Hagerstown’s Roark Daughtridge, 12, has risen to national heights in soccer

Among his peers, Roark Daughtridge of Hagerstown clearly stands out.

The 12-year-old boy is 6-foot-1.

However, his prowess as a goalkeeper in soccer is even more distinguishable, and the recognition he’s received for it is historic.

Daughtridge, a seventh-grader at Grace Academy, recently became the first Washington County player to be selected for a U.S. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program National Team. He’s one of 18 players and two goalies on the national U13 boys roster, and the only member from Maryland.

Daughtridge was chosen from a pool of 72 players, including eight goalies, after a weeklong tryout in Orlando, Fla., in late January.

How did he make this happen?

“I’m really tall, I can react fast and my distributions are really good, punting and throwing,” he said.

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A year ago, Daughtridge, who plays for the Baltimore-based Pipeline Soccer Club, was selected for the Maryland ODP State Team and then made the ODP East Region Team.

“They actually notice me when there are a bunch of people around because I’m so much taller than everyone,” he said. “At the tryout where I made the national team, I made some good saves, and I made a really good side volley in the first game, basically a punt, and I got an assist. There were like four scouts watching that.”

Also of great significance, Daughtridge recently signed to join the fully-funded D.C. United Academy U14 team, which begins play in the fall, putting him on the professional track.

“Roark’s biggest strength is that he has such incredible faith in God and himself, and he just seems to will these things to be,” said Ryan Daughtridge, Roark’s father. “His mom and I just sit there sometimes and are like, ‘How do you keep doing this?’”

Father vs. son a ‘win-win’

Ryan Daughtridge, a 1999 Smithsburg High School graduate, played soccer for the Leopards and then for Division I Syracuse University.

His oldest son, Roark, began playing at age 5 with the Liverpool FC International Academy’s Western Maryland program in Hagerstown.

“My dad wanted me to be a goalie so he could shoot on me,” Roark said.

“I was a striker,” Ryan said. “When Roark started playing, I still remember this moment where I was like, ‘Shoot on me, shoot on me, shoot on me.’ And he was like, ‘Can you shoot on me?’ And he loved it and was like, ‘I want to play goalie.’

“I remember thinking, ‘This is amazing. This is a win-win. Now I can shoot and you can be goalie. Why not? I’ll just shoot on you.’ He just really enjoyed that position. And it was a chance for me to just slowly ramp him up in terms of the power of my shot and the training and stuff. I was able to say, ‘Let’s work on diving to the left,’ and I’d shoot it to the left over and over. By the time he was 10, I was literally shooting at full strength.”

It became somewhat of a show.

“On his previous club team, at Frederick, we had this little intimidation factor we would do before games,” Ryan said. “I would do his warmup while the two teams were warming up. I’d be out there, a grown man, shooting the ball as hard as I could at him, and he’d save it. And the other team and other parents would look and be like, ‘What’s happening over there?’ It was always like this cool thing we did. I kind of miss that now that he’s on teams where they don’t let me on the field.”

What does it mean to be on the national team?

As a member of the U13 national team, Roark will play in a big tournament in March in Orlando, featuring the top teams in North America.

Outside that, “We don’t really know what’s involved,” Ryan said. “It’s actually not a lot because there are not many international competitions at this age group. Most of those start at 15.”

Maintaining his national-team membership is key.

“The first goal I want to reach is to make the U17 World Cup,” Roark said. “This is basically how you get there, because you have to be on the U17 national team to go to that.”

His dreams extend way beyond that.

“I want to make the D.C. United first team (Major League Soccer) and hopefully play in Europe, like the Premier League,” he said.

“And the World Cup 2030,” his dad added. “We like to dream. You’ve got to dream. That’s just what life is.”

Roark is unsure if he’ll be able to play soccer on a high school or college team due to his commitments to D.C. United.

“If I make it to the first team when I’m 16 or 17 or even 18, once you play a game, then you’re not allowed to play in college,” he said.

Mastering a ‘niche position’

Practice doesn’t always make perfect, but repetition usually leads to success.

“Roark’s been training as goalie since he’s been 5. That’s why he’s so good,” Ryan said. “When you do something over and over again since you were 5, you’re going to be really good at that.”

Roark, who has always been tall for his age, obviously has benefited from a height advantage. So what will happen when other kids catch up to him in size?

“One thing I tell him a lot is that at some point it will be level,” Ryan said. “‘Probably within a couple of years, you’re going to be competing against people your own size. That whole phenomenon that you’re used to now is going to go away, and it’s going to be purely about skill, decision-making, professionalism, all that stuff.’ That’s why I’m really happy that he’s getting to work with clubs like Pipeline and D.C. United, because now he’s getting the best training. It’s not just me in the backyard, watching YouTube videos, trying to teach him to be a goalie. He’s getting the best training.

“It’s cool that he’s taken a position, which is kind of a niche position in a way,” his dad added. “Not everyone wants to be a goalie. It’s something that if you get really good at it, there happens to not be a lot of competition.”

Of course, competition is relative. There are a countless number of boys who play goalie in the U.S., and only two are on the U13 national team.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown’s Roark Daughtridge selected for U13 national soccer team