Ellicott City's Swaim Stays The Course at Maryland

Will Swaim of Ellicott City made 12 starts as a freshman for the University of Maryland men’s soccer team in 2007.

And he started 11 of the first 12 matches this year as a senior redshirt for the Terps, who are ranked No. 2 in the country going into a game on Friday, Oct. 7 at Virginia in a battle of ACC rivals.

But it was those seasons in between that made Swaim, a graduate of , consider transferring from one of the top programs in the country due to lack of playing time.

“I am going to have a lot of good memories. They definitely outweigh the negative ones,” said Swaim, standing outside the varsity house in College Park after watching game film with his teammates.

The 6-foot-2 Swaim had five saves at home on Oct. 4 as the Terps beat Rutgers, 2-1, in overtime as Maryland improved to 11-0-1.

In his first 11 starts this year he had five shutouts and 25 saves while allowing just eight goals.

“He is really good. He is confident back there,” Columbia resident Jake Pace (River Hill), a redshirt sophomore defender/forward for the Terps, said of Swaim. “He is a good leader back there. He lets (defenders) know where to be.”

A 6-foot-2 player who was all-county at Howard, Swaim played in 13 games as a freshman and had allowed 12 goals with 34 saves. But in the next two seasons, 2008 and 2009, he played in just eight games.

“His patience, resiliency and his commitment has really paid off,” said Maryland veteran head coach Sasho Cirovski. “I think he has had an up and down career but you would not know it by the way he acts. He is a great team guy. He has always dealt with challenges in a positive way.”

Cirovski said that Swaim came in as a freshman in 2007 expecting to back up goalie Chris Seitz, who started 21 of 22 games the previous year. But Seitz turned pro with Real Salt Lake in 2007 and Swaim and Thorne Holder split time in goal that year for Maryland.

Zac MacMath started 20 games in goal in 2008 while Swaim started the other six as the team won a national title. MacMath started 21 of 23 games in 2009, when Swaim was a junior and made two starts.

It was during the two years that Swaim came off the bench that he toyed with the idea of seeking more playing time at another school. “I thought about it for a while. But after some serious thinking,” Swaim said, he decided to stay. And the Terps are glad about that.

Then in the spring of his junior year Swaim was approached by Cirovski about the possibility of taking a redshirt year last fall. “At first I didn’t think I could do it,” Swaim. “But coach told me to think about it.”

The Ellicott City product eventually realized that taking a redshirt year during the 2010 season would allow him to be the regular goalie for the Terps this year. Last season, had regular goalie MacMath been hurt, Swaim was prepared to take over in the net. But that was not necessary and now Swaim is the starting goalie.

The son of Judy and Bill Swaim, Will was born in Arkansas and was about 2 when his family moved to Ellicott City in the early 1990s.

He comes from an athletic family: his cousin, Tiffany, played basketball at Kentucky from 1995-99 and another cousin, Matt, played football at Arkansas from 1993-97. Swaim, a captain for coach Brian Boussy at Howard as a junior and senior, picked Maryland because he “wanted to be part of the best soccer program in the country.”

Since he already earned his undergraduate degree, Swaim is using his fourth and final year of eligibility this fall as a graduate student. He is not sure what the future holds as a student or player but is glad he stayed at Maryland. “I am leaving on a good note,” he said.

See Swaim in action Friday, Oct. 7, when the second-place Terps take on Virginia at 7 p.m.