This past fall, former Morgan boys soccer player and classmate, Jeremy Medranda-Bermeo was not seen at school or on the soccer field, leaving many people wondering where he was. In late October, Medranda returned to school leading to further confusion amongst classmates.

Medranda was previously on a premier club team named Genga, where his coach noticed his improvements and reached out to the coach at Hartford Athletics. Upon contact, Jeremy was quickly accepted to the Hartford Athletics team, where he now plays.

According to CIAC ruling, he could no longer participate on the Morgan boys soccer team due to not attending school and being committed to another team. Medranda played on the Morgan boys soccer team his freshman and sophomore year as either striker or left mid previous to his commitment to Hartford. When his teammates and friends were faced with his decision, many were saddened by his departure. Junior captain and friend, Jonathan Guttierez said, “when we all found out that Jeremy was going to leave, we were all shocked and sad, but we supported him because we knew he was going to have a better chance at going pro.”

Hartford Athletics is a professional soccer team based out of Hartford that competes in the USL (United Soccer League) division II league. The club was founded in 2018 and played its first season in 2019. The club has expanded to hold eight youth academy teams from ages U8, to U-19. They also have girls clubs for U10, U12 and U14 and are expanding to include 2 more teams for U11 and U13 age groups. Medranda plays on the academy level U-19 team for Hartford athletics.

While he didn’t play for the professional team, for the entirety of his season, he practiced with them. Medranda is one of the youngest ones on the team at only 16 years old.

Medranda says that his day-to-day schedule this fall usually went as such, “I would usually wake up around 6, go to the facility by 7:30, and then chill for a bit, go to film, after that we would gear up, train for usually an 1:30 to 2 hours.” He also said that usually following training, the players would either go to the gym or get massages before they ate lunch. Due to this timing, Medranda was not able to attend school and completed his classes.

This season, Medrandas U-19 team was unfortunately one seed short of the playoffs. Collectively, his team had 15 wins and 3 losses. Individually, Medranda put up 9 goals and 4 assists for his team.

Many students have been confused with the return of Medranda because following his commitment to Hartford, he left Morgan. He says this is mainly because his season is over due to his team not making the playoffs. However, he never actually “left”, he was simply doing online school while his schedule did not allow him to be at Morgan during school hours, but now, out of season, he is back.

However, Medranda says his season begins again on January 15th, and he said, “my team may go to Tampa for a tournament,” therefore he may not be at school again. Despite being out of season, Medranda is still going to Hartford to practice in the afternoons with his team in preparation for January.

Many students questioned Jeremy’s return to the Morgan boys soccer team next year, considering he still does go to Morgan. When asked this question, Medranda said “maybe, I have another offer from an MLS (minor league soccer) academy that I am waiting to be official, but I would plan on playing over there.”

Medranda says that his next goal is to play professionally in the MLS. He wants to switch to this MLS academy due to the fact that it is a higher tier academy than the 2nd tier one is in right now (Hartford Athletics). He said he believes “it gives me a better chance.”