Barons Sign Four South Jersey Players

Thursday, April 1, 2004

By John Thompson
South Jersey Barons Correspondent

The South Jersey Barons have signed four of South Jersey's top young soccer players for the 2004 United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League season. Ryan Heins, Matt Maher, Jamie Franks and Ryan Carr have all committed to the Barons for their 20 game season.

Matt Maher:- Matt played three years for the Barons Youth Academy and attended Middle Township High School. He was a First team all-South Jersey and third team all-State selection as a junior at Middle Township scoring 32 goals and 17 assists during his career. He committed to Temple University last year and along with fellow Barons graduate Ryan Heins and made the Atlantic-10 all rookie team. He made a contribution off the bench this season for Temple as they had one of their better seasons this year with both players featuring prominently, Matt scored 3 goals with 3 assists, starting in 8 games.

Ryan Heins:- The former Shawnee High School standout was named to the Atlantic Conference All-Freshman team this season after a stella freshman campaign for the Owls he started 20 out of their 22 games scoring 1 goal and leading the team with assists (6). Ryan broke into the P.D.L. team last year during the second half of the season and impressed everyone with his performances. He finished the 2003 P.D.L. season with 5 goals and 4 assists.

Ryan Carr:- The 6ft 1" Sophmore now attends the University of Hartford. At high school he earned Second-Team Mid-Atlantic Region All-America honors and was a two-time First-Team Cape Atlantic League honoree. He set career wins record (59) for Cape Atlantic League and Ocean City High School and had a 0.74 goals against average his senior season. He managed to post 35 shutouts during Ocean City high school career.

Jamie Franks:- This season Jamie banged in 21 goals in 27 games as Shawnee cruised to the Class 4A state Championship. Jamie is on the regional 86 ODP team and made the NCAA High school All-American team in 2003. He has recently been named to the US Soccer U-19 Men’s Regional Olympic Development Team that will travel to France to compete in "Tournoi International de Reze."

The Barons begin their season on Saturday May 15th V's Brooklyn knights at Winslow High School, NJ with a 7:30 K.O. The season schedule can be found at http://www.sjbarons.com/homepage.htm