Rhett Stowe Harty (born March 8, 1970, in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

) is an American former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

defender who spent one season in the

Western Soccer League The Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer ...

, one in the

Continental Indoor Soccer League The Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) was a professional indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997. History In the summer of 1989 Dr Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and California Sports, told his executive Vice ...

, one in the

USISL The United States Interregional Soccer League (USISL) was a semi-professional men's outdoor soccer league that played six seasons from 1989 to 1994. It was the first outdoor league to be operated by the organization known today as the United ...

and three with the MetroStars of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

Career

High School and college

Harty grew up in Los Angeles and attended

Servite High School Servite High School is a private, Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized ...

where he played on the boys’ soccer team. He was a Parade Magazine high school All American in 1987 and 1988.
/sup> After graduating from Servite in 1988, he entered

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He played three years, then red shirted a season while he played with the U.S. Olympic soccer team as it qualified for the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. A late injury kept him from travelling with the team. He returned to Stanford and graduated in 1993 with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in history and classical studies. During his final year of college, Harty had an internship with an electrophysiology doctor. After graduation, the doctor offered him a position in his practice, but Harty declined and became a professional soccer player instead.
/sup>

Minor leagues

In 1989, Harty spent the collegiate off season with the

San Francisco Bay Blackhawks San Francisco Bay Blackhawks were a professional soccer team which came into existence in 1989 as a team in the Western Soccer League (WSL). The Blackhawks spent time in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) and the United States Interre ...

of the

(WSL).
/sup> After graduating from Stanford, Harty was sidelined for nearly two years with a back injury. In 1994, he signed with the expansion

San Jose Grizzlies The San Jose Grizzlies were a professional indoor soccer team based in San Jose, California, United States. The team was founded on November 24, 1993, and played in the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL). After playing in the 1994 and 1995 ...

of the

. In 1995, he moved to the Monterey Bay Jaguars of

MLS

In February 1996, the San Jose Clash drafted Harty in the fourth round of the

1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft The MLS Inaugural Player Draft, held before Major League Soccer's initial 1996 season, distributed players to the league's ten inaugural teams. The Inaugural Player Draft occurred on February 6 and 7, 1996 after each team was allocated four marqu ...

; however, he never played a game for his hometown club. When

Troy Dayak Troy Michael Dayak (born January 29, 1971) is an American former soccer player who played as central defender. He spent his entire Major League Soccer career with the San Jose Clash/Earthquakes and nearly all of his professional career playing ...

, who was drafted by the MetroStars, demanded a trade to San Jose, Harty was shipped cross-country in the first trade in MLS history. Harty, a midfielder initially, immediately stepped into the Metro defense. After the team struggled early in the year, he shaved his head, and the Metros went on to win their next three games. The head would stay shaven throughout his MLS career, and Harty quickly became a fan favorite, earning the nickname '' Mr. Clean''. He scored one goal and three assists in his three years in the league, plus added a goal in

Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States. It is the country's oldest ongoing national soccer competition. The competition was first held duri ...

play. Rhett was on the forefront in the MLS players'

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

lawsuit against the league, challenging its single entity structure. Lowballed with a small offer, he chose to retire from soccer instead.

Post soccer career

Following his retirement from professional soccer, Harty spent the next six months traveling in India and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, soul-searching and helping out the people of the area. He found a new calling in medicine, and moved to the

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, area, where he prepares

pacemakers A pacemaker, also known as an artificial cardiac pacemaker, is an implanted medical device that generates electrical pulses delivered by electrodes to one or more of the chambers of the heart. Each pulse causes the targeted chamber(s) to co ...

and

defibrillator Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, specifically ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib) and non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach). Defibrillation delivers a dose of electric current (often called a ''count ...

s for patients as an employee of St. Jude Medical.
/sup>

External links

MetroStars profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harty, Rhett 1970 births Living people American men's soccer players Stanford Cardinal men's soccer players Western Soccer Alliance players San Francisco Bay Blackhawks players USISL players California Jaguars players Continental Indoor Soccer League players San Jose Grizzlies players New York Red Bulls players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' soccer) Soccer players from Pasadena, California Major League Soccer players Men's association football defenders Footballers at the 1991 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in football Servite High School alumni 20th-century American sportsmen