Many athletes are introduced to sports by their parents, launching a love for the game from an early age. For Dynamo goalkeeper Joe Willis, his passion for the beautiful game began with some nudging from a pair of uncles. Now in his sixth professional season, the Willis family is a soccer family.
Willis grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, a sports hotbed with a deep love for baseball, but also strong and somewhat surprising roots to hockey (over 4,000 youth players across 140 teams) and soccer. In some St. Louis communities, high school soccer draws bigger crowds than high school football.