From Tryouts to Double National Champ: The Story of Joe Dale

“Mr. Ballard’s” Seattle soccer story starts long before Ballard FC was even a thought. 

A Seattle Soccer Kid

“I’ve been going to UW (University of Washington) soccer camps since I was four years old,” was one of the first things Joe Dale said to me when we sat down across the computer screen from one another.

From there, Dale had a great youth soccer career with Seattle United, where he played with future Ballard FC teammate Rafi Otero and looked up to a lot of the older guys in the organization, including former Ballard FC players like Lucas King and Alex Mejia.

Betting on Himself

Fast forward to January 2022 and Dale is a senior in high school and not sure what his next steps are in his soccer story. Having not signed with a university yet, Dale bet on himself. He called Washington Head Coach Jamie Clark and told him, “I am going to attend Washington next year as a student, and I hope you can find a spot for me down the line.”

Bib No. 195

With his future still a little uncertain, Dale entered Open Tryouts with Ballard FC in March of 2022. Wearing tryout bib No. 195 clothes-pinned onto his shorts, Dale showed up as one of the youngest players at the session.

Despite his young age and playing a game earlier in the day, Dale impressed head coach Jason Farrell after going in with something to prove. When asked about his mindset for tryouts, Dale said, “‘This is my chance,’ I said to myself. I might as well have been trying out for Barcelona.”

This mindset proved to be fruitful for Dale as he was selected for the inaugural Ballard FC roster in 2022 alongside fellow tryout players Cole Weaver, Johnny Ramirez, and Zane Baumgardt.

The Rookie

Dale was the only high schooler on the team in 2022, occasionally skipping class to attend Ballard FC practices. He made the match day roster six times in 2022, playing big minutes in each of the two friendly wins that summer and making a playoff appearance in the Western Conference Final against the Ventura County Fusion.

In the middle of the season, Coach Farrell sent a message to the Washington coaching staff encouraging them to give Dale a shot this upcoming Fall. After a few guys got hurt or quit the team, Coach Clark gave Dale a call in July and said that there was a spot for him. So after a playoff run with Ballard FC, Dale joined the Huskies as a walk on in 2022.

2022 was a year of waiting for Dale as he did not play very much for Ballard FC and took a redshirt year with Washington, and therefore Dale had “gone through a lot of personal growth to be a better person on and off the field. I used to get frustrated with my lack of playing time early on. But, I realized there are levels to this stuff. Now I think it was good to be the youngest guy on the team and get humbled. I saw that I was close to the next level, but not there yet.”

First Goals and a First Title

Dale took a big step in 2023 as he played more for both Ballard FC and Washington, scoring his first goals for both teams in that calendar year. 

When he scored his first Ballard FC goal in a victory over PDX FC, Dale still felt that he “wasn’t up to speed and felt like a boy against men. The goal was actually a bit of a relief. I came out of the game a bit humbled, thinking there’s more steps to take.”

Dale was a key rotational piece for the remainder of the summer as Ballard FC won their first-ever NW Division Title, Western Conference Championship, and USL League Two National Title. He was one of the 19 players to travel to Flint, Michigan where Ballard got revenge over the Ventura County Fusion to claim the conference crown and then defeated the Flint City Bucks in the National Semifinals in front of a couple thousand Flint fans. Then he and the rest of the team returned home to win it all against Lionsbridge FC in the “Thrilla in Tukwila.”

After celebrating a National Title with Ballard, Dale returned to UW in the fall, and finally made his first collegiate appearance toward the end of the season against UCLA. He impressed in his debut, and followed that with his first starts against Cal and Stanford.

“I always had belief in my ability, but the opportunities just weren’t opening up yet. So, I just focused on team success and controlling what I could control. I kept practicing one particular shot, and once I started to get minutes towards the end of the season I just hoped I’d have the chance to unleash it.”

He got the chance on the road against Oregon State when he launched an absolute rocket from just outside the box with his right foot to put the Huskies up 2-1. Unfortunately, the Beavers equalized and knocked the Huskies out of NCAA Tournament contention but the goal gave Dale confidence to end his redshirt freshman season.

“I worked on that shot for months, and so it felt great to finally see that work come to fruition with my first goal in such a big game.”

Stepping into the Spotlight

Dale took that confidence into the 2024 Ballard FC season under new Head Coach James Riley, making his first competitive start for the club in their U.S. Open Cup debut against Spokane Velocity, the club’s first-ever match at Historic Memorial Stadium. 

Then in the USL 2 regular season home opener just a few months later, Dale got Ballard FC going with one of the best goals of the season.

