In final season before heading into service, Narberth’s Jason Aoyama readies for his last Army-Navy Cup

Aoyama is one of four players from the Philadelphia area on Navy's roster. His path comes full circle for the final time on Friday at Subaru Park.

Jason Aoyama is a Narberth native and former member of the Union Academy, who will play in his final season with the Midshipmen in the annual Army-Navy Cup, at Subaru Park in Chester.Read moreNavy Athletics

by Kerith Gabriel

Published Oct. 12, 2023, 3:17 p.m. ET

This isn’t Jason Aoyama’s first rodeo.

In fact, when the 12th installment of the annual Army-Navy Cup kicks off at Subaru Park on Friday (7 p.m., ESPN+), it will be the Navy midfielder’s fourth time in what has become a yearly soccer rivalry along the Chester waterfront since it began in 2012.

Making it all the more familiar is that Subaru Park is just a 25-minute drive from where Aoyama, one of four soccer-playing brothers, grew up and played — oftentimes against one another — in their Narberth backyard.

His was a path paved by the Union Academy as a part of the club’s youth system for three years while in high school. He also had a stint on another of the area’s top clubs, FC Delco, alongside former Navy teammate JD Wagner, before committing to the Naval Academy.

Aoyama will tell you that it all started with those backyard games and soccer conversations with his brothers.

“I have three older brothers who all played soccer growing up, and I owe where I am to them,” said Aoyama, who is the youngest of four.

His brothers Julian and Justin played for Amherst College, in Massachusetts. Jansen played at Colby College, in Maine.

“Julian was the first to play soccer, and we all kind of followed his lead,” Aoyama said.

Aoyama is the first in his family to join the military — though he said it wasn’t something he’d always planned on. But it was Wagner, a Medford Lakes native whose path mirrored Aoyama’s — not with just FC Delco, but the Union Academy, too — who helped convince Aoyama that the way for continuing his soccer career and his life was the Naval Academy.

“I had no idea what a military academy was in high school,” said Aoyama. “And it wasn’t until my teammate at Union, JD Wagner, who was a class above me, committed to the Navy.

“I was a junior, he was a senior, and [the Navy] coach at the time started recruiting me and I did a couple of visits here. I learned what military academies were about, [and] what they had to offer. And I just fell in love with the place.”

Aoyama, who has two goals and one assist in 11 games this season, is one of four from the Philadelphia area on Navy’s roster looking to lead the Midshipmen past an Army team that has mostly had their number for several years. Forward Baba Kallie, from Coatesville, and defenseman Zach Wagner (JD’s brother) both played for the Union Academy and FC Delco; midfielder Nate Stewart is from Phoenixville.

Army leads the series 5-3-3, including a 2-0 victory last season. Navy won in 2021, its first victory in the series since 2014.

Navy enters with a 5-5-2 record (2-1-1 Patriot League). Army, the host for this year, is 3-6-1, 1-3-1.

“During preseason, we always list out our goals,” said Aoyama. “Try and go undefeated, win the league, get [an NCAA] tournament bid, and beat Army.

“It’s a goal that we leave on the board sitting all by itself. I think that alone shows the magnitude of the game for us. For me, I think it means even more to me just because it’s close to home.”

But where nerves would creep in during earlier contests, this year, his final as a member of the Midshipmen, anxiety has been replaced with excitement as he gets to take the field at Subaru Park in front of friends and family one last time before his next chapter as a nuclear surface warfare operator.

“I still remember my first, and even second, time playing in the Army-Navy game and the nerves — they were really hard to settle,” recalled Aoyama. “But as the years went on and now in my senior year, I wouldn’t say that there’s no nerves, but it’s definitely less than before.

“[As a senior], I try to encourage the younger guys on the team, get them to flush those out in whatever way you can. … If we want to win this game, we have to treat it like any other game once that whistle blows.”