He Is More Than a Flash in the Pan : Soccer: At 16, Corona del Mar’s Boyce is quick and already a wunderkind in national circles.

That blur was Jason Boyce, the whiz kid of Corona del Mar’s soccer team. There he goes again.

Whoosh.

Not many can keep up with him. Those who can then have to deal with his skills. It’s not an inviting prospect.

Go to any Sea King soccer game and you can pick out Boyce in a second. He’s the one the others are usually chasing. It can be mesmerizing watching him dance and dodge and fly.

“Heck, I’d certainly pay money to watch Jason play,” said Ray Hales, his coach.

Can a transplanted Londoner give a higher compliment? But it’s one that is well deserved.

At 16, Boyce is already a wunderkind in national soccer circles.

His credentials are impressive. He is a member of an under-18 national select team. He has attended an Olympic development camp. He was even recently named first-team All-American by Parade Magazine, one of only 38 players honored.

Heady stuff.

“Really, there’s nothing for me to get cocky about,” Boyce said. “I feel soccer is my future, but I’m still learning.”

It’s Boyce who’s giving the lessons these days.

Right now, his focus is on a more local level. Boyce is the force behind the Sea Kings’ drive for the Sea View League championship and, then he hopes, beyond. He has 22 goals this season, many of which have come in key situations.

“You have to keep a man on him at all times,” Santa Margarita Coach Curt Bauer said. “You make one mistake, have one lapse and he’ll put it in the net.”

Many have discovered that knack.

Boyce, a junior, has scored at least one goal in five of the last six games. Against Newport Harbor, he scored twice in the second half to bring the Sea Kings from behind for a 2-1 victory. Against Woodbridge he had a goal late in the second half to give them a 3-2 victory. Against Estancia he scored three goals, two in the second half, in a 5-3 victory.

With Boyce, these things are just habit. Any wonder the Sea Kings sit atop the Sea View League standings and are ranked third in Orange County with an 18-0-4 record?

“Jason has the gifted ability and the knowledge that all great soccer players need,” Hales said. “He also has such great speed, it makes him a pleasure to watch. We call him ‘The Flash.’ ”

Boyce is fast all right. He is the defending Sea View League champion in the 100 and 200 meters and the long jump.

His time in the 100 was 10.9 seconds at the league finals last year.

“Jason is so fast that I’ve seen other players just try reach out and try to tackle him, like it’s football,” Hales said. “That’s real frustration.”

Boyce never tried his speed on a higher level. He has missed the Southern Section track and field meet the last two years because he was away playing soccer for his club team.

As he said, soccer is his future.

“He has all the God-given ability, but he doesn’t let it go at that,” Hales said. “He’s very dedicated to the sport.”

And has been since he was 8.

It was then that Boyce approached his mother and asked to play soccer one day. She was hardly surprised.

“I used to buy all these toys, like Tonka trucks, but all he ever wanted to do was kick a ball around,” Cindy Wyrick said.

She signed him up to play AYSO and unleased him on an unsuspecting league. Boyce scored four goals in his first game.

“Everybody was hugging me and slapping me on the back,” Boyce said. “I didn’t know you were suppose to be happy. I didn’t know it was a big deal. I guess I was clueless.”

He got educated in a hurry.

Boyce scored goals, getting as many as eight in a game. When he advanced to the club level, he still continued to score.

“His team was playing in Fresno one time against a team that was two years older,” Wyrick said. “It was so cold that day that no one could move. It had to be in the 30s. But there was Jason running around, beating people. He got the only two goals that day.”

Boyce scored 18 goals as a freshman and 24 last season. He was named first-team all-county in the process.

“Soccer is a creative game,” Boyce said. “There are so many tricks you have to learn. I’m not saying I can score whenever I want to, but when we need a score, I try to create.”

Boyce’s abilities have taken him far and away. He was invited to participate in the Olympic development camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., last spring. He also went to London with the select team last summer.

It’s taken a lot of work for him to reach that level, but Boyce puts in the time. Even at night, he will sit in his room juggling a soccer ball to stay sharp.

The end product is hard to beat, not mention catch.

“I think people make soccer a lot harder than it really is,” Boyce said. “I’m not saying it’s an easy game, but you just have to keep it simple.”

And with his ability, it is just that.