Xavier Nation Magazine Feature: Hometown Hero
Former Xavier Soccer Star Nick Hagglund has taken XU values with him to a pro career with FC Cincinnati.
Bob Jonason, Xavier Nation Magazine
12/19/2019
Nick Hagglund got a chance to come home to Cincinnati, and he couldn’t have been more thrilled. “I always thought it would be amazing to be back and play in front of my hometown,” says the four-year Xavier soccer star, a fixture on FC Cincinnati’s MLS roster. “To think that when I was a kid, it wasn’t even possible. I couldn’t even dream of this. And then it happened.”
The 6-foot-1 defender was acquired in January by FC Cincinnati from Toronto FC, where he played for five seasons and helped lead them to their first-ever Major League Soccer Cup in 2017.
Hagglund’s accomplishments at Xavier are well known. The Lakota West High School graduate played an integral part in taking XU men’s soccer to three NCAA tournament appearances and is a member of the 2019–2020 Xavier Athletic Hall of Fame class; the team had won just five games combined in the two seasons before Hagglund arrived. During his four years, he was first team all-conference three times and conference defensive player of the year twice.
Toronto FC selected him as the 10th overall pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, making him the highest drafted player in Xavier men’s soccer history. “To be back here with family and friends, to be close to my high school, to the college that I went to—just to be back in the U.S., really—it has been a real blessing,” Hagglund says.
FC Cincinnati struggled throughout its inaugural MLS season while Hagglund hoped to instill in the club the same positive culture he experienced at XU. “The togetherness at Xavier was something you couldn’t beat,” he says. “No one guy was trying to be the star of the team. Everyone knew their role, and everyone took their role seriously. They knew exactly what they needed to do to get results. I feel like I can take what I learned at Xavier and apply it here.”
The return to Cincinnati was a homecoming not only for Nick, but for his wife, Mary, who lived across the street from him growing up in West Chester. Nick’s in-laws still live across from his parents; in fact, Nick and Mary stayed with them for a while after making the move from Toronto. “We basically moved back to the street where we grew up,” Hagglund says.
The two families now help babysit the Hagglunds’ infant daughter. Nick’s sister, Jenna, a former international volleyball player, worked briefly with FCC and now works for Procter & Gamble. Club president and general manager Jeff Berding let Jenna know via text that her brother was coming home as soon as the deal was done, according to media reports.
Hagglund says he has several hundred friends in the area, and many have FC Cincinnati season tickets. “I always get texts, ‘I was at the game, it was great to see you.’ It’s really cool,” he says.
Xavier men’s soccer coach Andy Fleming believes Hagglund has taken on the role of elder statesman for FC Cincinnati, even though, at 27, he’s not exactly ancient. “There is definitely some ownership in the team and how he’s going to shape it because this is his hometown,” Fleming says.
Fleming recalls an FCC game when Hagglund was dressed but not in the lineup. After FC Cincinnati scored a goal, Hagglund jumped off the bench and was clapping and high-fiving teammates. “When players came out of the game, Nick was first off the bench to congratulate them,” he says. “That’s something I really liked seeing.”
It was Fleming who convinced Hagglund that he could be a pro, sitting him down after his freshman year at Xavier and telling him he had the athleticism and ability to make a living at the game. “I said, ‘If you let me push you and let us squeeze everything we can get out of you, you can do this,’” Fleming says.
“I saw a freshman who had a tremendous engine, a tremendous motor, great lateral movement for a big guy, obviously a physical frame and gifted in the air. I still to this day say he’s the best header of the ball that I’ve ever seen.”
From that point, Fleming says, Hagglund went from being an athlete who played soccer to an athletic soccer player. “He developed an IQ for the details of the game, specifically with how to be good defensively.”
One particular piece of advice from Fleming stood out to Hagglund. “He would say, ‘Just be Nick. It’s obviously nice to aspire to be like other players, but ultimately, you’re the only Nick Hagglund on the field. Do the things that you do well, and the rest will take care of itself,’” Hagglund says. “And that’s what I’ve always tried to do.”
Former Xavier assistant men’s soccer coach Kris Bertsch, now an assistant coach in the St. Louis University men’s program, is sure Hagglund’s presence in the community will be appreciated. “I know that professional clubs have signups for community service—the players have to make a certain number of appearances,” Bertsch says. “That won’t be a problem for Nick. He just does it because he wants to. His day is busier with community service than it is with soccer and training.”
Bertsch says Hagglund was an ambassador for the university and will be an ambassador for FC Cincinnati. “Nick could be the mayor of Cincinnati one day because he’s so well-liked,” he says. “I don’t know if you’ll ever meet anybody who will say a bad word about Nick Hagglund.”
Fleming concurs. “Nick is really a man for others,” he says. “His faith, his upbringing, and his parents—there is a lot of Cincinnati in his personality, and there is a lot of Xavier in him as a man. He took a lot of the values of the university with him to the pros.”
Hagglund has stayed in touch with his former Xavier teammates and coaches throughout his pro career, exchanging texts and Facebook messages, but the return to Cincinnati has made it much easier to see them in person. He’s looking forward to attending Xavier basketball games in the offseason and giving back to the university.
“I learned so much at Xavier, not just as a soccer player but as a student as well,” Hagglund says. “The intangible things I learned at Xavier helped me become the professional I am today. Some days, even if you’re not the best soccer player, you can step off the pitch and be a good teammate, and that takes you a long way.”
