Soccer has always been life for Jeremiah White. All three of them.

Jeremiah White III stares at his oldest son, Jeremiah IV, as a reporter runs the gauntlet of his accomplishments as a young soccer player. A bit surprised that his progeny isn’t as excited as he is to hear just how far he’s come in such a short span of time, the two share a laugh when Jeremiah IV notices his dad’s stunned gaze.

“What?” he asks quizzically.

“Dude, I just don’t know how you manage to stay so even keel about it,” Jeremiah III replies. “You should be proud of how far you’ve come. This is awesome, jump up and down, do something.”

Rolling his eyes at the notion, Jeremiah IV simply leans forward in his chair and puts his head in his hands while staring blankly at the computer screen in front of him.

Anyone who knows this 15-year-old defender knows that moment exemplified Jeremiah IV’s consummate par-for-the-course personality. His dad will tell you that Jeremiah IV just wants to get on with the work, work that has earned a spot as a featured member of the Philadelphia Union’s Under-17 academy program and three appearances as a member of the U.S. U-16 Youth National Team, which just finished up a series of matches as part of the 2023 International Dream Cup in Japan.

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Perhaps the first thing to know about Jeremiah IV is that he’s not the only White family member who has overachieved in soccer. His father, Jeremiah III was an All-American at the Haverford School and an All-ACC forward at Wake Forest, before a journeyman career in Denmark, Greece, Serbia and Saudi Arabia. He followed that with a stint in Major League Soccer with the New England Revolution and as a trialist, albeit briefly, with the Union. His grandfather, Jeremiah Jr., also played forward and was integral in multiple Central Bucks High varsity teams, collecting All-Bux Mont honors in 1966 and 1967 in his junior and senior seasons.

The second thing to know about Jeremiah IV is that, despite soccer’s reputation as a sport for wealthy, white elites, the only thing white about Jeremiah IV is his last name.

For over 50 years, the name he bears has debunked casual soccer norms and beliefs, with each generation standing out in more ways than one.

“Yeah, I was the only Black player on the team in those days,” Jeremiah Jr. said. He grew up in Bucks County before attending Temple and remained in the area, most notably staying in academia as the former board chair of trustees for the Community College of Philadelphia.

“But I loved it and yeah, I was one of the few who decided to play soccer over football,” Jeremiah Jr. said. “The game got away as I got later in life as I got into music, but it always stuck with me.”

Perhaps what stuck with Jeremiah Jr. rubbed off on Jeremiah III, who has taken the success he’s found as a player and parlayed it into several businesses connected closely with the sport, with the latest being Footy Access, a social media-fueled venture with an intense focus on highlighting youth soccer in America.

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The idea has an intrinsic focus on following academy and high-level developmental clubs across the country with one focus in mind: highlighting the next generation of American soccer talent. It’s an idea that’s paid off. To date, Footy Access has over 45 million page views and over 100,000 followers across multiple platforms.

“We’ve also made significant partnerships with developmental leagues who have an interest in growing the sport and getting these players noticed,” Jeremiah III said. “Also, we just signed a major sponsorship, which is attributed to the hard work of our team here with a vested interest in growing the game.”

Hard work has always been a staple of Jeremiah III. It’s why he’s been able to remain an entrepreneur following a nearly 10-year career in professional soccer on multiple continents, ideating, creating, and flipping business ventures that have afforded a life that allows him to spend regular time at home, raising his three children, including Esme, 10, and Samuel, 6, — all while keeping a close eye on Jeremiah IV’s progression at the academy level.

Jeremiah IV got a relatively late start, making his progress within the American soccer ranks all the more impressive. He always had a fishbowl look at what the professional level looked like growing up around the game in the shadow of his dad, but at age 11 he still was playing casually on area clubs.

If the plan was going to get to the next level, he was already behind and it was going to take a lot of hard work to advance.

