Farewell tour

Have you heard the news? Jess is moving to Columbus this summer, which means that this season is her last with us. Starting now, she's on a farewell tour, but it's different from this one.

What's in Ohio that's worth leaving us for? A prestigious graduate program at Ohio State, that's what. She's going to study spatial analysis, much like Cynthia (our former forward now living in Costa Rica). This puts Jess back into a field she studied in undergrad. Although spatial analysis is primarily a physical geography discipline, it has really cool applications for things like mapping disease patterns.

We're going to miss her. Her departure is bittersweet. Bitter because we all know how important she is to the team. She's talented, reliable, and fun. Your captain recruited her in 2004 when he worked with her briefly at a government agency. Turns out she has the probably the best fundamental skills of any player on the team. She holds the ball against the strongest opponents and her line work is exemplary. (We recall Carlos once toasting her at Rio Grande: 'somehow, Jess, you always come up with the ball!'). She's uses all those skills to contribute to the offense - she has tallied the most points from goals and assists of any Goleros woman to date.

Jess' departure is sweet because she's moving on to bigger and better things. It's a good opportunity and there will be plenty of soccer in Columbus.

Jess leaves the DC area at the end of June. We're going to have a send off. Post any ideas here.

We're sorry to see you go, Jess.