For rising senior Jack-Ryan Jeremiah, pursuing soccer meant a cycle of leaving home and finding new ones, including his current home at Penn.
Growing up in Hawaii, Jeremiah’s soccer journey started when he first joined his local soccer clinic. There, he developed as an attacking midfielder, a player central to building goal-scoring opportunities. However, as he reached his early teenage years, he felt eager to chase bigger opportunities — even if it meant leaving behind the islands and his home.
With this determination, Jeremiah traveled thousands of miles to Seattle, where he joined the Seattle Sounders Academy and switched to online school. In this new environment, Jeremiah had to shift both his daily life as a student-athlete and his role on the field.
While Jeremiah served as an attacking midfielder during his youth — “kind of the creative force,” as he puts it — he started focusing on the defensive aspect of the game in Seattle. From making line-breaking passes to driving the ball forward, he also adapted to help secure the team’s possession. Today, the Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, native sees his playing style as a hybrid of the two environments.
“I kind of merge the two roles together,” Jeremiah said. “I take things that are from my creative side that I learned when I was younger in Hawaii, and then a lot of my defensive stability that I learned when I was in Seattle.”
The result is a box-to-box midfielder.
“[I’m] just doing everything from our own 18 to the other team’s 18,” Jeremiah said. “Everything in between is something I should cover and be able to do.”
At Penn, Jeremiah has thrived in his role. He received First Team All-Northeast Region and First Team All-Ivy honors in 2024 as well as Honorable Mention All-Ivy in 2025. Penn’s renowned academics and 2022 Ivy League championship drew Jeremiah to the program. In hindsight, the thing he appreciates most is the Quaker team he met.
“I got so lucky with the team, and I could not have asked for … a better school, a better team, better coaching staff,” Jeremiah said.
His dedication on the field also carried into his role as a captain of the Quakers. Penn men’s soccer coach Brian Gill first noticed his leadership quality during the recruiting process and appreciates the positivity Jeremiah brings to the team.
“He’s competitive,” Gill said. “He’s team-focused. He is ambitious, and he balances that out with a really good personality. It’s nice to work with players like him.”
Soccer is an integral part of Jeremiah’s life. He is also certain that it has been crucial for his personal development outside of sports. Jeremiah thoroughly understands what it means to function as a team and how to lead a team.
“Learning how to connect with someone and learn what makes them tick and how to help them when they need help, and how to push them when they need to be pushed, it teaches you to take care of yourself, take care of your body, to be healthy … to manage your time right, to have expectations for yourself, expectations for others,” Jeremiah said.
At Penn, managing the responsibilities of a student-athlete has required discipline. Jeremiah said balancing soccer, academics, and social life comes down to understanding and executing his priorities.
That exact discipline has helped Jeremiah reach the senior year of his collegiate soccer career. He plans to graduate a semester early in the hope of joining a professional soccer league.
Before leaving Penn, he has one last, straightforward goal: “Just win.”
For Jeremiah, an ideal wrap to his journey at Penn would mean becoming Ivy League champions and advancing to the NCAA tournament.
For a player who has already traveled thousands of miles with soccer in mind, there’s no clearer path than to just keep moving forward.
