River Hill boys’ soccer coach Matt Shagogue first met Donovan Pines as a tall gangly teenager with loads of potential.
Entering his freshman year at River Hill, Pines was one of several highly talented young players Shagogue hoped would lead his program to another state title.
“All legs and 130 pounds soaking wet,” the longtime Hawks coach said of the Clarksville native.
As a freshman in 2012, the 6-foot-4 Pines started on varsity, serving as a defensive midfielder. Pines’ true position, center back, would come later. But Shagogue wanted to simplify the game for the youngster and let him knock around with boys three or four years older.
“I knew he was going to be overmatched physically, but I thought he could not only handle it but it would be good for him,” Shagogue said. “My thought process was this is going to be good down the road.”
That season would ultimately be Pines’ last in a River Hill uniform. Ahead of his sophomore year, he opted to join D.C. United’s developmental team. Pines went on to play three years at the University of Maryland and win a national title in 2018 under Sasho Cirovski. The following January he signed with D.C. United.
More than a decade after he left River Hill, Pines once again made a difficult choice to change teams for the betterment of his career. In January, after five seasons with D.C. United, he signed an 18-month contract with Barnsley in League One, English football’s third tier.
Pines played four matches with Barnsley in February and March until a thigh injury ended his season. He has turned his attention to getting ready for the 2024-25 campaign.
The injury aside, there are similarities between both choices made 12 years apart. Pines might have stayed with River Hill and been a part of the Hawks’ Class 3A state championship team in 2014. Years later, Shagogue doesn’t begrudge Pines’ decision to leave.
“That was the choice he made and it certainly worked out,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier for him and I hope he’s successful for a long time.”
Pines, too, could have played a sixth season with United, which is currently rebuilding under first-year coach Troy Lesesne. The roster is one of the youngest in MLS and includes fellow Marylander Jacob Murrell. But for Pines, the move was much needed — a fresh start on a new team for which he might be able to play regular minutes and continue to grow as a player.
“I wanted a new start and just prove I’m a worthy player,” Pines said in a call from England in early March, a few weeks after he arrived in South Yorkshire. “If I can play here, I feel like I can play anywhere. … It’s kind of like gambling on myself and sometimes you’ve got to do that.”
Pines made his debut against Fleetwood Town Feb. 17, playing the final 30 minutes of a critical 2-1 victory. Every point matters at this stage in an English football season, especially for a team like Barnsley, which is competing for promotion.
In League One, the top two teams in the table are promoted to the league above, known as The Championship. The teams that finish third through sixth compete in a playoff to determine the final team to win promotion. When Pines arrived, the Reds were solidly in the top six.
As he entered the game against Fleetwood, the home supporters at Oakwell Stadium began singing a rendition of Estelle’s “American Boy.”
“I really want to get promoted with you,” they sang. “You’ll be my American boy, American boy.”
Hearing his name sung in an English football stadium was a dream come true for Pines. Since he was a teenager, Pines, who turned 26 on March 7, had dreamed of playing internationally. In high school, he was invited to participate in trials in Liverpool and trained with Club Internazionale in Italy in 2015.
With Barnsley, Pines showed almost immediately that he belonged. After being named to the starting 11 for the first time against Derby County, Pines scored a crucial goal in the early minutes of the second half against Wycombe Wanderers. It was his first goal in nearly nine months.
On a corner kick in the 56th minute, the towering defender used the same speed Shagogue had marveled at in Clarksburg to pounce on a bouncing ball in the box, poking a shot with his right foot past the keeper. Pines raised his arms in triumph as if a giant weight had been lifted off his back. The goal drew Barnsley level at two goals apiece and helped catapult it to a 4-2 win.
Three days later, Pines again found pay dirt against Bolton Wanderers. Just two minutes into the second half, holding a 1-0 lead, Barnsley won a corner. A shot by Devante Cole was blocked and the deflected ball sat up for Pines, who smashed a shot that hit the crossbar and went in.
The screamer drew renditions of “American Boy” from the crowd and chants of “USA! USA!” as Pines was mobbed by his teammates.
“That’s the best goal I’ve ever scored in my professional career,” he said. “I couldn’t believe that went in.”
And while Pines seemed to have reached South Yorkshire in peak form, not everything has been a smooth transition. He is the first to admit that moving to a new country thousands of miles from his friends, family and his dog, a 2-year-old French bulldog named Oden, has been trying.
Pines’ first game against Derby was “the worst field I’ve ever been on,” he said, a sharp contrast from the immaculately manicured pitch at Audi Field in Washington. And integrating himself into the close-knit culture of a football locker room while navigating English society has been a challenge at times, too.
But his teammates have welcomed him in, spent time with him away from the pitch and taught him a few important slang terms — “geezer” is another word for man or bro, for example, while “apples and pears” is Cockney for stairs, he says.
Pines has also learned to appreciate beans and toast for breakfast and to save the fish and chips for Fridays.
He has relied on the same pastimes that kept him sane back home.
On an off day in early March, he had just returned from a quick jaunt to nearby Leeds and Sheffield to see the sights and grab some lunch with teammate Barry Cotter before heading home on the train.
He found a church to attend and has been learning guitar. Cotter, a right back, lives in the same building, which sits about a 12-minute walk from the training facility.
It also helped that Pines knew Barnsley manager Neill Collins. Pines had first come on Collins’ radar when the latter was coaching the Tampa Bay Rowdies from 2018-2023. Pines was a rookie playing with second-division Loudon United.
“I’ve never had a defender as a coach,” Pines said of Collins, 40, who made more than 400 appearances for club and country during a 17-year career. “It’s really cool to understand his tactics and tutelage based on a defensive perspective. … I felt like I was learning a lot in a short amount of time.”
In mid-April, Barnsley sat in fifth place and was heading toward playing in the promotion playoff come May. But Pines won’t be able to help in that fight.
Against Bolton on March 5, Pines felt something in his leg but kept playing. After the match, he learned the injury was more severe than he anticipated. He underwent season-ending thigh surgery in mid-March. Pines’ focus now turns to rehabbing his injury and being ready for preseason work later this summer.
In the years after Pines opted to play for United’s development team instead of River Hill, Shagogue asked him a few times if he was interested in returning to the Hawks.
“I would rib him, ‘It’s your senior year. Come and play,'” Shagogue said.
Pines never did, but his former coach never minded. He made the right choice for himself. And that’s all that mattered.
Photo Credit: Hannah Wagner/D.C. United