With almost every game, Jesse Sharp is rewriting the Warsaw Community High School boys soccer records.
Playing only two-and-half full years of high school soccer, injuries have slowed Sharp, but not stopped him.Going into tonight's game at Goshen, the senior forward has the school record in career goals (41) and career assists (24), which directly lead to his career record in points (104).
"Jesse is probably one of the first players I've had in my time at Warsaw, which is nine years, that is a pure striker," Warsaw boys soccer coach Scott Bauer said. "I've had other guys that can score, but not a pure scorer like he is."
Among Bauer's other scorers in the past were Joel Popenfoose, Bryan Kolbe, Nate Salsgiver and Jake Rogers, the latter holding the previous career goals and points records, with 38 and 94, respectively.
According to Bauer, what separates Sharp from his other scorers is his innate ability to not only get to the ball, but also do something with it.
"Once he's around the net, he has the ability to make something out of almost nothing," he said. "If he's given the slightest window, he can create something with it."
Sharp's prowess on the soccer field can be credited to a lifelong affair with the sport.
"I began playing with my brothers Jeremy and Jordan," Sharp said. "We were always playing in the backyard, so I guess I've been playing since I was 4 or 5 years old."
Since that time, Sharp's only break away from the game may have come in the past year, when he was sidelined after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament in the first match of his junior season. The injury sidelined Sharp for the entire season, only allowing him to watch as his squad finished the year at 8-6-4, falling in the first game of sectional play.
"He still came to almost all the training sessions," Bauer said. "Each match was tough for him to not be playing. It's has to be particularly tough when you're so good at what you do. But he still supported the guys during a pretty tough season."
Fresh off a sophomore season that saw him set a single-season Warsaw record for points (48) and assists (14), the season-ending injury was a tough pill to swallow for Sharp.
"It was not good," he said. "At first, I didn't know what to do because I had never been hurt before. Then I had to sit out every game, which was tough."
After rehabilitating the knee, Sharp began playing again this summer with his Fort Wayne Super Y team. During a competition in Chicago, Sharp injured his medial collateral ligament, which wasn't as serious as his ACL setback.
"I thought it was my ACL again, at first," Sharp said of his MCL injury, which didn't require surgery. "After I got my MRI, I found out it wasn't, so I was happy to be able to play."
Due to the MCL injury, Sharp did sit out the first two games of this season, but returned for the Aug. 28 game in Plymouth.
Showing that he wasn't slowed too much by the neither the ACL or MCL injuries, Sharp wasted little time in getting back into the scoring column.
"One of the best moments of my coaching career was seeing Jesse score that first goal, and the look on his face and the guys chasing him around," Bauer said of the Sharp goal in the 76th minute of the match. "It was an emotional moment for a lot of people there. And a few of the coaches as well."
To further enforce the fact that he was back, Sharp backed his first goal with another in the same minute. The two-goal game is one that Sharp won't forget, but it's also one that almost didn't happen
"I didn't even know if I'd be able to play in the game," he said. "My brace had not come, but it arrived earlier in the day."
To this point, Sharp has dealt with the new accessory on his knee, scoring 10 goals and posting three assists.
"I don't really think about it too much," he said. "It slows me down a little bit, but not too much."
He may be able to play without the brace, but with soccer aspirations extending past high school, it's not going anywhere for the time being.
"He's quicker and faster without it, but it's more important to not hurt it again," Bauer said. "We feel better with him having it on and it will help him be rewarded for the hard work he's put in."
That reward may be a scholarship to play at a Division-I program.
"I'm really looking at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Louisville," Sharp said. "Those are the big schools I'm looking at now. I don't really see a downside to either one. They both play in the Big East. I'm excited."
A commitment to Cincinnati would send him to the same school as Rogers, who is currently a kicker on the Cincinnati Bearcats football team.
So a commitment to Cincinnati would put Sharp in a familiar situation, attending a school where Rogers is a senior and he's a freshman.
In Sharp's freshman year at Warsaw, he was the young one on a 12-5-4 team that won a sectional championship. Along the way, the frosh scored 14 goals, en route to 33 total points that year.
"My freshman year with Jake Rogers, Austin Evans and a lot of other good players was a good year," Sharp said.
"Having those guys around made it easier on me," he added.
With Rogers and Evans gone during his sophomore year, Sharp elevated his game, helping the Tigers to a 16-2-2 mark, winning the Northern Lakes Conference title and another sectional crown. Individually, Sharp set the single-season points record with 48, while his 14 assists were also a single-season record at Warsaw.
"He has the ability to spread it around," Bauer said. "He really gets other people involved in the action. He gets nearly as much joy with an assist as he does with scoring a goal of his own."
Perhaps it's that sharing attitude that has kept him from gaining the ire of opposing players.
"He's so likeable and unassuming," Bauer said of Sharp. "You might think he'd get some jealousy from others, but he doesn't because of who he is."
As a senior, Sharp and the rest of the Tigers are off to a 10-1-2 record and a No. 12 state ranking, giving them hopes of a productive postseason.
"We've got some nice players around Jesse," Bauer said. "He's by far not the only talented player we have. They are all very important to what we do."
And with the comradery the guys seem to have with each other, this year may turn out to a special one.
"All the guys are awesome and fun to be with," Sharp said. "That's part of why we're doing so well."
A long postseason run would seem to be fitting for a player that Bauer took notice of back when Sharp was still in middle school.
"When he was in eight grade, I coached the Warsaw soccer club, but he played mostly with the Fort Wayne team," Bauer said. "So we'd get him as a guest player, and that allowed me to see him play. You could see at the eighth grade level that there was something special with this young player."
