Hard work is paying off for Ethan Dudley. The center back from Florida did not have a traditional path onto the Atlanta United 2 roster, but his perseverance has paid off. He has become a constant presence for in the squad since signing with the club back in May.
“When you're growing up, your parents always put you in sports and soccer was one of the sports that I was put in at a young age and started really excelling and stuck with it my whole life, so I would say through my family,” said Dudley.
Along with soccer, Dudley played everything from football to basketball to baseball as he was growing up, and would continue until he got to high school. Throughout high school, Dudley would actually play two different sports. He was on the Bartram Trail soccer team and was the kicker and punter for the football team.
“I kicked, I punted, so just what you would think a soccer player would do,” said Dudley jokingly. “In practice, I would play Scout Team Receiver and Scout Team DB just depended on what we needed. Our head coach was a great guy. He would let me go to soccer practice in the evening, and I would get to basically just go to one practice a week for football, plus walkthroughs, and then play the game on Friday night. He worked around my schedule really well, which I appreciated.”
During his senior year in high school, Dudley had to decide if he wanted to continue playing football or soccer in college, and ultimately chose to stick with soccer which led him to Florida Gulf Coast University.
“I think there were two big moments for me. The first one is when I was a senior in high school. I was figuring out if I wanted to play football in college, or if I wanted to play soccer in college. I ended up deciding, ‘Hey, I want to go to Florida Gulf Coast,’ and then when I did that, I was like, okay, you're basically all in with one sport, so I focused on soccer then,” said Dudley. “Then my junior year at Florida Gulf Coast, I was ASUN defensive player of the year, and then that's when the switch in my head turned like, ‘Hey, if I really push myself the next couple of years, the next year, like I'll have an opportunity to go pro,’ so I would say those were like the two big pivotal moments for me is when I first decided I was going to do soccer in college and then when I was there and realized like I'm actually pretty good at this thing and can keep pushing on with it for a career.”
College soccer was a place that helped Dudley realized that he had the ability and the ambition to chase a pro career. Not every player's pathway will take them from youth straight into a pro side.
“A lot of these guys now, they come through the academy system and where I'm from we didn't have that, so I just played local club soccer and was scouted through that route,” said Dudley. “That was basically the next best thing was to go play college and then see what happens from there, and then, obviously, a lot of guys have done that route and been very successful. Matt Edwards is a perfect example of that here for us, but that was just the next step for me and then helped me progress my career and improve and grow as a young man as well.”
Dudley would spend four years at FGCU where he played 48 matches and made 31 starts from 2018-2021. In 2020, he was honored as the ASUN Defensive Player of the Year and was selected to the ASUN All-Tournament Team. He would then transfer to Northwestern University where he led the team in goals, and was the only player who started in all 17 matches for the 2022 season.
After he finished his graduate year at Northwestern, he faced a new challenge as he transitioned from the college to the professional world of soccer.
“I had a really, really good year there [at Northwestern] to where basically after that, I didn't get drafted for the MLS draft, but after the draft I had three pretty solid options,” said Dudley. “I had a two year deal on the table from Crown Legacy. I had an opportunity with Chicago Fire and an opportunity with the New York Red Bulls, and just based on talking with my agent, the smart choice I thought to make was to sign with Crown Legacy, so that's where I went right away.”
Dudley did not get that much time on the field with Crown Legacy and finished the 2023 season in USL League One with Union Omaha. He wanted to get back into MLS Next Pro and turned down an opportunity to stay with Omaha for another season.
As Dudley reflected back on his time with Crown Legacy and Union Omaha, he expressed how pivotal these experiences were for him and his growth as a player and as a person.
“I loved my time at Omaha a lot. I enjoyed my time at Crown Legacy too. They both taught me a lot as a young man and as a player and helped me grow a lot, but it was also very frustrating because it's the first time that I've really experienced that really big punch of adversity, which I'm very thankful to God for, because it's helped me grow more and help me be where I am here in Atlanta,” said Dudley.
Dudley would then be thrown into another unknown territory. Early in the 2024 season when the first team was battling injuries at center back and players were moving up from the second team to play, Dudley came to Atlanta as a trialist in hopes of getting a contract with Atlanta United 2. He was trying out alongside future teammate and defender, Ramzi Qawasmy. It was Qawasmy who would earn the spot on the 2’s, but after he went down with an injury, Dudley received a call for Atlanta.
