Brandon James Hackenberg (born July 2, 1997) is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a defender.

Early years

Hackenberg prepped at

Fluvanna County High School Fluvanna County High School is a public school about two miles west of Palmyra, Virginia on Virginia State Route 53. It opened in 1934 as one of the first county consolidated high schools in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. The school is not ...

but elected not to play high school soccer, instead choosing to concentrate on his club team. He played four seasons with Richmond United.

Penn State Nittany Lions

Hackenberg played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

for the

Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interc ...

between 2016 and 2021. He played 22 minutes in his collegiate debut against Oakland on September 5, 2016, as a true freshman before redshirting the rest of the season. The following year he made nine appearances including three starts. In 2018, Hackenberg's role increased as he appeared in all 17 of Penn State's matches as a redshirt sophomore including 15 starts. He was a key member of a defense that recorded six clean sheets. During the season he scored his first goal for the Nittany Lions in a 2–0 victory over Detroit Mercy on October 17, 2018. In 2019, Hackenberg appeared in 18 of a possible 19 matches. The only game his missed during the final four years of his collegiate career was against Northwestern on October 12 due to suspension having received a red card the previous game against Indiana. He earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for the first time as Penn State finished second in regular season play and returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years. After being selected in the

2021 MLS SuperDraft The 2021 MLS SuperDraft was the 22nd edition of the SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The SuperDraft is held every January prior to the start of the MLS season. The 2020 SuperDraft was the first held exclusively via conference call and ...

, Hackenberg returned for his redshirt senior season following the postponement of the 2020 fall season until spring 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. He was named captain and the led the team in minutes played, playing every minute in all 13 matches during the shortened season. He was named first-team All-Big Ten for a second time and also earned

United Soccer Coaches The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than ...

first-team All-North Region honors. With the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility due to the shortened nature of the pandemic season, Hackenberg returned for a sixth season in 2021. He started all 21 matches as Penn State claimed the Big Ten regular season title for the first time since 2013 before also winning the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2005. For a third consecutive season he was named first-team All-Big Ten. While at college, Hackenberg played for

USL League Two USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

side

Reading United Reading United AC is an American soccer team based in Reading, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1995, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The club plays its home games at Don Thomas Stadium on the campus of ...

in 2019, appearing eight times as the team finished top of the Mid Atlantic Division and made it all the way to the National Championship before losing out to

Flint City Bucks Flint City Bucks is an American soccer team based in Flint, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1995, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The club was founded in 1995 as the Mid-Michigan Bucks, play ...

Club career

Orlando City B

On January 21, 2021, Hackenberg was selected in the first round (22nd overall) of the

by Orlando City. Having returned to Penn State to exhaust his remaining NCAA eligibility during the 2021 season, Hackenberg signed with the team's reserve affiliate,

Orlando City B Orlando City B (or OCB for short) is an American soccer club that began play in 2016 and currently plays in MLS Next Pro. Owned by Orlando City SC and based at the Orlando City training facility in Kissimmee, the club plays its home games at Osce ...

, in

MLS Next Pro MLS Next Pro is a men's professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that is affiliated with Major League Soccer. It launched in 2022 with 21 teams and will expand to 28 in 2023. The league comprises 27 reserve sides for MLS club ...

ahead of 2022 season. He made his professional debut on March 26 in the season opener. On May 7, 2022, Hackenberg was loaned up to Orlando City first team on a short-term contract for an MLS game against

CF Montréal CF Montréal is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1992 as the Montreal Impact (french: Impact de Montréal, links=no), ...

and the team's U.S. Open Cup fourth-round game against

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 201 ...

Personal life

Hackenberg grew up in a sporting family. His father, Erick, was a star high school quarterback at Marian Catholic, later playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and Susquehanna. His mother, Nikki, played

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

collegiality at Lehigh. Hackenberg is the second of four brothers: older brother,

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, also attended

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

and was selected in the second round of the

2016 NFL Draft The 2016 NFL Draft was the 81st annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft beg ...

by the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

. He attempted to make the switch to professional baseball in 2020; younger brother, Adam, played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

at Clemson and was selected in the 18th round of the

2021 Major League Baseball draft The 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 11–13, 2021. In conjunction with the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the draft was held in Denver. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The ...

by the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

; youngest brother,

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, played baseball at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

, and was selected by the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

with the 59th overall pick in the 2023 MLB draft.

Career statistics

College

Club

Honors

Penn State *

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

regular season: 2021 * Big Ten Tournament:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

Brandon Hackenberg
at Penn State Nittany Lions * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hackenberg, Brandon 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Carbon County, Pennsylvania Soccer players from Pennsylvania American men's soccer players Men's association football defenders Penn State Nittany Lions men's soccer players Orlando City SC draft picks Orlando City B players Reading United AC players USL League Two players MLS Next Pro players Orlando City SC players