Senior Jared Weber has been selected as the Athlete of the Issue. Weber is a two-sport athlete and a member of Justice High School’s varsity basket­ball and soccer teams, although soccer is his primary sport. Weber is a commit­ted and hard-work­ing athlete, and is a role model for his team­mates. Weber hopes to have a great final season of High School soccer this spring. 

Weber’s friends and team­mates on the soccer team respect him as a friend and as a player. Senior soccer team­mate Jack­son Ross has known Weber since elemen­tary school and describes Weber’s role on the team as “an asset and he serves as a leader.” Ross went on to say that “[Weber] is an offen­sive threat.”

Both Ross and Weber share their favorite memory while being on the Justice soccer team; The National District Cham­pi­onship win in the spring of 2021 during their sopho­more year. Over the course of 12 games, the team had a record of six wins, four ties, and only two losses. 

During the winter season, Weber plays as the point guard on the varsity basket­ball team. “He’s the leader [of the team] and the exten­sion of the coach. A coach speaks to his team through his point guard.” said head basket­ball Coach John Wiley. “The point guard leads the pack. Jared was an excel­lent leader.” 

Weber’s char­ac­ter was greatly valued on the team by both coaches and team­mates. “[Weber] is some­one who will bring every­one along the right path, and pull them back if they go astray,” said Wiley. However, Weber could not complete his basket­ball season, as he was play­ing club soccer and planned to continue soccer through­out college. 

Weber’s club soccer team, the Arling­ton Soccer Asso­ci­a­tion, granted him oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve before play­ing college soccer. Despite a vari­ety of offers, Weber commit­ted to Amer­i­can Univer­sity, a Divi­sion I school for soccer located in Wash­ing­ton D.C. Weber chose Amer­i­can because they contin­u­ously showed inter­est in him as a player. 

Beyond college soccer, Weber already has his goals set. “Hope­fully after college I can get an offer from a team and play profes­sional soccer in Europe.”