“Being a trialist was not something that I was really used to or whatnot. It was my first go around with that. I enjoyed my time here when I was here on the trial and loved the guys and the whole environment and got really good feedback from the coaches. At the end of the day, it's their decision to make, so whatever they choose is what they choose,” said Dudley. “Then obviously when I got the call back, I was like, ‘okay, let's take the opportunity and see what happens.”
In his trial, he played the whole time in a scrimmage with the first team. This experience helped Dudley realize that even through the tough patches, he was doing what he was supposed to do even if he didn’t get the job the first time.
“It was good to be in a real proper environment, and I was like, you know, this is pretty sweet. It's really reinforcing to myself after last year, like, this is what I know I can do and what I love to do. Then when I got the opportunity to come back in, obviously I wanted to take it and then make the most of it as well. You know, come in with a positive attitude and be a good impact in the group and perform is the big thing,” said Dudley.
It could have been a strange situation as Dudley joined the team alongside Qawasmy, who beat him out initially in the trial for a contract. Even though they were competing against one another then, that's not how Dudley sees it now.
“It's funny because in pro sports you always want to excel and you want to be the best guy in your position, but at the end of the day, you just take care of what you can take care of and you got to have a positive attitude. You've got to support the guy next to you and you all have to work together towards the common goal, and Ramzi, honestly, he's one of my best friends here,” said Dudley. “We get on so well. We'll go out and golf together. We're sitting next to each other in the locker room and, you know, crack jokes, we're next to each other in training all the time.
“If he's playing, I want to support him and I want him to play really well, and if I'm playing, he feels the same way about me. There's no, like ‘oh, I need to beat him out, or, you know, Kaiden's there. I need to play over Kaiden,’ like no, my job is to support Kaiden. My job is to support Ramzi, support the first team guys who come down and, and be a positive impact on the team, be a good teammate and, and help us be successful. When I get the opportunities, I want to play and I want to play well, and I think I do. When these guys get the opportunities, I want to push them to do the same, so you control the controllables. That's what I've been taught my whole life.”
With Atlanta United 2, Dudley scored his first professional goal in a 4-1 loss against Carolina Core on the road. It was a big night for the 24-year-old, but that's not the only thing that made that night special.
“The really special thing for me about it was my dad and my grandmother were both there at the game. My grandmother lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. My dad went up to go visit her and then brought her to the game. I haven't seen her in a couple of years, which was super cool, so that was really special for me to get to do that in front of her and in front of my dad too, because he's pushed me through a lot in my life,” said Dudley. “It was frustrating the result that we had that game, but that moment in particular was pretty cool for me, and then getting to see them after the game and share that moment with them was really special.”
Being a part of Atlanta United 2 means that there is a revolving door when it comes to who could be a part of the squad before games. Some first team players will come down and play some minutes and Academy players who are looking to become pros will come in. Dudley has embraced this new role of leader within the club with this revolving door.
“I think it's that mix of being right in the middle. My job is to help teach the academy guys because I have the experience through college and this being my second year as a pro, and help them grow as a man and help them be ready for the physical side of what the game demands when they're going to get to that next level,” said Dudley. “It’s helping the academy guys and supporting them, and then obviously when the first team guys come down, it's a mixture of encouraging them because they're not always the guys who are getting minutes with the first team who the club is still trying to develop, but then also to learn from them and their experiences that they've had. It's that perfect line in the middle of just continuing to kind of grow in my craft and then supporting others to help them grow in their craft as well.”
Looking back on a career filled with highs and lows, Ethan Dudley has learned invaluable lessons along the way. When asked what advice he would give to his younger self, he highlights how important it is to continue to work hard to be the best player and person you can be.
“I would tell myself to just possess a very humble attitude, but be very, very hungry to achieve success because what you accomplish in college has nothing to do with what you can achieve in the pro game. Be that perfect combination of being humble and being hungry,” said Dudley. “You want to learn, but you want to progress and you want to strive towards a goal, so just have that balance and maintain the right mentality and the right mindset. Don't just think because you were the best player in college, you can do whatever. You got to earn it every day in the pro environment, which is really, really cool. Nothing's given to you. Just got to keep progressing, keep being consistent.”
✍️: Madison Crews
📷: ATLUTD
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