Grad Catchup: Niles North Grad Anamoo Finding His Timing In Santa Clara
Anamoo's coach says he's "desperate to achieve."
Photo credit: Don Jedlovec/Santa Clara Athletics.
If the timing is right, he’ll be ready.
That’s the thinking Niles North 2020 graduate and current Santa Clara men’s soccer forward Jesse Anamoo is all about.
Having lived in the Morton Grove/Skokie area much of his life, Anamoo attended Hines Elementary and Golf Middle School, both in Morton Grove, before starring for the Niles North Vikings and then North Park University Vikings.
“Out of high school I wanted to go D1 right away but it just wasn’t the right time,” Anamoo said. “God’s timing just all came full circle because after that fantastic season at North Park everything just felt right and that’s why I made that move.”
A standout with the Vikings, 2019 team MVP and all-league selection for his offensive play — this being a fact that Anamoo still feels pride in — Anamoo excelled at North Park University in Chicago for a season. Anamoo’s freshman season athletically would have been in the fall of 2020 without the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“I spoke with my (Niles North) coaches and my parents and decided maybe let’s get some college experience at a really high-level D3 school before making the jump to D1.”
Instead, with another year of training, he thrived at North Park. The Accra, Ghana native scored 12 goals and tallied 5 assists in 22 matches, helping the Vikings go 16-8, 8-0 in their conference (CCIW) and reaching the NCAA Division III Elite 8.
There, he played with players from plenty of countries, notably Scandanavian players. There was a language barrier at times. Having lived in Ghana until the age of 8, Anamoo speaks his native language of Twi, a language spoken in southern Ghana. Having come from District 219 in Skokie — a 2016 Chicago Tribune story by Brian Cox said over 90 languages are spoken within the school district’s geographic range in Skokie, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood and Niles — adapting other languages was something that was expected, even if ultimately English was the common language on the pitch.
“Obviously a lot of people were international so at first there was a language barrier, but once we started hanging out with each other, playing with each other more, everything just became easier and we ended up gelling with each other well and we had a nice, long stint in the NCAA tournament,” Anamoo said.
The on-field success and time to mature as a player helped him feel comfortable in the college game, and Anamoo feels strongly that other burgeoning young soccer players should consider the North Park program.
“I had a fantastic experience over at North Park. The coaching staff, coach Kris (Grahn), Karsten (Hahn), Ryan (McNaughton), all of them were awesome, even the trainers, Lauren as well, they were awesome. They made me feel very at home,” Anamoo said.
When Santa Clara was looking for transfer players in 2021, the coaching staff came onto game tape from Anamoo. The Broncos were looking to add speed and goal-scoring ability.
With Santa Clara, Anamoo has scored 3 goals and has an assist over the course of 18 games. Santa Clara sits at 3-2-4, with Anamoo having most recently contributed an assist in a 2-2 tie with Gonzaga on Oct. 8. He scored 2 goals in a Sept. 16 win over Utah Valley. He has played in all 9 games this season as of Oct. 13.
Photo credit: Don Jedlovec/Santa Clara Athletics.
“Jesse is a very athletic player so he has very good speed. He likes to run in behind defenses and try to get the goal,” Santa Clara coach Cam Rast said. “He puts a lot of defenders and their team under pressure because they’re always worried about how fast he can get behind them so they tend to drop off.”
Rast said that Anamoo is desperate to achieve.
Even still, Anamoo realizes he needs to do more to see more consistent time on the field with the Broncos. He knows he has to have a bit more of a defensive-oriented mindset to get more time on the field.
“He’s an upbeat kid. He’s a nice kid. Respectful. He hasn’t come in and felt entitled to anything. He’s looking to work for what he gets,” East said. “There’s some understanding pieces that we’re still trying to work with him. He hasn’t started a lot, and although he plays in every game, as is the case with most players, they’d probably like to get a little bit more time so they have a chance to be impactful. He has to continue to grow in his concentration and his ability to stay focused and read the game so that we can justify more minutes for him.”
Though Anamoo is focused on improving immediately, he’s got a long-term outlook.
“I think it’s going to happen again for me at the next level in the pros,” Anamoo said. “It’s all in God’s timing, I can’t rush it. I’m not going to rush it. I’m going to take my time and make sure I do everything right.”
Niles North notes for Anamoo
Favorite memories: Winning a tournament as a sophomore, Niles West game as a senior, and his senior banquet.
“I started playing varsity toward the end of sophomore the whole year and toward when they had sectionals and stuff and all that that’s when I got bumped up to varsity.”
Team went 16-4-4 his junior year.
Favorite teams to play: “My favorite team to play when I was in school was either New Trier or Evanston because those were the schools where, oh you want to beat New Trier, you want to beat Evanston. For me, any time one of those games came up… it was extra focus on getting my job done and just taking care of my business on the pitch.”
