NFL
By Keith Richards
Matt Wells’ appointment as head coach of the Colorado Rapids has been beneficial on many levels. Most importantly, arguably, Matt’s influence is most beneficial for player development. One of the players seeing marked improvement under Wells is defender Jackson Travis. Now in his fourth year in Colorado, Travis is enjoying his best season with the team. One asks oneself: what drives Jackson Travis?
This week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jackson as he and the team prepare for St. Louis. We discussed many topics, including what got him into football, his family, and some of his goals. In talking to Travis, I learned that he is exactly as advertised. The Jackson Travis you see on the pitch is the same off the pitch. So, let’s dig into it and see if we can learn what makes Jackson Travis so fierce.
First, I asked the question that’s likely on the minds of many Rapids fans: How’s the injury? Jackson states, “It’s not doing too bad. You know, I’m almost over the hump now. Still dealing with a little pain here and there, but I mean, I think I’ll be in the squad tomorrow.” As always, the MLS Injury Report always has the final say. On the report that we saw on Friday, Travis was listed as questionable.
After some opening pleasantries, we shift the conversation to football. Not long ago, Jackson Travis was featured on an episode of Elevate. If you’re not familiar, Elevate is a web series run by the Rapids that highlights members of the organization. In that episode, Travis mentions the difficulty he faced in Mississippi with finding opportunities to get into football. I asked Jackson what made him decide to pursue football over the other sports.
Jackson states, “Yeah, man. I played all the sports. I played baseball, basketball, and soccer. Mom didn’t allow us to play football. So, soccer was just one of the ones that I really enjoyed. As I kept getting older, my brother was big on soccer as well. So, I would be able to go out and train with his teams.” Jackson’s brother is four years old. He credits that experience with helping with his development at a young age.
However, as he got older, Jackson found that football was his sport. At around age 14, Travis decided that football was the sport he wanted to pursue further. He began his journey with the Mississippi Rush. From there, he played on his high school team, which helped him to develop as well. However, Jackson always knew that he could reach a higher level.
Regarding football in Mississippi, Travis states, “Soccer just wasn’t competitive there at all. I felt I could reach a higher level than that level there. So, that’s when I started trailing for different academies.” At that point, that’s where Jackson’s football story truly begins. Though his enthusiasm for the sport was high, his luck was not the same at the beginning of his journey.
When speaking about starting out in football, Jackson Travis states, “I was unlucky with pretty much all of them, [the trials], except for when I came here and tried for the last one. So, I was excited about that, and I was able to come here and play under Eric Bushey and develop a lot and start to make my way towards the first team.” When the Rapids became a possibility, I asked Jackson what that was like. What were his initial thoughts? How did his parents take it? Was he nervous about being so far away from home?
Jackson states, “In a sense, yes, but the transition was made easy for me because my mom ended up moving here with me for the first two years, actually. So, she was here. She’s very supportive and always helped me with my dreams and what I wanted to do. But even when I first got here, like my main goal was just to get a D1 scholarship. Because if you’re in Mississippi and you got a D1 scholarship to play soccer, like, you were one of the top elite players in the state because nobody really went D1.”
Travis continues, “So, I was just like, ‘Maybe I come here, and it would make a jump to D1 school.’ Then, I started playing a little bit after our first game, I started to have the realization that maybe I could make a jump here. I thought I was progressing to be one of the top players on my U-17 team. So, I was like, ‘You know, maybe the first team is reachable.’ Then, as that year progressed, I found myself training with the first team and doing well. So, then I thought that goal was definitely attainable, and ended up reaching it.”
Along the way, Jackson has had family by his side at every step. His mom was here for the first two years. Now, his sister has been here for the past two years. His mom and dad attend home and road matches as regularly as they can. Travis mentions how supportive his family has been throughout his career. It’s something that has meant a lot to him so far in his career.
Last season, Jackson Travis had a new experience in his career when he went on loan to the USL’s Birmingham Legion. I asked Jackson what that experience was like for him. He states, “It was different. It was really different. I was skeptical about it at first, but I knew I needed to. I was still a younger player, and I knew I needed to go somewhere where I could get minutes because I wasn’t really getting the minutes here.”
Part of the apprehension was that Jackson was in a contract year. He was wary of going out on loan in that final year of the contract and not returning. In the end, however, he’s glad he went to Birmingham. He states, “I’m happy I went because it gave me a new perspective. For sure, USL ball is very challenging. It’s very tough, but it allowed me to implement new things into my game that I was able to bring back here. It just gave me a different perspective on a lot of things and how different styles are played. So, I took a lot of positives from that, as well, to bring back here.”
Travis credits his team in Birmingham with helping him play at a different level. He believes the consistent minutes helped with his composure, stability, consistency, and defending in the back line. In addition, he feels he was able to clean up some things on the attacking side of the pitch, as well. After returning to Colorado, like everyone else, Jackson Travis went through a physically demanding preseason with new head coach Matt Wells.
