Dad gets big kick out of his girls

D.J. Sharpless is the perfect example of a girl dad.

Sharpless is the coach of the North Catholic High School girls soccer team and his daughter, Simone, is one of the team’s standout players. But D.J. Sharpless has four daughters who all played, or are playing. Dad’s journey into the game of soccer began years ago with his oldest daughter, Myla, and has since grown with his other three daughters.

For the Sharpless family, soccer is weaved into their everyday lives.

“Soccer is pretty much everything to us,” D.J. Sharpless said. “Our vacations revolve around it, our family dinners and our conversations. We are a soccer family, through and through.”

And what runs through this family is talent, goals and Division I college soccer.

You’ll have trouble finding three sisters in WPIAL history who scored as much as the Sharpless girls — and you won’t find many families with three girls who have Division I college soccer ties.

• Simone Sharpless is a junior at North Catholic and one of the leading scorers in the WPIAL this season with 15 goals. She has close to 75 for her career and already has made a verbal commitment to Western Michigan University.

• Jayden Sharpless is a 2022 North Catholic graduate and a sophomore on the Duquesne team. In her high school career, which included one year at Freedom High School and three at North Catholic, she scored 127 career goals and led the entire WPIAL in scoring as a freshman.

• Myla Sharpless played her entire career at Freedom (2019 graduate) and scored 60 career goals, despite missing most of her junior season and some of her senior year with a knee injury. She played at Florida Atlantic University and then Eastern Kentucky.

And don’t forget youngest sister, Brinkley, a sixth-grader who is reputed to also have plenty of talent.

Start of a soccer family

All of this success on the pitch started when Myla showed an interest in wanting to play soccer at a young age. As she got older and started playing on teams, she wanted her father to coach her. D.J. jumped at the opportunity, learning the game along with his daughter.

“Dad learned as I learned,” Myla said before North Catholic’s 5-0 win on Monday night against Knoch. “His biggest strength is that he grew with the game, and he listened to us players. He never did anything himself. He always relied on us to talk to him. He was always approachable on the sideline.”

When Myla began to play soccer at Freedom — the Sharpless family didn’t switch over to North Catholic until Jayden was a sophomore — her younger sister, Jayden, had all eyes on her.

“We started playing together at such a young age, and then I watched her in high school,” Jayden said. “I wanted to do everything the same as her. I wanted to be exactly like her.”

Both Sharpless sisters started their collegiate careers in the south before transferring to schools in the north, wanting to be closer to home.

Myla spent two years at Florida Atlantic before transferring to Eastern Kentucky. In two seasons as an Eastern Kentucky midfielder, she scored four goals and notched four assists in 35 games.

Now, Jayden features regularly for the Duquesne Dukes, sliding into a defensive midfield role after years of playing attacking midfield. Last year, she started all 20 of her appearances, and this year she has started all of Duquesne’s nine matches.

“It’s great. I love it at Duquesne and playing soccer in college is so fun,” Jayden said. “When I was in the [transfer] portal, I didn’t know where I was going to go, but having the offer from Duquesne meant I could come home and spend time with my family. Going back to North Catholic and watching [Simone] play is something I didn’t think I was going to do in Georgia. I was far away. Coming home, I was so excited to watch her play.”

Simone plans to join the aviation program at Western Michigan.

“I just love the academics, I really loved the aviation program,” Simone said. “I fell in love with the team and the coaching staff. Everyone was just so welcoming to me.”

Following the footsteps

Myla and Jayden agree that, while they wanted to say themselves, they believe their younger sister, Simone, may end up having the most talent of the group. Just like her older sisters, she’s a midfielder, featuring on the attacking side of the ball.

“Simone is finding her voice, and she’s finding her confidence,” said Myla, who is an assistant coach at North Catholic with her dad. “She likes to score more than me and Jayden, and she’s really physical.”

D.J. said that, growing up, Simone got a head start, as she got to see her sisters play soccer. While Myla and Jayden played soccer from age 4, it was Simone who started dribbling the ball around the age of 2.

“She was always on my back,” D.J. said, laughing. “I had one of those baby backseat carriers, and she was always on my back at Myla and Jayden’s games and practices. Then she started to practice with them.”

Simone said practicing with her older sisters is something that helped her get better at the game and find a special appreciation for the physical side of soccer.

“I love the physicality of the game,” Simone said, smiling. “When I would practice with Myla and Jayden, I would have to keep up, or else I was going over the fence or the hill, grabbing the ball. So I learned quickly to keep up, or else I’d have to clean up.”

When it comes to youngest sister Brinkley, she’s starting to follow in her sisters’ footsteps. It’ll be a while before her father coaches her at North Catholic, but she is getting a head start with her sisters.

“I think watching us all play and her now growing up a little bit, we can tell she’s growing into the sport a lot,” Jayden explained. “Honestly, she starts to train with us when I’m home for the summer. She’ll train with our personal trainer and me and my dad. It’s cool to see her step into those shoes, as well.”

Don’t forget mom

Of course, the Sharpless family wouldn’t be what they are without their mother, Jocelyn, who was also a player in high school. Myla and Simone agreed that their mother can be honest with postgame advice, but is always available for comfort after a loss, or a shoulder to lean on. Jayden agreed.

“Our mom is our rock,” Jayden said. “She’ll keep it real with us if we have a bad game. But we’ll lean on her when we need support or someone to talk to. Even outside of soccer, she plays the biggest role in our family.”

D.J. said that the support his wife gives to his daughters and his own coaching career is a “blessing.”

“You see a lot of coaches who are either single or divorced, so I truly could not do this without my wife,” said D.J., who also coached at various levels for a dozen years before taking the North Catholic job in 2022. “She’s honest with me, too, and she cares about all the girls on the team. Her support really means everything to me.”

Championship material

Winning also runs through the Sharpless sisters. In 2018, Freedom won a WPIAL title when Myla was a senior and Jayden a freshman. Both scored two goals in the title game against Bentworth.

Jayden went on to win two WPIAL titles at North Catholic and lost in the 2021 championship game. Jayden scored the only goal in a 1-0 win against Yough in the 2019 WPIAL championship.

In Simone and her father’s first two years at North Catholic, the team has lost in the WPIAL semifinals and quarterfinals.

After their win on Monday night against Knoch, the Trojans improved to an overall 10-0 record and they are the Post-Gazette’s No. 1 Class 2A team. Sharpless’ side has only given up three goals the entire season and scored a staggering 35 goals.

After falling to Shady Side Academy in last year’s Class 2A WPIAL playoffs, the Trojans are gearing up for a busy October of section play.

North Catholic will return to action, on the road, against Burrell on Monday night.