove it and get into that environment and that process starts all over again.”
Jones is heading to Tennessee to prepare for her senior NCAA season with the Tigers and hopes to rejoin her Foothills teammates for the UWS National Championship later this month.
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