Surprise! Olathe West soccer star receives elite national award via secret presentation

Jony Munoz was expecting a quiet Wednesday evening. He’s a high school graduate and is less than a month out from leaving home to meet up with his new soccer teammates at Liberty University in Virginia

So when his high school soccer coach and parents wanted him to head back to his alma mater, Olathe West, to take some mock signing-day pictures after missing out due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, he thought nothing of it.

Munoz pulled on his Liberty Soccer T-shirt for an evening at his former high school.

He did not imagine the scene about to unfold.

“I showed up and there were all these cameras and cars and people,” Munoz told The Star Thursday.

Dozens of teammates, coaches, friends and family were waiting in front of Olathe West to surprise Munoz with the news that he is the 2019-20 recipient of the National Gatorade Player of the Year Award for boy’s soccer.

“I was still processing a little bit,” Munoz said. “The idea popped in my head, but I have a very good relationship with my coach and I thought he would have told me by then, so I was a little on edge.

“But once I got close and it started to hit me and all the people were asking me questions and congratulating me and stuff, I was like, ‘This is really happening. This is amazing.’”

Munoz is the only Kansas athlete to have won a Gatorade national player of the year award in any sport since the program began in 1985. He was voted for the honor by a national advisory panel out of nearly half a million boys high school soccer players across America.

Munoz becomes part of an elite group, with past winners combining for 11 national championships at the collegiate level and 12 first-round picks in the MLS Draft. Notables to have been honored previously include 2000 second overall pick Nick Garcia, who played more than 200 games for the Kansas City Wizards, and 2003 first overall pick Alecko Eskandarian.

“I’m very honored for this and seeing the names on that trophy, and just not only because it represents soccer, but because it represents me as a person,” Munoz said. “They looked at me as not just a soccer player but for me as a person, who I truly am off and on the field.”

The Kansas girls Gatorade Player of the Year also played at a KC-area school: Bishop Miege senior Sophia Stram won that award this week, as well. The Missouri players of the year both hail from the St. Louis side of the state: senior Christian Kraus of Fenton (boys) and sophomore Grace Bindbeutel of O’Fallon (girls).

While Munoz is no pushover on the soccer field — scoring 32 goals and 19 assists in just 21 games as the Owls won the 2019 Kansas Class 6A state title — his work off the pitch sets him apart from the rest.

After parting ways with the U.S. Soccer Development Academy ahead of his senior year, Munoz spent time in Mexico on a mission trip with his Church youth group.

“I got to join the worship band and start to play guitar, and then the opportunity came up to go to Mexico. We went to Monterrey and got to help out with local churches,” Munoz said. “We held a vacation bible school for the less-fortunate areas in the city and it was a very humbling experience and changed my perspective on my faith for sure.”

If that wasn’t enough, he also spearheaded a food drive with his teammates that collected over 1,000 cans of food for those in need in the local community.

“I think I really felt the need to install the fact soccer is the beautiful game because of the people, because it’s the best sport in the world, it’s a community sport — all colors, all races, everyone,” Munoz said.

Munoz leaves Olathe West with a 3.97 weighted GPA and is a member of the school’s OWLS student-leadership organization, in which he won the Olathe Noon Optimist Club’s community leader award.

Munoz was recognized as the most valuable player of the High School All-American Game in December and is a former member of U.S. Soccer’s under-16 men’s national team. He has signed a national letter of intent with Liberty, where he will play under former Sporting Kansas City Development Academy coach Kelly Findley.

“Jony is one of, if not the, best high school players I have ever had the chance to watch,” said Olathe Northwest coach Chris Graham. “The kid can do things on the field with the ball that nobody else can do.”

In a prep soccer career that lasted just two seasons, Munoz scored 53 goals and tallied 28 assist. He powered his team to its first-ever state title in 2019 just a year after they failed to even make the state tournament.

“I was hungry for more from the past season,” Munoz said. “My junior year, I wasn’t quite satisfied with my numbers and my stats. I knew I wanted to raise my numbers, and just aside from that, my focus was to win the state championship and help my team win.”

Munoz is now a finalist for the Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year award, which will pit him against the winners of like awards in 11 other high school sports. The overall winner will be announced in July.

This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 10:32 AM.