Rio Hope-Gund (born August 20, 1999) is an American soccer player who plays as a defender who currently plays for

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 ...

side

New York City FC II New York City FC II is an American professional soccer team based in New York City. It is the reserve team and minor league affiliate of New York City FC, and plays in MLS Next Pro, the third tier of the United States soccer league system. Hi ...

Career

Youth

Hope-Gund was a four-year starter and served as captain at

Friends Seminary Friends Seminary is an independent K-12 school in Manhattan within the landmarked district in the East Village. The oldest continuously coeducational school in New York City, Friends Seminary serves 794 students in Kindergarten through Grade 1 ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

, helping his high school team to three-consecutive league wins and a state championship in 2016. He was also a four-year started with club side New York Soccer Club, helping the team to back-to-back NPL National Championships in 2015 and 2016.

College & Amateur

Hope-Gund 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 Philippines, the Philippines. Th ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. After redshirting in 2017, he made 16 appearances for the

Hoyas The Georgetown Hoyas are the collegiate athletics teams that officially represent Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C. Georgetown's athletics department fields 23 men's and women's varsity level teams and competes at the National C ...

including four starts and scoring two goals as the team won both the Big East regular season title and Big East tournament in 2018. In 2019, he started in all 20 games as part of a defense that posted 13 shutouts. Georgetown won all three competitions they played in: defending the Big East regular season title, winning a third consecutive Big East tournament, and claiming the first

National Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

in program history. After 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 identified ...

, Hope-Gund elected to return despite having been drafted by Orlando City in January 2021. He made a further eight appearances for the Hoyas until his departure for Orlando in April having helped the team top the conference spring series standings. He was named Big East defender of the year and earned Big East All-Conference first team honors at the end of regular season awards. In total he made 44 appearances for the Hoyas, scoring two goals and tallying two assists. While at college, Hope-Gund played with

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 sy ...

side

Manhattan SC Manhattan Soccer Club is an American soccer organization based in New York City. It has a large youth set-up, with over 80 teams and 1500 players spanning ages from 3-23. In December 2018, Manhattan SC launched an adult team that competes in US ...

during the 2019 season, starting every game for the club as the team finished third in the Northeast Division.

Professional

Orlando City

On January 21, 2021, Hope-Gund was selected in the first round (19th overall) of 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 ...

by Orlando City. He missed preseason camp, electing to return to Georgetown to play during the delayed college spring season before eventually being signed by the team to a one-year contract with three option years on April 8, 2021. He spent the entire season with the team and was named as a substitute 17 times but never made an appearance and had his contract option declined at the end of the year.

Loudoun United

On February 11, 2022, Hope-Gund was announced as a signing for

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

side

Loudoun United Loudoun United FC is an American professional soccer team based in Leesburg, Virginia. The team was founded in 2018 as the reserve team of D.C. United and made its debut in the USL Championship in 2019. History On July 18, 2018, the team was of ...

ahead of their 2022 season. He made his professional debut on March 12, 2022, starting and captaining Loudoun to a 1–0 win against

Indy Eleven Indy Eleven is an American professional soccer team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 2013, the team made its debut in the North American Soccer League in 2014, before moving to the United Soccer League in 2018. The franchise plays ...

Personal life

Hope-Gund's

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with t ...

brother, Kofi, played soccer as a goalkeeper at Amherst College. He also currently plays for NYCFC II.

Career statistics

Club

Honors

Georgetown Hoyas *

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

regular season:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

*Big East Conference Tournament:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champ ...

Individual *Big East Defender of the Year: 2020–21

References

External links

Rio Hope-Gund
at Georgetown Athletics {{DEFAULTSORT:Hope-Gund, Rio 1998 births American men's soccer players Men's association football defenders Friends Seminary alumni Georgetown Hoyas men's soccer players Living people Loudoun United FC players Orlando City SC draft picks Orlando City SC players Soccer players from New York (state) USL Championship players USL League Two players D.C. United players MLS Next Pro players