USL Feature
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
LAUDERHILL, Fla. – In every MLS SuperDraft, the available players are usually separated into two categories; Those that will be a project, and those that will be able to contribute immediately.
Former Reading United standout Matt Hedges falls in the latter category.
The 6-foot-4 center back is a projected Top 10 pick in Thursday’s SuperDraft, and depending on which team he is selected by could follow in the footsteps of fellow recent PDL alumni A.J. Soares and Tim Ream, both of whom made major contributions to their teams in their rookie seasons.
For Hedges, getting that sort of praise has certainly been an enjoyable experience.
“It’s an exciting feeling to know that people think highly of you and think you can step right in at the next level and can contribute right away,” Hedges said this week.
Hedges began playing soccer at a very young age, thanks in part to older sister Ashley, who herself went on to play for the University of Wisconsin. Once he began his college career at Butler, though, Hedges started to realize that the growth he was seeing in his game could take him into the professional ranks.
“I had grown so much as a player when I was there, and after my first or second year I started getting more praise and more awards I started thinking that I could definitely go to the next level and be professional,” Hedges said. “That’s what really caused me to raise my game even more, thinking I can make it, I can do it.”
In order to continue that progression, Hedges joined Reading United. Named to the PDL All-League Team in 2010 as Reading reached the PDL Championship Weekend, the experience he got playing alongside players like fellow SuperDraft prospects Andrew Wenger and Evans Frimpong and 2011 draftees C.J. Sapong, Corey Hertzog and Levi Houapeu proved invaluable.
“Reading was a great experience and Brendan Burke was a fantastic coach,” Hedges said. “He brought in the highest quality of players, and training every day with some of the best players in college just made you raise your game and I think it made me better as a player, it definitely did. Training every day and even playing against the Union a couple of times to let the scouts see how you can play, I think all of that has helped me tremendously.”
While Hedges wasn’t able to claim a PDL title with Reading, after transferring to the University of North Carolina for his senior college season he did play an integral role in helping the Tar Heels win their second national championship. Replacing former Carolina Dynamo standout Jalil Anibaba, a regular in the Chicago Fire’s line-up in his rookie season this past summer, Hedges not only marshaled a defense that conceded just 18 goals in 26 games, but also chipped in six goals himself as a dangerous target at set pieces.
Once the NCAA Tournament came around, the Tar Heels were installed as one of the favorites to claim the title, and did so with a 1-0 victory against UNC-Charlotte last month.
Not that everything went according to plan during their run.
“The tournament was all over the place,” Hedges said. “I don’t think we played that well in any of our games, but we managed to pull out wins in each one. I think that’s a sign of a great team, when you don’t play your best but you still get a win. It was just kind of crazy, in some games we were just playing awful, like against Coastal Carolina was one of our worst games of the season, but we managed to get some fantastic goals from Kirk [Urso], Enzo [Martinez] and Ben Speas scored for us, it was just a great ride.”
Speas’ goal, a blast from 25 yards, decided the final, with Hedges calling it one of the greatest goals he’d seen in college soccer.
“I was just ecstatic,” he said. “I knew at that point we were going to win. We could hold it down, we weren’t going to let them score, we were going to win this game.”
Now Hedges will have the chance to create a new set of memories, beginning when his name gets called and his journey in professional soccer begins.
“I haven’t really thought about it that much,” Hedges said of how he’ll feel on Thursday. “I think it’ll be one of the best experiences of my life, to finally become a professional and just know that there was a team out there that picked me and wanted me to play for them.”