South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Nealis part of a soccer family
Defender’s confidence, lineage has propelled him
If you ask New York Red Bulls defender Sean Nealis — Inter Miami CF defender Dylan Nealis’ older brother — he’ll tell you Dylan never lacked confidence in his ability as a soccer player.
As a kid, Sean says Dylan would challenge older players who may have been bigger and stronger than him. Dylan consistently bet on himself and as teammates at Massapequa (N.Y.) High School, Sean recalled a time during his junior and Dylan’s sophomore season when Dylan exhibited that self-assurance even as it annoyed some of his teammates.
“Some of the older guys were a little pissed off at his confidence and exuberance on the field that day,” Sean recalled. “So our coach pulls him aside and said ‘hey, we got a great team here. We don’t need you to disrupt anything because we can win a state championship without you.’
“Dylan says right back to him very quickly, ‘no, you need me.’ Fast-forward a few months later, for our state championship semifinal and final, he scored the game-winner. We have a ball downstairs that everybody signed after the final and coach said ‘you were right.’ ”
Dylan’ s confidence helped propel him to success in youth and collegiate soccer. He was an immediate contributor for Georgetown, starting in 13 of 14 games he played in his freshman season. Dylan played and started in at least 19 games every year the rest of his collegiate career, including a career-high 24
starts and games played in a senior season in which he was Big East Defensive Player of the Year and was named a MAC Hermann Trophy finalist.
“It was amazing,” Dylan said about his time with the Hoyas. “Not only one of the best college programs, but academically it’s up there with the Ivy League schools. The coaches there prepared me beyond what I was hoping for when I first arrived. They made me into a professional.”
Dylan credits consistently playing with older kids for helping him be ready to play in college. And some of his best competition came from within
his own household. All three of his older brothers played collegiate soccer and two of them went on to play professionally.
Jimmy, who’s Dylan’s oldest brother and seven years his elder, also played at Georgetown before being selected by the Houston Dynamo in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft and playing for the New York Cosmos in the National Independent Soccer Association. Dylan’s second-oldest brother, Connor, played for Binghamton University while Sean — who’s 18 months older than Dylan — played for Hofstra University before being drafted by the Red Bulls in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft.
Dylan recalls times as a kid when his older brothers would force him to play goalie in their family’s
backyard and fire shots at him. But Dylan would stay in goal, determined to not leave until he saved every shot.
“That just goes to the competitiveness,” Dylan said. “I’ve always wanted to outdo them in a way.
“Once you get to college, you play against guys that are older, stronger and faster than you. Once I was there, I was pretty comfortable. Playing with my brothers helped me tremendously growing up; it just translated into the college and now professional game.”
Inter Miami selected Dylan with the third pick in the 2020 MLS SuperDraft, with sporting director and COO Paul McDonough calling Dylan the most pro-ready prospect in the draft on multiple occasions. He started and played 90 minutes in Inter Miami’s second game of their inaugural season against D.C. United, a 2-1 loss.
“He has all the right character pieces,” McDonough said during an episode of OnSide in April. “He’s a tough kid who comes from a pro soccer family. That was really big for us.”
Sean said Dylan was a “very reliable” teammate and the kind of player you could rely on during the big moments of a game. He’ll have to wait to find out what he’s like as an opponent professionally.
The MLS season was suspended March 12 due to the coronavirus outbreak, just nine days before Inter Miami was set to host the Red Bulls at their Fort Lauderdale stadium. Sean expected to make the trip to South Florida and their parents had planned to attend to watch their sons play against each other.
“It would’ve been a lot of fun, but I guess we just h ave t o wa i t f o r t h a t matchup,” Dylan said. “Since we are both defenders, we won’t really be going up against each other but maybe during the corner kick, I could step on his foot to get a little advantage.”
Sean hopes to see Dylan create a lasting legacy with Inter Miami and believes his success so far will carry over to the professional level.
“As you see everywhere he’s gone, he kind of creates success everywhere he goes,” Sean said. “Hopefully he can continue that.”