FRISCO - At the recent Frisco ISD high school graduation ceremony, they asked those among the hundreds of graduating students who had been in FISD since kindergarten to stand up.
In a scene that very few school districts around the area of this size could re-create, only a couple dozen students rose and one of them was FC Dallas U-18 Academy goalkeeper Ben Hale.
A Frisco resident from birth, since well before the tollway, IKEA and Toyota Stadium, Hale has spent the last three years with the Academy playing just minutes from the house where he grew up.
“It’s been crazy. Honestly it’s almost hard to adjust because Main Street was a two-lane road,” said Hale. “It’s been nice to have all these new things come into Frisco, but I remember coming to the first game at Toyota Stadium, seeing the stadium built thinking how cool it was that it’s coming here and the way it’s built into the ground.”
If there’s anyone who appreciates the soccer mecca in Frisco, it’s Hale. Having joined the Academy after his freshman year, the Furman University commit has been working on becoming the next top goalkeeper in a conveyor belt that has produced Mexican U-17 World Cup champion Richard Sanchez and U-20 World Cup starter Jesse Gonzalez.
The Wakeland High School graduate backstopped last year’s U-16 National Championship team not allowing a goal in six playoff games and recently returned from a tournament-winning appearance with the US U-19 National Team.
“He’s strong. He’s an athlete and he’s grown in that six-foot-one range, which is a good modest height for a goalkeeper at the next level,” said Academy Director Luchi Gonzalez. “But I think what helps the talents and the physical tools and the technique is his training attitude and his consistency in training. He shows up early. He shows up focused. He’s a role model to the younger guys and he knows how to be a soldier for the older players if he’s training with the pro team.”
Having allowed just 13 goals in 25 games this season, the defense will be huge for FCD as the US Soccer Development Academy Playoffs hit the Toyota Soccer Center starting on Wednesday night. FCD returns the entire starting back line from last year’s National Championship run, all players with NCAA D1 scholarships and all with the potential to feature for the first team one day: Hale(Furman), Eddie Munjoma(SMU), Reggie Cannon(UCLA), Brandon Terwege(Cal Poly), Hector Montalvo(Grand Canyon), Phillip Ponder(SMU), Juan Ramirez(UT-Rio Grande).
“It’s just great to have that confidence behind you and knowing that our backline is already so strong but then to have that faith in the goalkeeper that’s always there,” said Terwege. “When it does get by us, he’s there. He’s always going to help us out at the end of the day.”
The FC Dallas U-18s play Shattuck-Saint Mary's, DC United and Orlando City SC in a tough group. The matches will be Wednesday the 22nd, Friday the 24th and Sunday the 26th, all at 7:30PM at the Toyota Soccer Center and admission is free. All FCD fans are encouraged to support the future club Homegrowns.
For Hale, this upcoming week will be the last time he plays in Frisco for the Academy where he has grown up. Seeing the growth of the city and club first-hand, Hale says becoming the first team to win both U-16 and U-18 National Championships would be the perfect end to his Academy career, one he hopes to eventually convert into appearances with the first team in MLS.
“I think about it all the time,” said Hale on playing in his hometown. “I want to go back and tell myself what my future would be like to see my reaction. Thinking about it, it was so unfathomable [as a child] but to be so lucky to have the stadium built five minutes away from my house, I’m very fortunate.”
