Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – In a high school career that featured more than 40 goals selecting a single moment that illustrates the excellence of Gada Ambo is a challenging task.

Long-time West High coach Brad Stiles had the exact play to describe the dynamic senior forward.

“My senior night talk about Gada was a description of the goal he scored a couple days earlier at Wahlert,” West High coach Brad Stiles explained. “The ball is bouncing into the box, the keeper is accelerating at him and guys are running at his heels and he finds a way to stick his head in the right spot and not get his head taken off and still score a goal.”  

The goal against Dubuque Wahlert was an example of Ambo making an extraordinary play look routine, something the two-time all-state selection did often during his three seasons in a West High uniform.

“Not many other guys would have been able to do all of that, maybe some guys sticks his head in the way and scores a goal but he gets hammered by the goal keeper because he can’t figure out how to get out of the way at the end of it,” Stiles said. “That was compliment to him on senior night and my summary of the way he kind of does things.”

During his prep career Ambo displayed a flair for the dramatic while establishing himself as one of the top goal scorers in the state.

Ambo capped his career by scoring a team-high 16 goals and adding seven assists as a senior while leading West High to an 18-2 record and a runner-up finish in Class 3A.

For all his accomplishments Ambo has been named the 2019 Your Prep Sports boys soccer player of the year.

“In my senior season I just wanted to give everything I can to win,” Ambo said. “That’s all I focused on.”

Ambo burst onto the scene scoring nine goals as a freshman in 2016 before spending his sophomore season playing for the Sporting Kansas City Academy.

He returned to West High as a junior and began a two-year run in which he ranked among the most difficult players in the state to defend.

“I think he’s got an extra calmness on the ball,” Stiles said. “He can see things kind of before they develop and that is head and shoulders above of high school players, they can’t see that far ahead and then he has the skill to go out and make it happen after he sees it.”  

Ambo scored 34 goals and added 14 assists over the past two seasons helping West High to a 36-7 record and a pair of state tournament appearances.

West High won the 3A state title in 2017 while Ambo was playing in Kansas City and reached the state semifinal each of the past two seasons including a runner-up finish this season that ended with a 3-1 loss to top-ranked Waukee.

“It’s my senior season, I wanted to win it,” Ambo said. “My sophomore year I wasn’t here when they won it so I’m the only one who hasn’t won it yet and I wanted to win it.”

Ambo did plenty of winning in a West High uniform.

The Trojans went 53-10 and reached the state tournament all three seasons Ambo was on the field.

Ambo was named the Mississippi Valley Conference divisional player of the year and first-team all-state in Class 3A each of the past two seasons and finished his career with 43 goals and 18 assists.

Even with all his success Ambo was never better than he was over the final few games of his West High career.

He scored seven goals in his final five matches, scoring two goals in three straight postseason matches while directing West High to the 3A title match.

“Honestly I worked a little bit harder,” Ambo said. “I was super motivated to keep playing.”

That motivation made Ambo an important part of West High’s success on both ends of the field as a senior as he upped his intensity as a defender.

“He definitely showed the maturity and the way that I know that is he started putting the attention to detail on the defensive side of things,” Stiles said. “That’s where he kind of let me help him and add on to his game and I guess embraced it.”

It also made his nearly unstoppable on offense.

Ambo scored twice in a regional final win over Cedar Rapids Jefferson and had two goals each in state tournament wins over Ankeny and Cedar Rapids Washington.

“The first goal that he scored against Ankeny he was all the way in the other team’s box and was on the move and ended up picking off a pass and scoring a goal,” Stiles said. “That wouldn’t have happened as a freshman because he would have been like ‘well I will just score a goal later on’ that was the effort he was giving this season.”

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