“He had two left feet and he was he was not very good,” Jeremiah III said of his son. “Even though there were glimpses of ability, playing was just a fun thing for him. He wasn’t getting the time and he came to me one day and said, ‘Dad, I want to play more, can you talk to the coach?’ I said absolutely not, but I asked him, ‘What do you think is the difference between him and the guys that get to play consistently. And he goes, ‘They practice.’”

It was that moment, that conversation with his dad, that Jeremiah IV says flipped a switch. He began to practice on his own and then asked his father if he would train him.

“I said to him, ‘If we do this, you need to take it seriously,’” recalled Jeremiah III. “He was already behind, you know, he was about 10 years old, about to turn 11. But he took it very seriously. Once we started training, his growth trajectory was absolutely astronomical. A lot of kids get private training at 8 or 9 [years old]. He really didn’t start until he was almost 11.

“So if you think about from 11 to 15 to go from being on a local travel team to the [U.S.] national team in four years, that came from a lot of focused, dedicated training on his part and for me, having to really consider how to compound his development so my son has the necessary skills he would need to be able to catch his peers.”

His growth put him on the radar of both the Union’s academy and the academy of the New York Red Bulls. Jeremiah spent time with both before coming back to the Union and finding his spot on the club’s under-17 program.

“He brings a lot of great qualities,” said Union academy director Tommy Wilson. “He wanted to come back and play more locally and we jumped at the opportunity. We’ve brought him on as a defender and as a wide attacking player … we need wide players that are quite good with the ball and he has that. I mean, you can never tell with young players where they’re going to end up, but long term we see him as an outside back attacking type player, as he has really great attributes with the ball.”

Wilson can also relate to Jeremiah IV’s situation. He too was a young player coming up in the shadows of a father who played professional football in his native Scotland. It’s a lived experience that can be invaluable on many facets — especially in keeping a level head and making sure he’s performing at a high level in school and in training.

“I was his age and my dad had been a professional,” said Wilson. “What it does is provide a real dose of realism because your brother or your father or mother has been down that path and has absolutely lived it. Sharing their experiences with you, whereas others can only think about what it’s like is invaluable. I think that Jeremiah’s dad being a former pro is great because he knows the pitfalls, he knows the highs and the lows that come along with it.”

In 1996, a 17-year-old Kobe Bryant, who had returned from Italy and settled on the Main Line four years earlier, told a class of his peers that a language barrier and lack of “slang” knowledge ostracized him socially, but allowed him to focus on his game.

Jeremiah IV shares a similar mentality, with the only difference being that his dad physically created a social bubble via a turf field enclosure, complete with built-in nets, in the backyard of their Elkins Park home.

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With Jeremiah IV’s trajectory, most of the things a normal 15-year-old would do are sacrificed. There is little hanging out with neighborhood friends — unless they come over — and he’s not meeting many girls his age. He’s traded the “kid experience,” as his dad puts it, for the rigorous journey that is a path to pro.

“He’s being trained to be a professional early, right, and the big risk in that is that you do miss some of the socialization, but it’s a trade-off,” said Jeremiah III. “It’s why we try to create a home environment where his friends can come over and play, a place where he feels comfortable, you know? The cool home where people kind of can gather and play.

“It’s obviously working considering I come home and there’s usually someone using the field out back. It can be a lonely existence, but I try to supplement it by creating an environment that people want to be in, for him.”

Each generation of the White family has gone on to be a bit better in the game than the one before — and some say Jeremiah is on that same path. It’s why he says he’s OK with not being a regular teenager.

Right now, his goals are a bit bigger — and a bit more personal.

“My goal is to one day play overseas, to play in Europe,” he said. “I love playing and for me, it’s what I really want to do. [Chuckles] But my second goal is to surpass my dad and do it better than him.”

Jeremiah III looks at his son yet again. Except this time, instead of being stunned, his face bears an adoring smile.

“I mean, I’m happy to hear that,” said Jeremiah III. “I’m not mad at it and considering he’s probably better than I was at the same age, I’d say he’s well on his way.”

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