Multi-sport standout has huge Day for Mesa

Senior scored three goals in Mustangs’ league triumph, but most believe soccer isn’t her best sport. No matter what position Jasmin Day plays on the soccer field, she is going to have a big impact on the game in that area. The senior is that talented a player for the Costa Mesa High girls’ soccer team.

Costa Mesa Coach Dan Johnston switches her back and forth from center midfield to forward, depending on where he needs her most.

And Day is an offensive threat from either position, as she showed last week. Day played a little of each position when she registered a hat trick during Costa Mesa’s 4-0 victory over Westminster on Dec. 15.

“At forward, she’s always a huge threat to get past the last defender with her speed,” Johnston said. “She has tremendous range at center-half and she’s good at dishing the ball off. If assists in soccer were counted like they were in hockey, she’d have a lot of assists, because she always starts plays.”

She also finishes them. Day, affectionately nicknamed “Jazzy,” has six goals this season for a Costa Mesa squad that improved to 6-3-2 with Thursday’s 2-0 win over Cypress. Day scored the game’s first goal.

The scary thing is soccer is not Day’s best sport.

In the spring, she took second place in the high jump at the CIF state track and field championships at Sacramento City College. Day cleared 5 feet, 9 inches on her second attempt to finish behind Stockdale’s Desirae Gonder, who cleared the same height on her first attempt for the difference.

Her sister, Sharon Day (a junior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), holds the school record in the high jump at 6-2 in 2003, which was tops in the nation that year. Sharon Day has continued her success at the collegiate level, taking third in the high jump at this year’s USA Track and Field Championships.

Jasmin Day said she’s going to work hard to break her sister’s record.

She will most likely land an athletic scholarship in the high jump. She has several schools to choose from, including Washington State, University of Arizona, Kansas State, Georgia Tech and USC, but said she hasn’t made up her mind yet.

“Not until I see everything,” she said.

Until then, Day has lofty goals in soccer. She’s trying to lead the Mustangs to their fourth consecutive Golden West League title and a deep run in the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs.

“I want to make it all the way through CIF and go to the CIF championships,” Day said. “And have a lot of fun.”

“She’s an integral part of what we do,” Johnston said. “We rely on her speed to put pressure on defenses, and her range to get possession of the ball.”

As Day marches toward her goals, she keeps things simple.

“I just want to make good passes and play hard,” she said.

That should do the trick. Sometimes, a hat trick.

Jasmin Day

Hometown: Costa Mesa

Height: 5-foot-8 1/2

Weight: 113

Sport: Soccer

Position: Forward/center midfield

Coach: Dan Johnston

Favorite food: French fries

Favorite movie: “Mr. Deeds”

Favorite athletic moment: “Getting to go to the CIF championship game in soccer my freshman year. And in track and field, finishing in second place in state.”

Week in review: Day scored three goals in Costa Mesa’s 4-0 victory over Westminster on Dec. 15.200512237C1M9Q5INo Caption20051223irxep6ncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)