Quiet and reserved, rarely letting on with her mouth how dangerous she is with her feet, Jordan Sosa doesn’t reflect her coach’s image of how most of soccer’s top scorers conduct themselves on the field.
“She’s one of those that... she just goes about her business, and does her job, and doesn’t say much,” Emporia High coach John Decker said. “Which is fine. It’s just, a lot of times when you think of players that score a lot, they’re pretty intense people, I guess. And she doesn’t come off that way when you just talk to her.”
The Spartans don’t need Sosa to say much. They need her to score and help lead their offensive attack, and Sosa, a junior coming off a selection to the All-State first team last season, is doing so. She’s scored three of Emporia’s six goals this season and also notched a shootout goal to help the Spartans beat Wichita South in the championship game of the Titan Classic; shootout goals don’t count toward the official statistics. She also has one assist.
And still, there’s a sense that EHS fans haven’t yet seen the best of what Sosa could deliver this year. She can score in bunches, as she did last season when she put up a hat trick against Topeka West for a 3-0 win, then scored four goals the very next night in a 10-0 blowout of Highland Park.
In this year’s second round of the Titan Classic, Sosa did get both of the Spartans’ goals in their 2-1 win over Derby. But she hasn’t had a truly explosive game yet, and EHS (3-3) was shut out in the first two games of its current three-game losing streak.
“I need to be a lot more aggressive than I have been so far this year, and just work harder,” Sosa said.
That’s something Decker prodded her about after the Spartans lost at Wichita East last Friday. He said that in that 1-0 defeat, she simply wasn’t playing up to her ability level, neglecting several times to challenge for balls she should have gone for.
“It bothered her, but she came back Monday and she was ready to practice and ready to play,” Decker said. “And we talked again (Tuesday) night after the game (at Manhattan), and I asked her, I said, ‘Do you see the difference in yourself tonight as compared to the last one?’ And she did.
“Sometimes, as a player, it’s really hard to hear that from a coach. But she’s able to step back from situations and give it some time and look at it objectively.”
Sosa’s skin is thick enough to hear criticism like that and use it to her advantage.
“Sometimes, it gets to me,” she said. “I’m kind of a sensitive person. But I’ll take it and put it to work on the field.”
Decker cites Sosa’s skills with the ball as her best attribute, and it’s a good bet she’ll continue to augment that with her regained aggressiveness as the Spartans travel to Junction City tonight and attempt to start a new winning streak. If she stays on the attack, more All-State recognition could be in reach for Sosa. She continues to impress one particularly experienced observer of her soccer skills — her sister, sophomore midfielder/defender Bailey Sosa.
“But she’s always impressed me,” Bailey said. “I’ve played with her so long that I guess I get kind of used to it. She is a really good player — she works hard at practice, and that definitely reflects onto the field.”
While Jordan leads more by example than by exuberance, there are some times when she won’t be as quiet as she is known for. They may not be as frequent as the times she puts the ball in the back of the net, but they’re worth watching for.
“When we’re down, I just try to get everybody up,” Jordan said. “And even if I don’t feel good about the whole situation about the game, or how we’re playing, I’ve just gotta get everyone pumped up.”