Part Two of Four – Generation Next: Jason Olivo – Freshman GHS
Soccer Player
Gilroy boys soccer coach Brian Hall is always skeptical about moving freshmen up to varsity.
But Jason Olivo was an exception.
Hall recalls watching the young player at varsity tryouts this fall and seeing something special.
“I looked at (head coach Armando) Padilla and said, ‘We’ve got something here.'”
As a starting forward, Olivo has lived up to his billing. The freshman leads the Mustangs in scoring with five goals in seven games.
The stats are nice, but it’s the potential Hall sees in Olivo that is the real story. Last season, the Mustang soccer program saw the successful career of midfielder Alfonso Motagalvan culminate with the senior becoming Gilroy’s first-ever CCS Player of the Year and Division I recruit. Motagalvan recently finished up his freshman year campaign with UC-Santa Barbara. Hall, also an international soccer referee, believes Olivo could be in the same position four years from now.
“Oh yeah, he has total potential,” he said, without hesitation.
As far as raw talent, Olivo might have more than Motagalvan did coming into the Gilroy program.
“He’s got speed, he’s got most of the skills,” Hall said. “Now, can you imagine if (his tactical skill) can match that? That’s big. He’s just got to find a way to keep challenging himself.”
Being a natural at a sport isn’t anything new to Olivo. He was named Athlete of the Year as an eighth grader at South Valley Middle School last year where he participated in “mostly everything” – from wresting to basketball to cross country to track.
Olivo’s natural speed made him an especially successful runner.
“At Rucker (Elementary), we had a Turkey Trot around the school and I always used to come in first in that,” Olivo remembered. “In middle school in cross country and track, I was either first or second.”
But Olivo really excelled at soccer, a sport he began playing at nine years old when his grandfather began bringing the youngster and his cousins to play daily at Ramsey Park in Watsonville. Jason, who moved to Gilroy at five years old, wasn’t his family’s first soccer star. That honor belongs to his older sister, Gilroy senior forward Joann Pedroza, the leading scorer on the Mustang girls soccer team.
The same speed that made Olivo a threat on the track is also his most effective weapon on the soccer pitch – even at the varsity level. There have been many times, like during the Mustangs’ TCAL opener against San Benito, when the freshman has accelerated down the sideline right past multiple defenders only to be left open in front of the goal to make a scoring threat. Hall said Olivo is learning to make better runs toward the goal, which makes him a great target for balls served from midfield. But while Olivo can do great things with the ball in front of the goal, he’s quick to credit his teammates with putting him in those positions.
“Why I have this many goals is not because of me,” Olivo said. “It’s because of the team.”
To his teammates, Olivo is known as a guy who likes to joke around and have fun. But once on the field, it’s all business.
In Hall’s eyes, the freshman has twice been the difference-maker in games this season, including a Homestead Cup game Nov. ?? against Monta Vista when Olivo scored the only two goals of the game – one being the first of his varsity career.
“The two goals for the win both because of him,” Hall said. “To me, that just shows his tenacity and his hunger for a goal. He doesn’t slow down. He doesn’t relax. That’s a big time killer instinct.”
And Olivo’s still got three more years.
