BILLERICA — Brian Jones loves soccer.
He eats, breathes and sleeps the game.
He plays year-round, plays with his friends all of the time, and after he graduates from Billerica Memorial High School next June, he’ll play at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.
The reigning Merrimack Valley Conference and Lowell Sun Player of the Year plays soccer so much that his coach John Vassallo has to keep reminding him to slow down and take the occasional break.
“If you drive around the area or Billerica High, you always see Brian with his buddies there playing with a ball,” said Vassallo. “We actually have to tell him at times that he needs to rest because he plays so much. Rest is important to him but he doesn’t know what that means.”
Jones, a center-midfielder, has been the mainstay for the Indians’ for quite some time.
He made the varsity team as an eighth-grader in 2019. He didn’t play that much that season, but hit a big growth spurt before the next and has been a starter over the last three-plus years.
Counting the shortened COVID season, he has helped the Indians combine for a record of 39-17-15, which includes three state tournament appearances and this year’s 5-1 record.
“He has a good motor. He’s our guy who we play (our offense) through. We were real young last year so this year we have a bit more experience,” said Vassallo. “He’s back as our center midfielder and we still want the ball to go through him. He has a good touch, he has good vision and he makes the right pass when he needs to make one. He’ll score goals but we like him more as a playmaker.”
Last year Jones finished the season with 12 goals and added four assists. This year he has three goals and two assists through six games.
While the stats and the Player of the Year awards are nice, Jones said he believes this year’s team has what it takes to go further than those Billerica teams of the past. In each of the previous two seasons, the team has been bounced from tournament play in the first round, despite winning 10 and 11 games, respectively.
“This is the best team that we’ve had since I have been here,” he said. “I think a big reason for that is we’re very close as a team, the chemistry is so great and we worked so hard over the summer.”
The summer certainly was a busy one for Jones. Besides playing club soccer, and getting the high school team ready for this season, he and his younger brother Jack opened up a business together, Jones Brothers Landscaping.
It started out just doing neighbor’s yards before expanding to other homes, and making business cards.
Jones said he and Jack are extremely close – as well as younger sister Maggie, who is a sophomore and three-sport athlete at BMHS. Jack Jones is a freshman who plays side-by-side with his brother as the other team’s center midfielder.
“It’s really fun. Last year we really didn’t get a chance to, so this being my last year of high school soccer, it’s good to have the opportunity to play with him,” said Brian Jones. “People say that Jack plays like me, but he’s just smaller. We play side by side so it’s been a lot of fun. Our chemistry is great together. We’re really close as brothers. We get along and we have the same jokes and the same interests.”
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