Player Spotlight: Kyle Hiebert

As I read through the player profiles on the roster of CITY 2 when it was released, there was one in particular that stood out to me, 24 year old Kyle Hiebert. 

Hiebert (pronounced HEE-bert) was the Captain for 4 seasons at Missouri State University, a career that saw him win three straight Defensive Player of the Year Awards for the Missouri Valley Conference, as well as three straight Missouri Valley Conference regular-season titles for his team. Kyle was also named as one of 15 semifinalists for the MAC Hermann Trophy award, two years in a row, as well as being named to the United Soccer Coaches' NCAA Division 1 first-team all-American squad for two years in a row. All of this, accomplished after missing his first two seasons at MSU due to knee injuries, in both knees. 

The 6 foot tall Canadian, hailing from LaSalle, Manitoba, came to Missouri State University after playing for WSA Winnipeg in USL2. It was from playing away matches for WSA-W in Springfield, MO that MSU noticed Hiebert and recruited him. Kyle earned both his undergraduate and Master's degree in accounting from MSU, which lead to him also being named the US Coaches National Scholar Player of the Year. So CITY2 is not only gaining a highly skilled Defender, but an intelligent one at that. 

In his personal life, besides holding Accounting degrees, we know that Kyle is married to an American and has a Green Card as a U.S. resident. 

With Kyle's impressive college resume and there being only 6 Defenders listed on this initial CITY 2 roster, 2 of which are Academy players, I think we could be seeing a lot of Hiebert in the CB role this season.  In fact, to begin the season, we may be seeing a backline consisting of Ezra Armstrong at LB, Hiebert and Yaro as CBs, and Akil Watts at RB. On paper, this seems like a respectable defense for CITY 2. 

By Steve Rusnack