Rookie midfielder Pat Healey is under watchful eye of dad, Blast President Kevin Healey
Baseball has the Ripkens.
NASCAR has Pettys.
Football has the Mannings.
Basketball has the Barrys.
Indoor soccer has the Healeys.
Father-son combinations are prevalent in sports, but rarely does a dad get the opportunity Kevin Healey did in January, when the Blast’s president drafted his son, Pat, with one of the team’s first-round picks.
“It was a good moment for me,” Kevin Healey said. “I know how hard he’s worked over the years to get where he is at this point in time. It was a good feeling knowing that I was able to reward him with that, but also that he’d gotten himself to a point that it could not be questioned. He was someone we wanted in our organization.”
Pat Healey, who grew up in Bel Air, always aspired to be a professional outdoor soccer player. He idolized hometown stars Giuliano Celenza and Santino Quaranta, and used the Baltimore Bays’ youth club teams, Calvert Hall and Towson University as a path to a earn a paycheck playing the game he loves. But after failing to make a team in Major League Soccer — the country’s premier outdoor league — Healey used his experience from playing the indoor version of “the beautiful game” at Edgewood’s Maryland Sports Arena and White Marsh’s Freestate Sports Arena to take his career indoors.
“You play it, but you don’t play it as much. You play it for a month or two,” Healey said when asked about his indoor soccer experience. “I’ve done national stuff, but still it’s a learning curve. I’ve watched it, so I know what you’re supposed to do. Learning from an early age helps.”
Healey used his father’s connections to attend Blast workouts in between semesters at Towson, which enabled him to develop chemistry with stars Robbie Aristodemo and Denison Cabral — players who are now his teammates.
“Pat is really not that new to the team,” Cabral said. “I consider him a guy that knows the game, is smart, and he’s practiced with us a couple of times for the last two years. He’s always played indoor in his life, from Baltimore, knows everybody, great kid and he’s got some experience already playing outdoor. He’s a great addition to the team.”
But how big of an addition remains to be seen. Healey came of the bench in a 14-4, season-opening victory over Rockford last month, but it’s unclear how much playing time he’ll get when the team faces Rockford in Illinois on Saturday night at 8:05.
“He’ll play himself into his role,” Blast coach Danny Kelly said. “I see him as a midfielder, a guy who can get forward and score goals. He has great vision, reads the game well. He does a lot of the little things well. Ultimately, it will be him stepping on the floor and earning his spot.”
But the Blast wasn’t Pat’s first option. He worked out for several MLS teams before the Kansas City Wizards chose him in the supplemental draft. But he couldn’t make a team that featured U.S. national team players Jim Conrad and Josh Wolff, and Chance Myers, who was drafted with the first overall pick in 2007.
So Healey returned home and played for Crystal Palace USA, a Baltimore-based outdoors team in the United Soccer League’s Second Division — the equivalent of Double-A in the major leagues — where he recorded five goals and two assists.
Still, Pat is holding out hope he didn’t squander his only chance to play in the MLS.
“You dream about playing. I had aspirations of making MLS, and I still do, of course,” he said. “But to play for two teams in my hometown is a dream come true. Family is here, friends, you know, what more can you ask for?”
