Jordan Ehart spent the fall of 2021 searching for distractions.
That summer, the UMBC men’s soccer defender had suffered a second tear to his right ACL while playing for club team Christos FC. He was facing another grueling rehabilitation that would keep him off the field for his entire junior season.
Occasional diversions helped — watching his beloved Baltimore Ravens or catching a UFC fight. So did the support of his family, teammates and coaching staff. But most of the 10 months between the injury and getting cleared to run again was spent imagining getting back on the field.
“I would say there [were] a lot of restless nights. I just couldn’t sleep just thinking about it,” said Ehart, a 2018 Mount Saint Joseph graduate. “Because after the second ACL tear, some coaches might not care about me coming back because players don’t come back the same all the time from it.”
Now, more than two years later, the knee injury is fully healed. It’s something Ehart barely thought about as he geared up for his sixth and final college soccer season.
“I am definitely motivated, if not more motivated than I’ve ever been,” Ehart said a few weeks before team practices kicked off in early August. The Retrievers, who finished the 2022 season third in the America East Conference (4-3) and 10-6-2 overall, kick off their 2023 campaign on Aug. 24 at George Mason.
“Just being here for so many years, growing closer with all the guys and coaches, this summer I’ve been thinking about how this is my last season,” Ehart said. “I want to leave on a good note and have our team be successful.”
It’s rare for a college soccer player to be part of a program for six years. But due to the injury that kept him out the entire 2021 season, plus an additional year of eligibility resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Ehart, 23, is an elder statesman on a team that features a mixture of experienced upperclassman and newcomers with budding potential. His time in Baltimore County has also allowed him to earn a bachelor’s degree in media and communication and enroll in a master’s program, which he’ll complete in December, shortly after his last collegiate game.
Anthony Adams can’t overstate how lucky he is to have Ehart in his locker room as he begins his first season as head coach. The longtime assistant took over in March for the legendary Pete Caringi, who retired after 32 seasons.
“He’s our everything,” Adams said of Ehart. “He’s versatile. He can play five positions.”
Last season, Ehart returned from injury as a constant presence on UMBC’s back line, playing and starting in all 18 games. Midway through the campaign, Ehart moved up to a midfield position, adding even more versatility to his game. In a 5-1 rout of UMass Lowell in October, Ehart notched his first collegiate goal.
That midfield experience means Ehart can play in a central defensive midfield role in addition to anywhere on the four-man back line (he plays right back for his club team). His adaptability is invaluable for Adams as he prepares to lead a team that lost several key contributors to graduation, including leading goal-scorer Ryan Becher and first-choice goalkeeper Quantrell Jones.
However, the Retrievers will return several important players in 2023, including three of their top four goal-scorers and all four defensive starters.
Senior striker Taylor Calheira, a Concordia Prep standout, finished second on the team behind Becher with 11 goals. Fellow senior Spencer Hanks, an Arundel grad who missed the 2021 season after tearing his ACL weeks after Ehart, returned last year to notch five goals and two assists. Senior forward Alek Wroblewski, a Wooten product, also netted five goals to go with four assists.
In addition to Ehart, the defense will be anchored by a trio of seniors. Dillon Nesteruk, an Eastern Tech graduate, started all 18 games in central defense. Jordan Travers, a Clarksburg product, appeared in all 18 games and started the final nine games. Hans Nesheim, a native of Norway, has started all 46 collegiate matches in his career.
Missing from the back of UMBC’s formation is Jones, who signed a contract with the Baltimore Blast this winter after graduation. Ehart said he will miss the towering 6-foot-3, 230-pound Jones in goal after sharing the field for four seasons and forging a bond that verged on telepathic.
“The relationship I had with him, we didn’t have to do too much communication. We kind of just knew what each other was going to do or what we wanted,” Ehart said. “Now, it’s my job, and our whole defense’s job, to come together and make up for his missing voice.”
Add to the mix some youngsters and six transfers and Adams has the potential to field a formidable team in the tough America East Conference. Sophomore Lasse Kelp, a native of Germany, started all 18 games in 2022 at wing and central defender. Junior midfielder Ismailcan Usta, also a native of Germany, scored four goals. He was the only player other than Becher, Calheira, Wroblewski and Hanks to net more than one.
The team also welcomes two local freshmen. Dominic Dubon is a midfielder from Sparrows Point who earned Baltimore Sun second-team All-Metro honors. And Calheira’s younger brother, Ryan, earned second-team All-Metro honors in 2021 and 2022 while playing for Concordia Prep.
And while all of the veteran players are sure to see a lot of the field again this fall and have an impact on other players in the locker room, Ehart’s influence as a three-year captain has already played a role in helping communicate Adams’ system.
“His experience has helped me as I’ve tried to bring in my philosophy,” Adams said. “You hope to have one guy who is an extension of the coaching staff. With his experience, he’s one of those guys.”
Ehart moonlighting as a coach likely began much earlier in his college career. In 2018, after he tore his right ACL for the first time in the waning minutes of a 2-0 loss at Albany, he told his parents he’d walk away from the game he loved if he ever suffered a similar injury.
Ehart didn’t miss a practice while he rehabbed and was on the sidelines for most games, staying engaged as a co-captain should, even if he couldn’t play.
“At the time, when I was recovering from my first one, rehab is not easy. It was harder than I imagined,” he said. “But when then the second one happened, I kind of knew right away that I wasn’t going to be done, just because I didn’t want to end my career with an injury. I wanted to go out on my own terms.”
By the end of last season, Ehart had surpassed 50 starts in a UMBC uniform, the knee injuries already distant memories. Personal accolades aside, the last missing piece of his legacy is a championship.
UMBC hasn’t won a conference title since 2014. That drought could end this season. And while winning isn’t a given, what’s certain is Ehart will be playing out his final games the only way he knows how, on his own terms.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of UMBC Athletics