Winner, winner: Jada Brown chooses College of St. Rose soccer

By Stan Hudy

MECHANICVILLE, N.Y. >> The College of St. Rose women’s soccer program has already proven that it is a winner, competing in the NCAA Division II Final Four this week and it looks to reload it’s talent as Mechanicville senior soccer standout Jada Brown made her college decision official Friday afternoon.

With friends, family, teammates and school officials packed into the high school café, Brown officially committed to the Capital Region soccer powerhouse during her signing ceremony.

“The coaching staff is absolutely incredible,” Jada Brown said. “It’s a great program. I met with them a couple of times and I just knew right then and there I wanted to be a part of that very successful program.”

With offers from Florida schools for her talents in all three sports, soccer, basketball and track, she gave up the warm weather to stay close to home.

“I was not thinking about staying home at all, but I realized we had a phenomenal program right in our backyard so why not stay,” Brown said. “I did have some offers for track and basketball that I was like iffy about. But then when St Rose came around I just saw the great success, how close it was to home and it was over by then.”

There was no one prouder or more relieved about her official commitment than her mom, Michele Brown.

“She’s got lots of offers between basketball, track and soccer and we were excited that she chose soccer and to stay local,” Michele Brown said. “Her dream was to go to Florida and we weren’t really excited about that so we’re very excited that she chose to stay local and stick with soccer.”

She was rooting for her daughter to stay in the Empire State versus committing to a Florida institution.

“I was nervous and I kept telling her ‘No’, but then I was like, I have to not say that because then she’s going to want to go all the more,” Michele Brown said. “But she does have family down there, so it wouldn’t have been so bad cause I, I’m known her dad and her dad’s side of the family is down there, but I’m thankful she’s staying local.”

She will be missed by the Red Raiders coaching staff.

“The first thing that comes to mind for Jada is that she’s just a natural leader and she doesn’t take for a minute her athletic ability,” Mechanicville cocoach Karl Gerstenberger said. “She worked at it every single year, it got better every single year of the soccer season, just got better and better.

“You don’t see that in people, they kind of like go ‘I’m good’ and they stop working at it, but Jada continued to work at it.”

Her decision to focus on the pitch was also applauded during the ceremony.

“She did all athletics a few years ago and then she did make a true commitment to soccer and she really never looked back,” Mechanicville co-coach Val D’Aloia said. “She started playing in the off-season seriously and just really put forth the effort that needed to be to get to this next level. So I couldn’t be any more proud of her.