Forged by FAU - Darnell King
Wajih AlBaroudi
8/2/2020
#ForgedbyFAU
This series focuses on highlighting former student-athletes in an effort to share how their time, education and experience at FAU prepared them to be successful, and to bring those principles and ideas into the world every day.
The series is presented by The Paradise Club
The mission of The Paradise Club is to strengthen FAU's athletic programs by encouraging private giving to support the athletic department's mission.
By becoming a contributor, or by maintaining your contribution in support of the Paradise Club, you help support one of the most vibrant and growing brands in college athletics. Contributions made to the Paradise Club provide the financial framework that makes our mission possible through scholarships, academic and medical services and facilities. Your donation provides a life-changing experience for our nearly 500 student-athletes.
To support or for more information on the Paradise Club, click HERE or contact the Paradise Club at 561.297.4621 or by emailing to ParadiseClub@fau.edu.
“It [scholarship amount] wasn’t anything crazy, but anything FAU offered is great for somebody with the ambition and passion I had for the game. The fact that they FAU even gave me an opportunity to be a part of a team [after] I wasn’t getting any looks at all was grateful for me, and I was going to do everything in my power to help the program and help the school do good things.”
Darnell King, a Florida Atlantic University alum and professional soccer player for Phoenix Rising FC of the United Soccer League, returned to play in July after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed his season four months.
The stop-and-start nature of this USL season will undoubtedly serve as adversity to some players. King, though, is uniquely equipped to deal with adversity because his journey is defined by overcoming it.
A Tampa native, King stood out at the high school level and even broke Gaither High’s all-time points record with 71. His production, however, didn’t garner commensurate college attention. Only Division II and III institutions showed interest in King, who wanted to play Division I because it gave him the best shot at going pro.
Then King’s club soccer coach told him he and his son were traveling to Boca Raton to visit FAU. King didn’t know much about the institution, but decided to make the four-hour drive once he heard it was Division I.
Kos Donev, then FAU’s coach, arranged trials for prospective players to show their talents. King flourished and earned a preferred walk-on position. It wasn’t the scholarship King wanted but he accepted the offer, nonetheless, because he knew he’d eventually play his way into one.
“It was a great opportunity,” said King, who joined the Owls ahead of the 2008 season, “and I took it and ran with it as far as I could.”
King capitalized on the opportunity immediately. As a freshman, the 5-8 forward started 18 of the Owls’ 19 games and recorded the team’s third highest point total with seven. The transition from high school to college competition is often difficult but King made it look easy, even while working part-time to pay for living expenses.
After King’s exceptional debut season, FAU awarded him a partial scholarship.
“It wasn’t anything crazy, but anything FAU offered is great for somebody with the ambition and passion I had for the game,” King said. “The fact that they even gave me an opportunity to be a part of a team [after] I wasn’t getting any looks at all was grateful for me, and I was going to do everything in my power to help the program and help the school do good things.”
Good eventually became an understatement for King’s performance. He was the Owls’ leading scorer each of the next three seasons, and his 38 points over that stretch comprised over 58 percent of the team total.
King continued to juggle soccer, work and academics over those three years. His scholarship grew throughout but was never full, providing King a valuable lesson about money at the next level.
“It shaped me into who I am today because as you enter the pros, you kind of go through that battle as well,” King said.
After his 2011 senior season, King figured MLS and international teams would begin showing interest. He was easily FAU’s top player and one of the Mid-American Conference’s best as well.
However, King endured a similar experience to his college recruitment: Teams at the level he wanted to advance to passed him over.
Then King, with FAU’s help, forced his way onto pro teams’ radar. Donev, who was slated to coach at the 2012 NASL combine, got King an invite to the event. The combine provided King an opportunity to show his skills and athleticism to teams across the country.
“It couldn’t have happened any better,” King said. “When I heard that Kos was a volunteer coach at this combine and could get me in, I was like, ‘I don’t know how anybody else doesn’t see how perfect this could be.’”
King performed well at the combine yet didn’t hear back from any coaches. Then his girlfriend and now wife, Kimberly Wolf-King, suggested he call one of them directly.
After initially rebuffing the advice – and saying it’s “just not normal” to make such a call – King dialed Fort Lauderdale Strikers coach Daryl Shore’s number as he and Kimberly walked along FAU’s Breezeway. Shore answered the call, chatted with King then offered him a preseason tryout.
King, as he grew accustomed to, then surpassed expectations at the tryout and made the Strikers’ roster.
“That’s all I need,” King said. “That’s my foot in the door.”
Since King was a young and unestablished pro, his Strikers contract covered only “gas money.” That forced him to continue working elsewhere while also completing his bachelor’s education at FAU.
King held five jobs concurrently over the spring 2012 semester: FAU exercise science student, lululemon salesperson, Rocco’s Tacos valet, car detailer and, of course, professional athlete. The workload was “a lot,” King admits, but says getting through it “made it easier to thrive in the soccer world.”
Midway through the Strikers’ season, King had the professional breakthrough he long dreamed about. An injury thrust King into the lineup, and he played well enough to earn starting duties later that season. His performance propelled him to a more lucrative contract extension with the team.
“It’s a journey,” said King, who has since played for his hometown Tampa Bay Rowdies, San Antonio FC and Nashville FC. “It’s not always going to be roses right in front of you. Sometimes you’ve got to go through the grit of it and you just have to keep a positive attitude, and if it’s something you really want to do then you’ll do anything to get there.”
King is now nine years into his professional soccer career, a journey he says “means everything” to him but is “far from over.”
That journey began when King was the “short guy with a big heart” in Tampa and continued at FAU, where his continuous fight for scholarship money helped mold him into the player he is today.
“It’s easy to get a scholarship your first year and feel like the man, but I didn’t have that,” King said. “I was trying to come prove myself to get a scholarship and make it easy for my family, for my parents, and make it easy for me. And even though it was still hard for all of us, I still knew what motivated me and drove me to keep pushing and trying to make it to where I can do it on my own. So, all of it being linked to FAU is great, and I think being a fighting Owl means a lot to me. I’ll hold that in my heart forever.”
