“This girl needs an opportunity:” Calgary coaches say midfielder deserves Team Canada’s attention – Calgary | Globalnews.ca

In all sports, there are few players who can handle a game with ease.

The type of athlete where fans don’t need to understand X and O to know something spectacular, when the puck is on their stick, or the ball is at their feet.

Foothills Women’s Football Club midfielder Maya Jones is one of them.

While those in the Calgary football community know this, coaches say the time has come for the rest of the country to focus.

“He is one of the most exciting dynamic attacking players in the country,” said Foothills WFC head coach Lee Tucker. “I’m not talking about Calgary and Alberta, I mean Canada. This girl needs a chance.”

Jones led Foothills WFC this season with six goals in seven matches—including a hat-trick in a major victory over Impact FC in St. Albert’s on 3 July.

During the school year, he dazzled in strong campaigns with the University of Memphis Tigers, earning the 2021 Conference Midfielder of the Year award to go along with his 2019 Conference Rookie of the Year win.

While her primary 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 be an attacking threat, and want to score more goals,” Jones said. “I’ll just keep playing and doing what I’m doing. I’m enjoying football—I love soccer—so if one day I get that opportunity, that’s great.”

She 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’ next step will be to join the big squad and play alongside the players she admires: Jenny Becky, Jesse Fleming, and of course the Goat: Christine Sinclair.

“It’s a great environment,” Jones said. “It’s very competitive, it’s all the time new people are coming in and out, so it’s hard to get there. Hopefully I will eventually get a chance with the whole national team.”

In the UWS—the second tier of the US soccer pyramid behind the National Women’s Soccer League—Jones is already going up against NCAA stars, former professionals, and former national team members.

In Canada without a pro-female league, this is essentially the highest level it can play at.

“He’s always had potential, there’s always been ‘possibility’ and ‘potential,'” Tucker said. We are watching it now. Even if he gets that opportunity, he has to go and prove it and go into that environment and that process will start all over again.

Jones leaves for Tennessee to prepare for his senior NCAA season with the Tigers and is expected to reunite with his Foothills teammates for the UWS National Championship later this month.