Some professional athletes spend endless amounts of time planning their careers. Heading into college in 2006, Joe Willis wasn’t even sure he wanted to play soccer. A St. Louis native, he just wanted to go to school near the mountains.
But when he ended up playing for Denver coach Chad Ashton, he took the first step on an unlikely journey to becoming D.C. United’s No. 2 goalkeeper, a position of growing importance because of starter Bill Hamid’s recent inclusion in the U.S. national team picture.
“I just wanted to go to Denver, so I approached [Ashton] first,” Willis said. “I’m grateful for the chance because it all seemed to work out in the end.”
Ashton, of course, left Denver after Willis’s freshman season to join D.C. United’s coaching staff. Five years later, on Ashton’s advice, D.C. United drafted the 6-foot-5 prospect with the 50th pick in the MLS SuperDraft, even if United wasn’t sure about playing him. It brought assistant coach Pat Onstad out of retirement when presumed No. 2 Steve Cronin broke his wrist in preseason.
Willis was still a forgotten third stringer once Cronin returned to playing and Onstad returned to coaching, though it proved fortuitous. With no D.C. United responsibilities, Willis was free to be an extra goalkeeper in training with the U.S. national team when it was in Washington during the Gold Cup.
Willis also steadily improved, and he swiped the start from Cronin when Hamid earned a red card suspension three weeks ago. The 4-0 shutout in his debut was enough to convince D.C. United to call upon him again on short notice when Hamid went down with a hamstring injury last week at Chicago.
Willis wasn’t even at the game. Having been left behind as a precaution because of back spasms, he was watching on TV with his roommate, a United operations intern.
“We saw Bill go down, and about five minutes later [my roommate] got a text saying, ‘We might need you to drive Joe to the airport,'” Willis said.
When Willis got the ensuing start in Kansas City, that meant he also got to play in front of his family for the first time.
Exactly like he planned it.
“I couldn’t ask for much more,” Willis said. “… Getting to train with the national team, getting to play in a few games, it’s amazing.”
– Craig Stouffer