“That game was an interesting one for me. In the week of practice before it, I was not playing with the starters or even the subs. I was frustrated sitting at home the day before the game and then got a call from Coach telling me that not only was I going to be rostered but that I would start the opener. So, I just had to put that all behind me and put in a good performance. It helped that the game had a buzz to it, walking out and seeing the giant tifo from the fans and then the skydivers was so cool. And then for the goal, the ball set up perfectly for the volley. It was funny to hear Nik Reierson’s call afterwards where he was surprised to see me score with my left foot.”

I asked him how he felt about his former Ballard FC teammate calling him “the natural” on the broadcast and Dale said that “it was cool. I looked up to all those players when I was younger and I don’t know how much they know that. They took me under their wing, gave me a knuckling when needed and also support as well.”

Dale went on to have his most successful season with Ballard FC in 2024, helping the team win a second straight NW Division Title. However the season was cut unexpectedly short as the reigning champs were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round against Project 51O.

”I was really upset to lose that game (to 51O) as I had finally begun to make my mark on the team and I thought we had more to give. It wasn’t the legacy I wanted to create, and left a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Although I had to shift my focus to UW in the fall, in the back of my mind I knew we had unfinished business on numerous levels.”

Dale had a great redshirt sophomore season in 2024 with the Huskies, starting most matches alongside five of his Ballard FC teammates (Peter Kingston, Richie Aman, Sean Sent, Chris Myers, and Rhys Gourdie). The Huskies would make the NCAA Tournament again after missing out in 2023. In the first round, UW went to penalties to beat crosstown rivals (and five of Dale’s Ballard FC teammates) Seattle University.

“You’re friends during the summer, but when you get to the college season it’s different. Of course it’s all smiles and hugs afterwards, but you know these guys and think you can beat them.”

The Huskies would get knocked by SMU in the next round but not without a fight as Dale got the opening goal in that match. “The cross from Myers hit a bobble and it skipped up a bit and I had a moment of ‘uh oh’ but thankfully I was close enough to the goal that it just grazed the bar and went in.”

The Double Captain

After a breakout college season, Dale was ready to shine in the summer with Ballard FC in 2025. Explaining his mindset going into the summer Dale stated, “I can dominate these games. A little bit of physical and mental development has made me a lot better, and I finally felt fully ready to excel.”

And excel he did. For the second straight home opener in a row, Dale opened up the floodgates for Ballard FC as he scored the first two goals in a 3-1 victory over Bigfoot FC. That night, the “Mr. Ballard” nickname was born — courtesy of Dale’s former teammate, Cole Weaver.

Speaking about the nickname: “Embarrassed wouldn’t be the right word because it’s an honor. It’s nice to hear. Maybe it makes me blush sometimes, but there’s so much that went into me being able to earn that nickname. I’m grateful that Cole sort of coined that.”

Dale not only excelled with his performances on the field but also as a leader. This was Dale’s first year as Ballard FC co-captain alongside his fellow teammate from the inaugural season, Christian Engmann. While Engmann marshaled the back line, Dale led from the front consistently scoring big goals. 

After a great regular season, Dale truly came alive in the playoffs, registering two goals and two assists in just four matches en route to the National Final, including the opening goal in the Western Conference Final.

A lot of this success was due to the chemistry of the front three, the Washington trio of Dale, Aman, and Charlie Kosakoff. Speaking about this chemistry developed across both the college and USL 2 season, Dale remarked, “I think that connection is super important. We saw that these relationships were gonna be important in both the summer and fall. A ton of credit goes to Coach Riley’s tactics which let all of us shine in each of our own ways.”

Unfortunately, the Ballard FC season ended in defeat to Vermont Green in the National Final. But, that would not be Dale’s last National Championship appearance of 2025.

Another Title Run

After leading Ballard FC over the summer, Dale was named the captain of the 2025 University of Washington soccer team by Coach Clark. One of the reasons Dale was named captain is the trust the coaching staff has in him, which was displayed all season by the different positions the Dale played.

Talking about the positional rotation: “I’m grateful for it. I had trust from the coaches to help in every position. As captain, I saw so many great players around me. I felt like I could serve the team in whatever positions they needed, we could get the result we needed. It was never a negative getting moved around positions. I was the utility guy, and everyone else was going to do what they do best because part of what I do best is fill in at different positions.”

The season was a weird one for the Huskies as they started the season a little slow in non-conference play where they struggled to put all the pieces together. Then, they caught fire during the Big Ten season and were one of the hottest teams in the nation. But after two straight losses to Maryland, the Big Ten Regular Season Champions, and UCLA, the Big Ten Tournament Champions, to finish the regular season, the Huskies crashed out of the Big Ten Tournament with a loss to Michigan in the first match. So despite finishing second in the Big Ten regular season standings, the Huskies were on the bubble heading into Selection Sunday. 

