SMU star center back Slade Starnes has officially achieved what every DFW youth soccer player dreams of: signing a homegrown professional contract with FC Dallas. 

“My reaction was to call my family right away,” Starnes said. “We grew up as season ticket holders, so to get the official news that I was going to sign a first team contract with FC Dallas…..it was just celebrations. My mom was crying and a few other things. We’ve always loved FC Dallas, we’re from here, I grew up here.”

Starnes is a Dallas product through and through.

He was brought up in the FC Dallas academy, even being named captain of the U-19 team.

When asked if his younger self would believe that he would make it to the highest level of American soccer, there wasn’t a doubt in Starnes’ mind.

“Whenever I was a kid and they would ask me, ‘”Slade, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I never said doctor, I never said astronaut, I said I want to be a professional soccer player,” Starnes said. “I felt that belief was unwavering. Over the last few years in college, in college you see guys go up and down, but I just felt an unwavering belief that this was the plan God had for me.”

Starnes spent three seasons developing his game at Furman University before returning home to join SMU, the only “Power 4” men’s soccer program in Texas.

While at SMU, Starnes won the ACC tournament MVP and was named Second Team All-American.

“To have my family at the games was the best,” Starnes said. “To give them big hugs and see them celebrate goals and sometimes eat after…there’s nothing that can beat that feeling.”

“For all the qualities he has of a soccer player, he’s a better person and a better leader,” SMU soccer head coach Kevin Hudson said. “It really comes down to the mentality. The competitive nature and drive of those players is different. They’re obsessed with winning, obsessed with getting better, and Slade is clearly one of those players.”

SMU is coming off one of its best seasons in program history, winning its first ACC championship. Starnes was a key piece on that team as the anchor of the back line. In his short time in Dallas, his coaches knew he was going to be a game-changer from the start.

“Within just six months, the guys and the staff believed that he’s the leader of the team,” Hudson said. “To play the way he did, and to be given the opportunity that he’s received… is fulfilling a dream for him.”  

Starnes joins a club renowned not only for investing in homegrown talent but for transforming those players into stars.

U.S. Men’s National Team players like Weston McKennie, Chris Richards, and even Starnes’ former teammate Ricardo Pepi are all FC Dallas academy products, and Starnes hopes to make his mark in his childhood club.

“I never want to stop chasing just representing the city well,” Starnes said. “Having my family come to more games…that’s honestly what drives me and just working as hard as I can.”

 “I wouldn’t bet against him,” Hudson said. “This kid has it all. It’s well beyond my paygrade to put a ceiling on him, but I would not be surprised to see him at the top.”