Regarding the preseason, Jackson states, “Nobody’s career is over, but everybody knows that would be the hardest preseason for their career, for sure. Probably took off maybe a year or two of some players’ careers.” Still, the young defender believes that the fruits of their labor is already evident. He added, “Coming into the first couple of games of the year, I mean, you see what it did for us and how fit we were and how hard we worked to figure out our identity and foundation.”
Jackson feels the squad has been putting everything they worked on in preseason into play as the season progresses. It feels like everything is coming together for the team. There are some things that need to be fine-tuned, but they feel like one of the most physical and fit teams in MLS. That’s all because of the grueling preseason work that they did in Florida. Personally, he feels the preseason will help him get more stats on the board. The new tactics have been great. Most importantly, Coach Wells believes in Travis.
Amid his best season so far, I ask Jackson how much of the season he feels is due to his grind and how much comes from the Wells system. He states, “I’ve always been a player that felt like I always had to get mines and I had to work for mines, and I feel like I’ve worked so hard these past couple years to now. Finally, in this one year, [I’ve] come out and start to put it on display and show my ability and show what I can do.”
Travis continues, “I think that comes from all the years that I worked, and I think it also comes from Matt Wells coming into the system and implement the system and mindset and mentality that, you know, uplifts my energy and uplifts what I can bring to the table. So, I think it pairs well for the team, and Matt pairs well for a player like me, and he’s given me a lot of confidence to go showcase when I play.”
The gaffer’s faith in him raises Jackson up. Along with Rapids 2 gaffer Eric Bushey, Travis believes Matt Wells is one of the best coaches he’s ever had. Wells has given Jackson Travis the opportunity to do things like share the pitch with one of the greatest footballers of all time, Lionel Messi. I asked Jackson if he ever thought he’d share the pitch with a player like Messi in front of over 75,000 fans.
Jackson states, “No, I did not think that would come to play. But, I mean, that was an experience for me, playing in front of that many people. It allows you to get this new experience, where now it’s like you can play in front of any crowd and not feel the nerves and the jitteriness that you used to feel.”
One of his biggest takeaways from the match was sharing the pitch with Messi. He was proud to get some tackles in on Lionel and to share conversations on the pitch. Dope is the word he used to describe it all. In social media circles, many Rapids fans use another word to describe Jackson Travis. Many Colorado fans feel that Jackson Travis has that dog in him. I asked if that mentality goes back to the days when it was so tough for a defender to break into soccer.
He states, “I think the coaches viewing me like that, I think that’s always how I’ve been viewed. Maybe not always the most technically gifted player, or the biggest player, but coach could always rely on me for giving 110% anytime I could. Anytime my name was called. So, I’ve always led with that mentality, and then, hopefully, the physicality and technical ability comes after that.”
Travis finished, “That’s always been my foundation. To have a staff that believes that is my foundation, and to know that wherever the situation is for a game, if we need Jackson to start, or we can have him on the bench, because we know he can come in and impact the game, I’m very appreciative of that and how they view me. So, I think it’s been really good for that.”
Though Jackson is a hard worker, we know from Rob Holding (recently on Commerce City Radio) that Jackson Travis likes to have fun as well. Holding stated that Travis is part of a group that keeps the locker room lively. I asked Travis what the locker room dynamic is like with so much youth but a strong veteran presence as well.
Jackson says they have a healthy, top locker room. It’s nice to have teammates he can relate to, but also guys you can go to and ask questions when you’re down. As the interview winds down, we turn an eye to the future. This past Wednesday, Jackson was on-site at F1 in downtown Denver when Darren Yapi signed his U-22 contract. I asked Jackson what that experience was like and if it lit a fire for him.
Travis states, “Seeing both of us, we came up together, and seeing him make that jump to a new deal, and seeing that as possible, and seeing that my boy can do it. Then, you know, maybe I can do it as well.” I asked Jackson what his goals were over the next three years. He stated, “I hope to just keep playing. Number one, keep getting on the field, keep impacting games, and helping my team win. If you do those, positives will follow and things of that nature, like new deals.”
Jackson Travis finished, “Everybody’s ambition, for the most part, is to go overseas. So, if you keep grinding, you keep doing what you got to do on the field, maybe that will come to fruition as well. But you can’t think about too many things like that for the future. You got to live in the present and just go game-by-game and day-by-day for training. So, that’s how I’m living right now. I’m just trying to get back on the field, get back 100% fit and back into the team. So, that’s the goal right now.”
Indeed, the future is bright for Jackson Travis. That road so far hasn’t always been easy. However, Jackson’s hard work and determination are starting to bear fruit for the young defender. How far can he go? So far, I think Jackson Travis has proven he’ll go as far as he wants to go. For anyone planning to stop him, I wish you the best of luck.
