In this week’s blog, we are back with another player special, and this player is a truly special talent who provided so many special moments for the Townenders: Jack Stevens. Since signing for Banbury United in October 2021, Stevens has been at the forefront of the biggest moment in the club’s history through scoring the goal to seal the Southern League title alongside becoming a history maker on August 6th, 2022, where he scored the Puritans first ever goal at Step 2 away at Curzon Ashton. This helped the GOAT to heavily feature in one of our previous blogs ‘Fans Select Their All-Time Favourite Banbury United XI’ therefore here at Spencer Reds we thought we will get to know the man who many of the Puritan faithful believe is the best on earth.
Born in Reading in December 2000, Stevens was destined to play football as his dad and older sister Lily (Who plays in midfield for Oxford United Women’s) influenced him from a young age. Stevens quickly got noticed and got snapped up to sign for Wycombe Wanderers. He was there from u7-12s until Wycombe was taken over by the supporters' trust when they announced they will close the youth academy, with immediate effect to save the club £300,000 per year in running costs. This led to Stevens moving on to Aldershot academy where he was there for a year but at the end of the season Aldershot went into administration due to their relegation from the football league meaning contrary to popular belief that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice, Lighting did strike twice on Jack as he was excelling at two academies for them both to liquidate due to money issues. This led to Jack trialling at Oxford where they were no doubts about the Academy ceasing operation as the yellows are passionate about ‘Investing in the Lives of Young Footballers’. Throughout his trial Jack once again demonstrated he was good enough to be in the Academy by exceeding the Academy values of the 5 ‘R’s’, Resilient, Relentless, relational, Ruthless and Responsible, therefore the coaching staff showed no hesitation and signed him in 2013.
After two years in the Academy, this is when Jack first met his current manager Andy Whing, who worked with the forward when he oversaw the Yellow’s youth team from 2015 to 2017. Reflecting on his time as a scholar, Jack enjoyed academy life and loved playing under Chris Hackett, Leon Blackmore-Such and Andy Whing where Jack articulated they are the best managers he has had the privilege to work with. After a successful scholarship, Stevens signed a professional deal in 2020. During his pro deal, Stevens was sent out on loan to Hungerford and Chippenham but both sides were very hesitant to trust the future GOAT of non-league due to limited experience in the men’s game. Despite this, JS10 had zero regrets as he met some great people, and it was a good learning curve. Yet at the end of the 2020/21 season, Oxford released him ending an 8-year playing spell with the U’s.
Following his release, Stevens dropped out of football for a very short while and expressed that he ‘lost his head a bit about football and needed to stay away and give himself time’. Leo Tolstoy a famous Russian writer and regarded as one of the best authors of all time quoted “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time” showing the importance of trusting the process and ‘remembering that you’re never going to be everyone’s cup of tea’ as Jack puts it. Also, Leo Tolstoy believes the reason why patience and time are seen as powerful warriors is that they can help someone go one of two ways. The first way is to make a major life change which in this case Jack completely moved on and found a job that is nothing to do with football. The second way is to reconnect to your passion, purpose, and joy which for Jack was to get back into football. After giving himself time, Jack realised that his passion was in football, whether that’ll be coaching or playing he wanted a return. During this spell, Jack worked as hard as he could, as he knew a good opportunity would come his way. Jack’s patience paid off as despite Oxford releasing him at the end of the 21 season, Dan Harris the Academy Manager saw other qualities in Stevens and got in touch a short time after his release to see if he wanted to join as a coach. Stevens jumped at the chance as it regained Jack's Purpose again as he stated, ‘it came at a good time of just being released so it gave me a new passion and a new drive’. Ex-Banbury winger Pablo Haysham took him under his wing where Stevens was like a sponge and learnt good habits of all the academy coaches like ex-Oxford and Millwall winger Chris Hackett and Leon Blackmore-Such who he had fond memories of in the academy as a player.
