As Justin Schmidt waited to hear his name called in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft last week, a certain anxiety struck him. While he was curious to find where his next stop would be in his soccer career, there was more poking at the nerves of the University of Washington center back than that.
Schmidt, who was eventually picked by Real Salt Lake with the 35th overall pick in the second round, didn’t have a television growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, spending an active childhood outdoors running, playing basketball and honing his skills on the soccer pitch.