Mason County’s Jansen Biddle (center) signed his letter of intent to continue his academic and soccer career at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Thursday. (Mason County Soccer)
HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER
Jansen Biddle was basically a third coach for the Mason County soccer team the past few years.
Biddle’s knowledge of the game further illustrates how important of a role he played for the Royals, one of the key driving forces in Mason County’s historic 2020 season.
The defensive center back made the defensive calls for the back line, when to push up, when to retreat, clear the ball or whatever action needed. With the help of his efforts, the Royals won their first district title in school history and Biddle is now taking his game to the next level as he signed his letter of intent to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to continue his academic and soccer career.
Biddle signed in the high school library on Thursday in front of family and friends.
“Growing up I’ve always wanted to play college soccer and it’s nice to see that through,” Biddle said, who will head up to the Terre Haute, Indiana campus in the fall. “I really liked the facilities and coaches there. I followed them through their season this year, they went undefeated and won the conference tourney.”
Rose-Hulman is a Division III school that plays in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Biddle’s position on the soccer field in his senior season was rather thankless, one that doesn’t tally many individual stats in the common scoresheet.
“Clean sheets is all I cared about. Stopping the opponent from scoring,” Biddle said.
But it’s a role Biddle took head on in his senior season, transitioning from the midfield in which he scored six goals and recorded nine assists his prior two seasons as a sophomore and junior. Biddle played in 63 of 67 games in his high school career, tallying six goals and 11 assists, tied for the highest amount of assists on the team in his junior season with seven.
But the switch to the back line of defense in his senior season is when the Royals coaching staff feel it benefited them most.
“He did really well in his midfield role. We feel his field vision really opened up once we had him on the back line and it helped us tremendously in that position,” Royals coach Daniel Forsythe said. “Jansen’s always been knowledgeable of the game, he’s a great person to speak with about formations. He has a passion for the game and we even talk about it off the field.”
Fortunately enough, it was a position Biddle was comfortable in, having played on the back line for the majority of his playing days growing up, whether with the school team or Kings Hammer travel team in Wilder.
His vital role in a 2-0 shutout victory over Harrison County to win the 38th District title game points to what they did defensively in the contest by not allowing a single shot on goal in the match.
“Not a single shot on goal, you absolutely attribute that to the leader on the back line. That was the assignment we gave Jansen and he definitely took a hold of that,” Forsythe said. “His leadership role progressed throughout his high school career, he was always vocal on the field no matter his age. His leadership quality was built into him.”
His vocal leadership may come as a bit of a surprise to some that have never seen him on a soccer field. He’s rather quiet off the pitch, but when he gets in-between those lines, Biddle will guide his teammates to when and where they need to be.
“I am quiet, but if there’s a soccer ball thrown into the equation I’m pretty vocal,” Biddle said. “I’m just really comfortable playing in the back, it was an easy switch and proved to be successful for us.”
Biddle plans to major in engineering with hopes to focus on civil engineering as his education progresses. He took the engineering pathway through Mason County and was intrigued by Rose-Hulman’s academic plans.
He’ll leave his Mason County playing days a district champion, something the team had been aspiring to do for years and finally being able to hoist that elusive district championship trophy.
“It was a big achievement for us, we said we wanted to do it since freshman year and it was good to finally see it through especially my senior year and to do it where I played my first high school game on,” Biddle said.
