Today Jacob Glass said his farewells to Central Park and jetted off to pastures new in the USA. Jacob came through the ranks of the Fife Elite Football Academy and first featured for us in the 2018/19 Fife Cup when he was still aged just 15. He then joined Cowden at the start of season 2019/20 and has been with the club now for over two seasons. Jacob of course showed up well in defence in the matches he played for Cowden and impressed many observers. He was very much regarded as having a bright future at Central Park. As well as his football, Jacob is no slouch academically. Now aged 18, he had several University offers in Scotland including St Andrews and Edinburgh. However, an even more enticing prospect was on offer - to study in the USA where he would also play football. Thus Jacob has now heeded the old adage ‘Go West, young man’ and is headed for California.
Jacob is enrolling at California Polytechnic State University on a Business degree course. He will also be playing football (soccer) for Cal Poly. Cal Poly is based in the city of San Luis Obispo which lies between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The City we note has a number of features including the rather unusual ‘Bubblegum Alley’ – where used bubblegum has been deposited on the walls of an alley since the 1950s – it is now a tourist attraction! The University’s soccer team is the Mustangs who compete in the Big West Conference with opponents drawn from such places as San Diego, Long Beach and even Honolulu. Cal Poly’s main sporting rival though is the University of California, Santa Barbara. Famous alumni of Cal Poly include John Madden of American Football fame and eccentric musician Weird Al Yankowicz.
Anyway, whilst we are of course sorry to see Jacob leave us, we are delighted that he has this opportunity and thank him for all his efforts and contribution to the club. It was a pleasure to have Jacob at Central Park. On behalf of his team-mates, the management and board of Cowdenbeath FC and all our fans we wish him all the very best for the future both on and off the field in the USA. Fitba’s loss is soccer’s gain!