Stick with the Winners!
September 3, 2019 In the Fall of 2018, Martin Luther King Jr. High School’s boys soccer program won its 18th New York City public school championship to culminate a 19–0 season in which it was ranked no. 3 in the country. Martin Jacobson, whose first championship team was in 1996, three years after he became head coach, had put together yet another winning squad, continuing to make history in the process.
But Coach Jake’s story is more than just a soccer tale. In his time as coach at MLK, he has given hundreds of immigrants—from places like Mexico, Columbia, Senegal, Mali, and Haiti, and some of them homeless or parentless—an opportunity to gain some direction in both the classroom as well as on the field. Becoming Coach Jake highlights some of those individuals’ stories and brings to light how, with Jake’s guidance, many of them have gone on to achieve great success in their adult lives.
Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice and when did you discontinue its use?
A. Yes I am in recovery from Heroin/Opiods. Stopped all drugs and alcohol in 1986.
Q. At which classes or workshops did you learn the most?
A. Self taught.
Q. Do you believe artists are made or born?
A. Made and born.
