All Dan Klink wanted was to show he belonged.
In his sixth college soccer game, Klink entered a scoreless contest for North Carolina men’s soccer, looking to make a statement.
Klink, a freshman striker and Loyola Blakefield product, had played sparingly after battling a viral infection during the preseason, losing critical time to acclimate to the faster pace and more physical play of the ACC. But he had started to build confidence here and there in his first five games.
Against the University of St. Thomas on Oct. 11, Klink and fellow freshman forward Ryan Dugan were subbed on in the 34th minute by UNC head coach Carlos Somoano and played well enough to start the second half. The decision paid near-immediate dividends.
Eleven minutes into the second stanza, Klink broke the scoreless deadlock with a headed goal from point-blank range. He wheeled away to celebrate at the corner flag, mobbed by his teammates.
Just 37 seconds later, Dugan received a lofted pass and headed the ball across goal to Klink, who flicked a second header into the net.
A little less than six minutes after that, another Dugan header found Klink, who streaked into the penalty area and bulleted the ball into the net with his forehead. With that, Klink had notched a hat trick in less than 28 minutes of playing time, the first Tar Heel to accomplish the feat since 2018 and perhaps the first to do so all with his head.
Klink’s offensive outburst led North Carolina to a 4-0 win.
“It was such a relief,” Klink said of his scoring barrage. “Of course, my friends were making fun of me that soccer is played with your feet. … It was kind of a weight off my shoulders. Everything in the past, from mono and fighting in practice to build my stamina, all the adversity just kind of vanished in one second.”
Klink’s historic performance was indicative of his relentless work ethic in navigating a difficult start to his college career. It catapulted him into Somoano’s regular rotation through the final eight games of the season as the Tar Heels reached the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament and the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
By season’s end, Klink had added three more goals — all with his head, of course — giving him six on the year, good for second on the team despite only playing 388 minutes across 14 appearances.
“You just put them out there,” Somoano said of Klink and Dugan, who notched three assists against St. Thomas. “And if you see a kid competing and working hard and playing for the team, you leave them out there.”
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Rick Klink, an avid sports fan, pushed his son to try multiple sports, including baseball, basketball, soccer and golf.
For a while, baseball was Dan Klink’s No. 1 sport while growing up in Monkton, Md. Soccer wasn’t a major focus until middle school, when he started playing for Pipeline SC. With this varied athletic experience, Klink’s hand-eye coordination skyrocketed, particularly from playing baseball, which likely contributed to his elite heading ability.
“Seeing a ball off a bat is pretty difficult … and it’s that first step. Are you going left, right, high, low? And you’re anticipating where that ball is, where that spin is before it’s coming to you,” Klink said. “It’s exactly like soccer when that ball is kicked. I am making my first steps forward, back, left, right and the defender doesn’t really get to have that first-step advantage.”
This can be seen with most of the goals scored by the 6-foot-4, 179-pound striker. When the ball is crossed or headed toward him, he is often the first to react, feet moving, head up, eyes locked on the ball’s trajectory, helping him connect with it first.
Mike Marchiano coached Klink for one season at Loyola Blakefield in 2023. He recalled Klink’s unmatched aerial ability and elite athleticism despite not knowing his multi-sport upbringing.
“Dan is one of these throwback players, I feel like you could probably put him in a lot of different sports and he would find a way to be competitive,” said Marchiano, who now coaches Maryland women’s soccer. “You could play him as a forward, you could play him as a midfielder. You could play him as a center back. You could probably play him as a goalkeeper. I just think he’s kind of got that ability.”
During his high school career, Klink came close to doing exactly that, yo-yoing between positions for Pipeline. As a freshman and sophomore at Loyola, he fought for minutes in the midfield before playing striker as a junior in Marchiano’s lone year coaching the Dons.
“He filled in a lot of gaps, and that was something that was very interesting to us,” said Somoano, who secured a commitment from Klink before his junior season at Loyola. “He didn’t seem like it mattered too much wherever he went. He just went and played hard and played well. But we knew he was going to be effective in front of goal. That was an easy one.”
In the fall of 2023, Klink and current West Virginia forward Sammie Walker combined for 19 goals, helping Loyola secure its first-ever undefeated season (14-0-4), on the way to winning the first of two straight MIAA A Conference championships, highlighted by an incredible two-goal performance in the Dons’ 3-1 win against John Carroll in the title game. (And yes, one of the goals Klink scored with his head). He earned Baltimore Sun All-Metro Player of the Year honors.
Klink followed that up with an even better senior season. Despite playing for his third head coach in three years, Klink scored 17 goals and assisted on eight more for the 17-2-2 Dons, winning a second league title and Gatorade Maryland Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
That high school experience allowed Klink to round out his game, switching between the No. 9 and 10 positions with Walker. But regardless of where he played on the field, his ability to head the ball past goalies was unmatched.
“His leaping ability, his timing, his bravery was truly outstanding — to the point where, for me, it was really clear that this guy could be one of the best players, aerially, in the country,” Marchiano said.
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As Klink began preseason training at UNC this past summer, he started to feel off. He was sleeping during the day and getting chills at night. He played through the discomfort for a day or two before finally going to the doctor and getting diagnosed with mononucleosis, which causes extreme fatigue and enlargement of the spleen, an extremely dangerous symptom for athletes in contact sports. Soccer would have to wait.
“Preseason is a great way to get a feel for the game, especially as a freshman, to get to know the guys, to feel comfortable with the speed of play and I wasn’t there, which sucked,” Klink said. “Not touching the ball for that many weeks, it’s not easy. It was definitely a brutal, brutal start to my college career.”
Klink has the ability of hindsight to look back on his struggles now that the season is over. UNC finished 9-5-6 (2-2-4 ACC) after being knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the second round by Maryland on Nov. 23. But during the season, there were no complaints from the freshman striker, Somoano said, even when his playing time stayed around 30 to 40 minutes per game during the second half of the season.
“Credit to him, he just did his job, and kept working,” Somoano said.
In modern college soccer with NIL deals, offseason transfers and high expectations of immediate playing time, that response is no longer guaranteed, the 2011 national-title-winning coach said.
“I call it the playing-time baggage,” Somoano said. “If [players are] so stressed out about what their playing time is, then when they actually do get their opportunity, they’re playing for playing time, not playing for the team. And that’s when it goes all wrong, because the guys that end up just going out there and trying to contribute to the team, they’re the ones who will actually have success and, ironically, gain more playing time.”
Klink fell into the latter category. After the St. Thomas hat trick, he played a season-high 62 minutes in a 2-1 loss to UAB, getting off a season-high six shots but failing to find the net. Though he never played more than 41 minutes in the final seven contests of the season, he had gained Somoano’s trust as a regular contributor.
“Having so much adversity [early on] when I wasn’t playing, I was almost used to things not going my way. So when my opportunity came, I had to make the most of it,” Klink said. “And I attribute that strength to keep pushing to the struggles I had early in the season. It paved the way for me to just keep doing what I was doing.”
With an entire offseason ahead of him, Klink has already begun preparing for a larger role as a sophomore. He wants to boost his speed and strength and keep building his confidence at the collegiate level. He’ll certainly be practicing his aerial skills, too, and perhaps aim to score a few with his feet. Regardless of how he scores his goals, Klink is eager for more.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of UNC Athletics
Issue 296: December 2025 / January 2026
Originally published Dec. 17, 2025