Gray and Levy, Brotherhood in Goal

­Chanting paired with the roaring of cleats trampling the soft, wet grass starts to evolve as the clock counts down from ten. As the noise on the sideline grows louder and louder, the final whistle sounds and chaos erupts. The Jacksonville University men’s soccer program rushes to celebrate their conference tournament championship victory against Florida Gulf Coast University, with a dog pile in the middle of the field.

After hoisting the program's newest ­piece of hardware, the celebration pours into the locker room. The team takes time to absorb their triumph together as a family, even if that means reaching out to recognize valuable individuals who cannot be there in person. Jabari Gray, a freshman goalkeeper for the Dolphins, took part in the post-game festivities via FaceTime.

Gray had been absent from the team since March 27, as he was given the opportunity to represent his country, Trinidad and Tobago, on the national football team that will compete in the World Cup trials. Though he had been serving as the starting goalkeeper for JU since the start of the season, he knew that seizing the opportunity was the correct decision.

During his time away from Jacksonville, Gray will spend several weeks training with the national team. He will play games starting in May and conclude the occasion by competing in a tournament that can potentially qualify the country’s team to compete in the 2022 World Cup Trials began as early as June of 2019, but were pushed back due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

While his teammates had to adjust to his absence in the net for the remainder of the 2021 campaign, it was the loss of his leadership that was going to be missed the most.

The program’s head coach Mauricio Ruiz touches on how Gray’s presence is crucial for not only his talent on the field, but the expertise he displays off the field. 

Fortunately the Dolphins roster depth left the team with two more experienced goalies to fill Gray’s shoes, one of which was a returning starter from the previous two years, Matt Levy.

Levy returned for his junior campaign and is joined by goalie No. 2, redshirt sophomore Eduardo Thome. 

However, even with a veteran starter, filling the goalie position proved to be more difficult than expected.

Two weeks after Gray departed, Thome got a concussion and had to take a break from suiting up with the team. After getting the green light to take the field, his first time back ended negatively as Thome wound up with a dislocated shoulder. 

The severity of his shoulder injury left Thome out indefinitely, making Levy the lone goalkeeper for an extended period of time. This would put the team at risk of competing without one if Levy were to become hurt. 

Levy had a breakout campaign in the spring of 2021. The Junior was a brick wall in goal for the Dolphins, especially in conference play. By the end of the conference tournament, Levy had pitched six shutouts, all against ASUN competition, allowing just 1.00 goals per game and collecting 3.33 saves per game (.769). At one point this season, Levy went 423 minutes and 35 seconds between goals allowed at home.

But as fate would have it, Levy would eventually endure an injury he thought would prevent him from being able to play with his team.

In the semi-final match in the ASUN conference tournament against Lipscomb, Levy suffered pain in his foot that left him unable to put pressure on it the next morning, the day before the ASUN conference championship match. 

Luckily for the Dolphins, Levy was able to compete in the net for his team in the championship match against FGCU. Being crowned champions led the team to an NCAA bid, the program's first since 2008.

Jacksonville staged a dramatic comeback to force overtime with American in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, only to settle for a 3-3 tie before seeing its dream season brought to a close on penalty kicks, 5-4.

The Dolphins trailed American 2-0 and 3-1 in the game and with less than 10 minutes to play in regulation, staged a comeback for the ages, scoring twice in less than three minutes to force overtime. The overtime periods favored Jacksonville heavily as it generated chance after chance, but it was not to be. The match goes into the record books officially as a draw but that will do little to quell the pain felt by the Dolphins following a 5-4 defeat in penalty kicks, granting American the opportunity to advance. Levy made one save in the game. 

Jacksonville will return its entire roster for the 2021 fall season.