Hiebert’s dream comes true

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This article was published 17/02/2022 (1338 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

​Kyle Hiebert’s time leading Missouri State’s soccer team has officially come to an end, but he’s not leaving the state just yet.

A couple months after wrapping up his seven-year career with the Bears, the defender from La Salle recently signed a professional contract with St. Louis City Soccer Club, an MLS expansion team. Hiebert will play for the club’s development ​side​, St. Louis City 2, of the MLS NEXT Pro League. The league kicks off its inaugural season in March with 21 teams, 20 of which are affiliated with MLS clubs.

“St. Louis came and showed a really strong interest,” Hiebert told the Free Press over Zoom.

“They came with a contract and an opportunity. It’s a place where my wife’s family is from so it was a perfect transition. There was a mutual desire. They really wanted me and I really wanted to be there. I didn’t want to wait around. I was like ‘Where do I sign?’”

A return home to play for Valour FC of the Canadian Premier League would’ve made for quite the story, but a shot at cracking the MLS was too good to pass up for Hiebert, who married his wife Cassidy in Dec. 2020 after meeting her at Missouri State.

“I have some good connections and there’s some great people at Valour FC,” said Hiebert.

“I’m not ruling that out somewhere down the line, but I’m very happy with where I’m at with St. Louis.”

Hiebert​, 24, ​leaves Missouri State as one of the most decorated players in program history. Season-ending injuries forced him to redshirt in 2015 and 2016, but in the years that followed, he was as consistent and dominant as they come in his 86 starts. Hiebert became the first player to win three straight Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year awards and was a two-time semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy which is given to the top NCAA soccer player.​ He also got it done in the classroom and was recognized with the ​United Soccer Coaches Division I Men’s National Scholar Player of the Yea​r award.​

Hiebert is more happy talking about what the team accomplished during his tenure. The Bears won the conference’s regular season title the past three seasons and enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2019 when they went 16-0-0 and won an NCAA tournament game for the first time. Missouri State bowed out in the first round of the NCAA tournament this year with a loss to Creighton.

“I had the opportunity and the privilege of being the leader and the captain of that group. That was something that I said to the guys as soon as the season had ended,” said Hiebert, who honed his skills with WSA Winnipeg, now known as FC Manitoba, prior to playing down south.

“I thanked them for all the work that tons of those guys had put in. That culminates not only in team success, but I was fortunate enough to get a lot of individual recognition off of the backs of a lot of my teammates’ hard work.”

Hiebert could’ve moved on to the professional soccer ranks sooner, but with the NCAA not counting eligibility​​ for the 2020-2021 campaign, he figured he’d come back for one more year and add a certificate in data analytics in accounting to the masters of accountancy degree that he obtained in the fall of 2020. But the calculator ​has been put aside for now.

Hiebert is currently in camp with his new club and will soon fulfill his lifelong dream.​

​”​My goal was always to help take that program to levels that it’s never been to before. And then when that ended, ​the goal was ​to play professional soccer. That was my dream and something I’ve been telling people since I was four years old when they’d ask me what I wanted to do. I’d say ‘I want to play pro soccer.’”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31