Hurting for a chance, Young begins anew

Moments before the start of Friday night's season-opening match against Michigan State, Greg Young walked to his position at center back on Ludwig Field, soaking up the atmosphere around him.

The Terrapin men's soccer senior hugged a couple of his teammates, slapped a few others on the back and then jumped around, anxiously awaiting the start of the match.

Only then did it finally hit him: Everything he had worked for during the past three years had paid off. For the first time, Young found himself nestled in the starting lineup on opening night.

"You get the butterflies before every game, but especially then," Young said. "You hear your name called, and every hair on your body raises, and you just get a feeling that you've really never felt before."

After losing only one starting defender to graduation, coach Sasho Cirovski tapped Young as the final piece for the No. 9 Terps' backline, beating out redshirt freshman Jake Pace and true freshmen Gordon Murie and Marques Fernandez.

"Probably the big surprise in the back has been Greg Young," Cirovski said at the team's Media Day on Aug. 31. "[He] has always had a great maturity about him, but it's the first time he's had a sustained level of health."

During his first three seasons in College Park, Young never cracked the rotation, let alone made an impact. Injuries plagued the Ballston Lake, N.Y., native, and the team's enormous depth never helped much, either.

Before transferring to the Terps in 2007, Young showed promise in his freshman year at Siena, starting 10 games. But after a lengthy club and high school career free of injury, Young sustained two concussions in 2006 with the Saints, broke his foot in 2007 with the Terps and then suffered a high ankle sprain in 2008.

In his first three years in College Park, Young appeared in only nine games.

It's a different situation these days. Should Young hold his spot on the Terp backline for another month, the senior will have more starts this season than he had appearances in his previous three.

"As soon as I got healthy, I told myself that I'd get a shot," Young said, "whether it would be coming off the bench or in the starting lineup."

At 5-foot-9, Young isn't a prototypical center back, lacking the ideal size and strength. But he has made up for it with surprising athleticism.

"He's just a ridiculous athlete," defender Alex Lee said. "He's great in the air."

Young said he tries to model his game after former standout Terp defenders A.J. DeLaGarza and Spencer Allen, both of whom had similarly small builds.

"He's realized his role," defender Ethan White said. "I'm more of a physical center back, and he's more of a guy that just wins balls. He plays very hard, and he has to show his strength on the field."

"You take what you have because you can't change how tall you are," Young said. "My job is to be an active, vocal leader out there and help the younger guys on both sides of me."

His opening-night nerves helped make his opening start far from perfect. He was part of a defense that allowed four goals, and at one point he even launched a clearance into the chest of White, who was just feet away. Cirovski labeled his performance as "a little bit gun-shy."

Two days later, Young rebounded to help pitch a shutout against Northeastern, further solidifying his unlikely spot on the backline.

Young wasn't an All-American in high school — he hasn't come close in college and probably never will — but he has carved out his own niche in the starting lineup of a top-10 team looking to go far this year.

"When you see a guy like that emerging from the starting lineup after barely playing three of his first years, you know we're doing a good job of caring about all the players on our team," Cirovski said at Media Day. "If they're good enough, they'll play. Greg's been a very positive surprise for us."

ceckard@umdbk.com