Friend set to start pro soccer career Ellsworth native got noticed in UM game

Cooper Friend may have been a victim of circumstance during a college soccer career that concluded with an 0-17 senior season.

The midfielder played for a University of Maine team that did not match most of its opposition in terms of financial support – the Black Bears had just 3.5 scholarships last fall, compared to the NCAA maximum of 9.9 – and based on that fact alone the results were somewhat predictable.

“It was definitely frustrating at times,” said Friend.

But Friend is more a beneficiary of soccer circumstance these days, circumstance that has led him to the start of a professional career with the Carolina RailHawks, an expansion team in the United Soccer Leagues’ first division.

The 24-year-old Friend, a defender for the Railhawks, currently is participating in preseason practices in advance of the team’s inaugural game on Saturday, April 21, against the Minnesota Thunder at SAS Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.

“It’s definitely a lot quicker than college soccer, and the guys are a lot bigger and stronger,” said Friend, who graduated from Maine last December with a degree in business management and now is living in Raleigh, N.C.

“I’m starting to get used to the speed of the game, but quickness is the biggest difference.”

Friend has pondered the possibility of pursuing a professional soccer future since relatively early in his career at Maine, but it was a chance encounter with Carolina coach Scott Schweitzer that led to his signing his first pro contract.

“It was actually pretty random,” Friend said. “Maine played down at North Carolina State last season, and the [RailHawks] coach by chance was at the game. It turns out that he’s a N.C. State alum, and he goes to a lot of the games.”

Schweitzer was impressed enough with Friend’s play in Maine’s 1-0 loss at N.C. State to eventually start an e-mail exchange between the two, which subsequently led Friend meeting Schweitzer during a visit to North Carolina in February.

“I had a couple of other options to go down and try out for a couple of different teams in the same league,” Friend said. “But when I went down there for two days for a visit and to meet the coach and see the area, right then and there I knew this was what I wanted to do.”

Friend soon signed, then joined the RailHawks for the start of preseason workouts March 20.

Friend is one of the younger players on the RailHawks, who play in a league that he described as just a step below the top professional league in the nation, Major League Soccer (MLS).

The RailHawks will play a 28-game schedule that concludes Sept. 9, followed by league playoffs. The 12-team USL first division has additional teams in Seattle, Rochester, N.Y., Atlanta, Charleston, S.C., Miami, Portland, Ore., St. Paul (Minnesota), San Francisco (California), Vancouver, Montreal and Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

Friend won’t be the only Mainer on a USL first division roster. Former Falmouth High School and Stanford University star Roger Levesque is a fifth-year member of the Seattle Sounders.

Friend was a schoolboy soccer standout under coach Brian Higgins at Ellsworth High, earning all-conference and All-Eastern Maine honors and helping the Eagles win the 1999 Eastern Maine Class B championship.

After prepping for a year at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass., where he earned Western New England and All-New England prep school honors, Friend joined the University of Maine program.

In 2002 he was named to the America East All-Rookie Team, and the next season he earned All-America East first-team honors.

“It was probably by my sophomore year in college I thought maybe I could go a little further with soccer,” Friend said.

That optimism was dampened the next year, when he played just four games before suffering a season-ending ankle injury.

He returned to the lineup in 2005 and started in 13 of 14 games he played for the Black Bears, and chipped in with three assists.

He then led the Black Bears with four goals and three assists as a senior, and finished his career at Maine with five goals and 10 assists.

Friend currently has a one-year deal with Carolina, but hopes it is the start of a lengthy relationship.

“I want to play as long as I can,” he said, “and see where it takes me.”