In April 2022, Oxford made his job permanent where Jack officially became the ‘Youth Development Phase Lead Academy Coach’ where he oversaw the development of the U12s-U16s. This highlights a unique journey as Stevens went full circle where he signed a scholarship, a professional deal and a deal which saw him as an academy coach all before the age of 22. This was a win for all parties involved as Oxford gained a young enthusiastic coach willing to learn but also willing to put his own style of coaching. It also saw benefits for Jack as he could continue to build his coaching skills by being in the building full-time learning of experienced coaches as well as a job flexible enough to work around his football. Lastly, the Academy players reap the benefits as they get to learn of the GOAT at football who wasn’t that long ago in the same position as them. Stevens is there to mentor and helps them share the experiences of the highs and lows of football like sharing what it is like to be a centurion champion at Banbury united.
Stevens had Deja vu when he was about to sign for Wycombe Wanderers again until a failed medical put a halt to proceedings. Jack was clubless but started to train with Hayes and Yeading before Andy Whing swooped in as he saw contrasting qualities to Oxford’s Academy manager as he saw a player who can add to Banbury’s young and dynamic side, therefore, jumping at the chance of signing him. Upon his arrival, the Banbury gaffer stated, ‘He’s a very intelligent footballer and wants to continue to improve, which fits into what we have in the squad already, It’s another exciting addition for us”. Since his arrival in October 2021, JS10 describes his time at Banbury as ‘unreal and felt like home’ which he puts down to ‘the players, the staff, and the fans creating a family feeling at the club. Since arriving, Stevens has put on a show everywhere he goes terrorising defences with his pace, skill, and intricate play which has led to Stevens having big moments in the red and gold shirt marking him a legend of the club. 2nd April 2022, the silky 20 at the time created history as he ran through the Tamworth defence to slot past Jas Singh in goal for the equaliser with that point being enough to crown Banbury as Southern Premier League Central champions. This led to an unforgettable day at the club as the goal secured that Banbury was going to be playing at Step 2 for the first time in their 92-year history. This embarked on scenes at the Spencer Stadium where Jack describes a day he will never forget as the crowd of just under 2000 fans spewed onto the pitch in delight.
After putting on more shows to get us to 101 points, Jack reflected on another one of his favourite goals for the club, away at Hitchin. Even though Banbury was not at their best that day, Banbury turned it on and put on a glorious passing move in which Stevens emphatically finished off epitomizing the fans' chant of Banbury putting on a show everywhere they go. The Journey at step 2 began with a long trip to Manchester with around 90 puritans witnessing history from the player who is best on earth, a minute after halftime with some fans not even out of the bar with their pint of Madri, Stevens latched onto a ball over the top and calmly slotted home, something we had seen on the regular from the silky forward. As we all expected the demands of step 2 were always going to be tough playing full-time teams but Banbury has not looked out of place and Stevens believes that “we have adapted well and, on our day, I back our 11 against any team in the league". This has been shown already with Banbury beating AFC Fylde at home, the league leaders Darlington away and showing solid home form. JS10 showed what our home form was all about on his return from injury as he produced a moment of magic as he wriggled through the Chorley defence and nutmegging a player before poking home, something his football idol Messi would be proud of.
Jack Stevens' 15 Months at the club have been a success story and he thrives on playing in front of the fans week in week out hence why he quickly turned into a fan's favourite. When asked Jack about the fans he quotes “My thoughts on the fans I think it’s pretty well known but I love them".This is evident as Jack loves celebrating in front of the tramway army and believes the fans are the driving force in helping spur the players on. Yet despite this, Jack has never really had a chant whats stuck due to so many Number changes, so I believe we need to make a chant as good as the way jack performs on the pitch to acknowledge our star front man. Any Suggestion either tweet them or go brave and give it a solo on the Townend. Jack is back loving his football again and he hopes one day he can make it professional again at the highest level possible: But right now he is just focused on performing at Banbury. Overall, Banbury is very lucky to have a player like Jack and I speak for all the fans on the terrace it’s a joy to watch Jack put on a show everywhere he goes.
“My thoughts on the fans I think it’s pretty well known but I love them"
Thank you for taking the time in reading this and supporting my blogs, please like share, Rt and comment with your thoughts as I love the interactions with you all. Secondly, I would love to share my Gratitude with Jack for his support and engagement with this blog.
UTP
Spencer Reds.
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