Ben Harwick is too young to have experienced the long-gone North American Soccer League, but he is old enough to appreciate how it’s affected his life.
The NASL, during its heyday of the late 1970s and early ’80s, brought the beautiful game to the forefront of American sporting life. Although it ultimately failed, the foundation the NASL started — upon which Major League Soccer has grown over the past 20 years — ultimately made it possible for Harwick, a 2008 Hanover High graduate, to find a career in the game he’s played all his life.
Harwick, 26, and the son of longtime Dartmouth College track and cross country coach Barry Harwick, is a sponsorship coordinator with New York City FC, one of MLS’ younger franchises and one known both for its connections to English Premier League giant Manchester City and its home pitch at iconic Yankee Stadium. The former Hanover High goalkeeper’s work isn’t as glamorous as it may sound: He doesn’t spend daily training sessions kibitzing with any of NYCFC’s megawatt stars, nor does he always stand on the match sidelines getting a close-up look of football men at work.
Without soccer’s previous halting attempts at infiltrating American shores, however, Harwick might not have had the chance to work in the game. Harwick, who tended net in parts of his freshman and senior seasons at Skidmore College, appreciates that.
“I try not to take that for granted,” Harwick said in a phone interview last week. “One of the most fun moments was in 2014 in the World Cup. We were going out to as many bars and restaurants anywhere to share games and get the word out about us. Now, every summer, there’s a different tournament that’s capturing the country’s interest. We’re seeing that come home in the league.
“I don’t take it for granted. The game is blowing up here.”
During an hourlong chat, Harwick talked about growing up with soccer, how MLS work came about and why the sport his father coaches appeals to him more now than it did when he was younger. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation.
Valley News: How does someone go from Skidmore to a career in MLS?
Ben Harwick: I had a pretty good relationship with my business professor, and I did an independent study with him focusing on MLS. I’ve been a soccer fan my whole life; I’ve followed the league, and it was an interesting business case. You don’t see a league start up out of nowhere and make some noise on the professional sports landscape. It led me to realize that I wanted to try to work in sports on the business side. I ended up accepting a place in a training program with MLS in its national sales center in Minnesota. That was right after I graduated from college in 2012.
VN: How did you get to New York after that?
BH: Most folks go directly to be placed on a team, becoming ticket sales representatives. I enjoyed the program and learned a lot, but I didn’t want to sell tickets, so I parlayed that into an internship with the league office in New York, starting in January 2013. That lasted until September. … I’d been applying for jobs (after the internship’s end) at a number of different places at that point and was waiting for the right opportunity when I got the position with expansion team NYCFC.
VN: How has the job evolved?
BH: I’ve worked on the corporate partnership team the entire time I’ve been here. It started off as more of a sales support role. We didn’t have corporate sponsors when we started, so I was doing a lot of research on prospects, putting texts together and doing a lot of organizational work. As we’ve brought more partners on, it’s been more of an account management role the better part of the last two years.
VN: How does the job most appeal to you?
BH: I get to stay close to the game I grew up playing. It fits my skill set in that I never was necessarily made out to be a player, never made out to coach professionally, but I’m able to be close to the game and use a lot of my skills that I held before the job. … Even thought I’m not around soccer every day, it pays off to be close to the game.
VN: What’s your typical day like?
BH: I manage 10 accounts directly, if we have a game that week or not. A lot of it is checking with the marketing programs that a partner may use that week: player appearances in a store, game-day pieces, whether they’re running advertising or marketing activation. … On Friday (for a weekend home match), I’ll go into the office and put together a timeline of pitchside advertising to make sure they’re allotted the right amount of time. There’s a lot of managing that process, which would be different if we had our own building.
VN: What’s the biggest misconception about what you do?
BH: We might be unique, with our office being in midtown Manhattan and the team being in Purchase (N.Y.), training at SUNY-Purchase. The biggest misconception is that you’re not around the game all the time. That’s something you get used to, and it’s totally fine. I get to be down on the field when the national anthem is played for home games, and that’s a huge thrill. I’m not (visiting) with the coaches and players all the time; I’m not in on the conditioning that happens on a regular basis.
VN: Given that Manchester City owns NYCFC, does your work lead to international travel?
BH: I’ve had the chance to travel to the UK twice in three years. Once was early on, back in 2014, when we took most of the staff over. About 20 employees went, watched a Man City game, met a ton of employees and saw what a proper club runs like. This past year, I went to the UK again for some global meetings. (City) has offices in eight different locations around the world, so it was all a coming together of shared best practices and what’s working and not.
VN: As important as soccer has been to you, both from playing and working perspectives, how is it that — given your dad’s career — you never became a runner?
BH: Something he did well when I was growing up was saying how important it was to be active, and that was sports for my brother (Chris) and I. Track is a team sport, but in being part of a team I gravitated toward soccer. I’m a much bigger runner since I graduated from college. I’ve played for soccer teams now and again, but my main form of activity now is running. I don’t know what that says about not running when I was a kid, but I’m picking it up as I get older.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.