Kentucky Men's Soccer Star Takes Pride in Playing for His State

He was just a sixth grader who loved to play soccer.

That’s when freshman Kentucky Men’s Soccer player, Max Miller, knew that he wanted to pursue the sport seriously.

Miller played for the Lexington Football Club for three years after deciding to play competitively when he was in the sixth grade.

During his freshman year at Lexington’s own Bryan Station High School, Miller played on the boy’s varsity soccer team where the Defenders made it to the school’s first-ever district and regional championships.

From high school to the pros

Although he found success as a Defender, Miller opted out of the rest of his high school soccer career following his freshman year to play and train for Cincinnati’s Major League Soccer club, known as F.C. Cincinnati’s Academy.

When asked by KSR whether he regretted missing out on the typical high school experience to go and train for F.C. Cincinnati, Miller said, “When I look back at it, no. I mean I love what I do. I love playing this game so that’s fun for me. I don’t really regret missing out on any of those experiences because I wouldn’t be here without doing that.”

There were a lot of positives that Miller got out of his time at the Academy.

“I would say going there kind of put me in a situation where I really had to work a lot harder since the level was much higher,” Miller said. “All of the people there just pushed me. It really prepared me for the environment here since I was in a professional environment.”

C-A-T-S — Cats! Cats! Cats!

Throughout his time at the Academy, the University of Kentucky followed Miller’s career and offered him a scholarship to play for his hometown school in college.

It was an easy “yes” from Miller when he was offered to play for the hometown school.

“It’s nice that I have a lot of support from the people that live here,” Miller said about hearing from and ultimately suiting up for UK. “I’m not just playing for myself, but I can also play for all of the people that have been with me while growing up and it’s nice to have that support and be able to give it back.”

He also made it clear that playing for F.C. Cincinnati prepared him for playing at the level that he has to bring while playing at Kentucky.

Staying grounded in stardom

Miller was one of only two freshmen who started for the ‘Cats during the program’s stellar stretch in the 2022 season. All-American Casper Mols was the other freshman who started as a goalie for Kentucky while Miller played defender. Kentucky finished the regular season as the only undefeated team in the country but was knocked out of postseason play earlier than expected.

Although he’s a rising star at Kentucky moving forward, Miller puts his team before himself.

When asked what his main goals were for his time at Kentucky, Miller said, “So I would say obviously we want to win a national championship. That’s the goal that we have as a team, but also one of coach’s goals. Everyone on this team works so hard so I feel like that’s not too far out of reach.”

Recently Miller and fellow teammate Mols were ranked #18 and #7, respectively, out of the top 100 freshmen in the country. But Miller doesn’t pay too much attention to rankings.

“To be honest, I don’t really care any about it,” he said. “It’s cool but at the end of the day, it’s like why am I 18 when I can be number one? So just keep working.”

Kentucky was the top seed going into the postseason but suffered a disappointing end to their historic run after getting beat by Pittsburgh in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2022 NCAA tournament.

Miller said that the team had to focus on those important games in order to stay alive in win-or-go-home games going forward. He feels like if they stay focused like they did this past season, then they will give themselves another chance at a title in years to come.

What does the future hold?

As far as Miller’s aspirations for his own career, he’s taking it one day at a time.

“I don’t try to focus too much on the future but eventually I want to make it to the professional level to where I can be doing what I love and getting paid for it,” Miller said. “So that’d be awesome.”

Since Miller already has history with F.C. Cincinnati’s program, he would not be opposed to the idea of playing at the professional level there. However, he’s in no rush.

“I mean that would be cool but I don’t know. We’ll just see what happens,” he added. “Whatever happens, happens.”

Miller and the rest of his Kentucky teammates are already back at it, training for next season and another hopeful run for the elusive national championship. The ‘Cats are looking to get back to where they were before their early tournament exit.

If you are able to make it to a match in the fall, keep an eye out for #14 as he represents his city.