University of North Carolina Athletics
Amato: Old Men McKinney, King Leading Strong Tar Heel Defense
October 6, 2010 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 6, 2010
by Neil Amato, TarHeelBlue.com
To call Drew McKinney and Brett King old men would not be entirely accurate. Yes, they've been part of the UNC men's soccer team forever, and still they have an additional year of eligibility for Elmar Bolowich's Tar Heels.
To the team's freshman class, 12 players strong, they are old. McKinney just turned 22, ancient in the eyes of so many 18-year-olds.
To call McKinney a graybeard, well, that would be accurate. In a few patches on the right side of his stubble, silver hairs have emerged.
In addition to their aging, McKinney and King also have scars to prove that when they say "back in the day," they mean it.
The fourth-year defenders, both key players on a backline that has held ACC opponents to just one goal in four matches this season, have spent almost as much time off the field as on it because of a variety of injuries and multiple surgeries.
King alone has had four surgeries on his left foot for the type of fracture that limited former Tar Heel basketball player Marcus Ginyard.
"I got him beat by two" surgeries, King says of McKinney, his roommate, "but still it's not a good competition to have."
Despite the setbacks, King has been on the field for the Tar Heels in each of the past two College Cups. McKinney started every game in 2009 and each one this season for UNC, 4-0 in the ACC for the first time in school history heading into Friday's Fetzer Field showdown with another undefeated team, Wake Forest.
"It was a long road, but I'm glad I stuck with it," McKinney said.
The paths McKinney and King took to this point merged when they were still tweens. King starred for a Wilmington travel team; McKinney was part of the more established CASL Elite club in Raleigh. Around age 12, King decided to step up in level and in travel time, going from Wilmington to the Triangle to play for CASL.
McKinney recalls playing against King and goalie Jarrett Davis of Wilmington, the young stars of the Wilmington Breakers. "We said, `If we can get those two guys on our team, we'll win a national championship,' " McKinney said. "We ended up winning a national championship with them in (under-14)."
Though in their youth King was a forward and McKinney a midfielder, both have settled in at defender for the Tar Heels, who last season allowed 12 goals in 22 matches. In the ultracompetitive ACC, that trend has continued this season; UNC has outscored conference opponents 5-1. Three games were on the road (N.C. State, Duke and Virginia), and the lone home victory in that stretch was over top-five Maryland.
The Tar Heels' win over Virginia, the defending NCAA champion, was the first for North Carolina in Charlottesville since 1977. Plenty of soccer remains to be played, but UNC (7-2) likes its position at the midpoint of conference play. McKinney, for one, is hoping his comeback from hip and ankle surgery continues.
"It's awesome. Through my freshman and sophomore year, not playing and being out for so long - I was pretty much out of soccer for like two years - and them sticking with me and not like kind of pushing me to quit, I appreciated that," McKinney said. "It was really hard to see the finish line and actually envision me playing. So when it started becoming a reality, the spring before last year I started to play in the spring game. It just seemed like surreal, and it was just awesome last year. Hopefully, we'll do the same this year."
Bolowich wasn't sure he could count on either player. After McKinney had his most recent surgery, doctors weren't sure he'd be able to handle the grind of a full season. Now 1 ½ seasons clear of his last time under the knife, he's feeling good, if not a little creaky.
"Yeah, especially with hip injuries, some people call me Grandpa," he said. "I wake up and I'm like, `Man, I feel really old.' "
King broke the fifth, left metatarsal, the bone that runs along the outer edge of the foot, in the fourth practice of his freshman year, back in 2007. He had surgery that August and again that November when the bone wasn't healing correctly. While home in Wilmington recovering, he says, King hopped to the bathroom and broke the fifth metatarsal in his right foot.
Staring at two casts and knowing he would have to navigate the final few weeks of his first semester in a wheelchair, King took a medical withdrawal from school. He returned in January 2008, then broke the left foot again in a club match that June.
He was healthy enough to get back on the field for a few games late in 2008, including the national title game against Maryland. In January 2009, he broke the left foot again in offseason drills.
"These things are fickle," Bolowich said. "The fifth metatarsal is a very fragile bone."
King, like his roommate, feels a little old at times, though he's got 1½ seasons left as a Tar Heel. His left foot has an almost constant soreness, but the love of the game, and the desire to bring home UNC's second NCAA title of the decade, drives King, even though he was advised to consider quitting.
"I'm glad I made the decision," King, 21, said. "I could have walked away at any point. Even a few doctors I saw said, `You might want to think about it.' But I didn't, and here I am. It's kind of worked out."
Kind of?
"It has worked out," he said. "It's as good as the situation could have turned out for me."
