by Grace Chai ·
Friday, June 14, 2024
When Jayden Liu was learning to ride a bicycle, his father presented him with a challenge. If Jayden completed five laps around the neighborhood, he would receive a prize: a quarter. One can imagine how sunlight glinted off the bicycle spokes as the 6-year-old pedaled up and down Lancaster County Road, the whir of the tires the soundtrack to his journey. But when Jayden finished his mission, according to his dad, he returned the coin. When his dad asked him why, Jayden said he had already accomplished his goal. He had learned how to bike; he didn’t need the money.
Jayden Liu clears the ball in a Bromfield vs. Littleton boys varsity soccer game in 2021. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Jayden’s determination spurred his early success in sports, including soccer, tennis, and pool. When the Liu family moved to Harvard in 2009, he began playing for the under-12 soccer team, coached by Epiphany Vera. As a young athlete, he would ask his coach if he was doing a skill right. His persistence aided his growth as a player, and he became a defenseman for the Bromfield boys varsity soccer team. By his senior year, Jayden was known for his ability to head the ball into the goal, to the excitement of teammates and his coaches. He also helped his team win two state championships in 2019 and 2021.
“Whatever he applied himself to, he didn’t just succeed, he excelled,” Bromfield soccer coach Alex Horne said.
In an interview with the Press, his friend and teammate Kyle Tracey echoed Horne’s statement, saying Jayden “embraced … every opportunity around him. He never really shied away from any new experiences.”
While he was a strong force on the field, Jayden also applied himself to community service, working as a youth soccer referee and volunteering with Harvard Youth Soccer. When he was 14, he refereed a game amid heavy snow and wind, determined to take responsibility for his job. He impressed his father, who recalled that Jayden remained at his spot—soaked clothes and all—until the game ended.
When winter’s chill yielded to spring’s foliage, Jayden turned his dedication to the thawing tennis courts. He initially spent time hanging out around the tennis courts, according to his senior-year coach Ryan Holmes, but he started playing tennis his freshman year. In four years, Holmes said, Jayden went from never playing tennis before to bringing “energy and swagger” as the captain of Bromfield’s varsity tennis team in 2022. With the same charisma he exuded in other areas of his life, Jayden pioneered the team’s presence on social media, helping promote games to a wider audience. Carlson Beale, Bromfield’s varsity tennis coach, described him as a player who “always kept trying his best, even if he was having a tough time and playing strong opponents.”
Jayden faced skilled opponents in the pool hall, where he spent hours honing the cue sport. A nationally ranked pool player who began playing at age 8 along with his sister Vivian, Jayden competed in state and national-level tournaments. In 2021 he was selected to represent Team USA at Junior World 9-Ball Championships.
His longtime pool coach, Roy Pastor, remembers him as a “very bright, very nice kid” who had a mischievous side but “always did his best when no one was looking.” According to Pastor, Jayden was a hardworking player who cared about pool and the younger kids whom he mentored.
Helping came naturally to Jayden; he performed well in school and often helped his friends with homework. In an interview with the Press, French teacher Anastasia Brown-Westphal explained that for their final project, students had to write about a classmate and take a black-and-white photo of them. “I went back to look at … this material, and I realized how sensitive a person he was, and how interested he was in other people, in understanding his friends,” she said.
A smile tugged at her lips as she remembered Jayden coming into class, prepared with questions and reactions to new material, his humor ever-present as he joked with his friends in French. “He … brought a dynamism to every class and it was infectious,” she said. “He was such an extraordinary example of how to engage fully in wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.”
Jayden’s love of laughter was a hallmark of his character; it even won him the superlative of “Best Laugh” in the yearbook. He was outgoing and effervescent, with a sense of humor that lightened the mood, whether he was in French class or leading a meeting of the Business Professionals of America (BPA) club as president.
According to BPA advisor Kristin McManus, Jayden was “someone who always led with a smile and led with a sense of humor.” He was a proactive leader, emailing the advisors and setting up a meeting before the year began. Jayden listened to his peers and tried to take their perspectives, inspiring students to want to succeed with words of encouragement.
Jayden Liu on Victoria Harbor during a trip to Hong Kong with his sister Vivian in December 2023. (Courtesy photo)
When he graduated from the Bromfield School in 2022, Jayden spread his positive energy in college, first at Boston College, then at UMass Amherst, where he transferred in spring 2024. There, he became a brother of Theta Chi and studied finance to pursue his dream of becoming an investment banker. Jayden always made time for his friends, including Theo Bradley, also a finance major.
Bradley described Jayden as a “comfort person” for himself and many others. “As a friend, he always seemed to care pretty deeply about everyone’s life,” Bradley said. “He was never someone who was self-centered … he was always inquisitive … about other people and showed that care.”
In his family, Jayden showed this care and love continuously. He was creative and made board games for his family to play, even though only he knew the rules, his sister said. He was the one who most often said “I love you” directly to his mom. He saved up his earnings from his first job to buy his sister Vivian Patriots tickets because she loved watching them.
Jayden’s mom recalled how he paid tribute to his grandmother, who had helped raise him, by writing on his graduation cap in Chinese, “Grandma, Thank you for all you have done for me. You made me who I am. This is for you. I know you are sitting in the best chair in the room and smiling at me.”
One could say much more about Jayden’s life, but Brown-Westphal said it best: “It’s remarkable how many lives he touched. And I think that because of the kind of person he was, he probably deeply affected many, transformed others, just by virtue of what a complete and wonderful person he was.”