When I asked Dale about the ebbs and flows of the regular season, he explained that “even though we started slow early on, we felt like we were playing well and that the results didn’t paint the picture of how good we were. I actually told Cameron Cruz after our draw with UC Davis that ‘we have the squad to win a National Title, I just wonder if we actually pull it off.’ I think we all believed that together. I felt like we had some of the best talent at every position. We then started to pick up some two win weekends away from home in conference, and that’s how we realized we could pick up results in multiple different fashions. Then as conference play started to come to an end, we lose to a good Maryland team with a controversial goal and then we get a red card in the season finale loss. So we lost two game but it didn’t really feel like we did.”

Then after a nervous week of not knowing their future, Washington was given an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament where they would likely need to play on the road for the entire single-elimination tournament. Despite that, confidence was high for Dale, “I thought it was perfect because we could go on a revenge tour. Starting with Oregon State, a PNW rival who ended our season two years ago, then SMU who knocked us out of the tournament in 2024, then Stanford who was an old PAC-12 rival, and then another chance at Maryland to get revenge from earlier in the season.”

Dale and the Huskies proved they were “Road Dawgs” in that stretch of four matches as they won each of those matches with all of them going down to the wire. Then it was time for the College Cup and a week of preparation before the National Semifinals began in Cary, North Carolina.

The Huskies breezed past Furman in the semifinal with one of their best performances of the season to set up another “road” match against NC State in the National Final.

I asked Dale what it was like stepping into the National Final with so many opposition fans in the stands. 

“In some ways it echoed the Vermont situation. I remember running around with 10,000 NC State fans and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It gave me an appreciation of the magnitude of the game. I saw it more as fuel and appreciated more than anything else.”

Not being intimidated by the crowd, the Huskies got off to a great start with Dale’s Ballard FC teammate, Zach Ramsey, scoring the opening goal. Then it was time for the captain to make his mark.

“The ball goes out wide to Rich and I know he’s going to do his business. One of the things Coach Riley said all summer is that the striker has to get to the near post and get across his man to beat him to the spot. So, I’m in the box hunting for where the ball is going to go. I see the center back hasn’t checked his shoulder, so I run past him and stick my leg out and around him at the near post and kinda poke it home and all I can think is ‘Oh my gosh I just scored in a National Final.’”

Despite the great start and looking like they might coast to the title, NC State did eventually have their say as they scored two late goals to make it 2-2. When asked if he had a little bit of deja vu about potentially losing another final, Dale admitted that he “had a little bit at the end of regulation after they equalized and kept peppering us with shots.” 

Once regulation was over however, the Huskies reset for the overtime period and came out on top again. It wasn’t long before All-American and Ballard FC defender Harrison Bertos found the Golden Goal to win the Huskies’ first-ever National Championship. 

At that point, Dale didn’t know what to think, “when the goal was finally given, (after a lengthy video review) I was just so happy and didn’t even realize what we had actually done. In some ways, we had just won another soccer game. But to win a National Final, it’s just pandemonium, and there’s so much disbelief and relief.”

From Open Tryouts and a walk-on to double captain and double National Champion, Dale has had quite the remarkable soccer story already. And he’s not done.

The Next Level

Lifting the National Championship trophy was only the beginning of a great week for Dale as more good news came his way in the form of the MLS SuperDraft where he was selected by his boyhood club, the Seattle Sounders, in the second round of the draft alongside four of his Ballard FC teammates.

“Honestly I wasn’t really expecting it. I went into the day excited because I knew some of my teammates were going to get drafted, but I had no expectations for myself. I didn’t have the most stats during the season, partially due to positional switching, so I wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough. When I got the call, my heart went through the air. I was so happy, and it was the Sounders which is exactly where I wanted to go.”

After being drafted, Dale had a decision to make. He could start training with the Sounders to try and earn a professional contract, or he could do another summer with Ballard FC and use his final year of eligibility with the Huskies and compete in college for one more season.

“I made the decision (to forgo the final year of eligibility) pretty early after talking to my parents and some current and former pros. It was time for me to seize the moment, and I felt ready for the next step and next level. So I had a good first week of preseason and got to go to Portugal and preseason with the Sounders before signing a professional contract with the Tacoma Defiance, and I’m super excited.”

Dealing with a slight injury, Dale has yet to make his debut with the Defiance but hopes to in the next couple weeks, joining fellow Ballard FC alumni Peter Kingston, Charlie Gaffney, Demian Alvarez, and Danny Robles.

Mr. Ballard

Now that his Ballard FC career has come to an end, Dale says he is excited to watch some matches at Interbay Stadium as a fan and support his friends and teammates playing on the team this summer.

Reflecting on his time with Ballard FC, Dale finished our conversation with this: “Over the years, so many people have helped get me to the point where I am now. Ballard FC was a huge part in that. I actually reached out to Coach Farrell a couple weeks ago to thank him for the opportunity he gave me by having me on the inaugural team as a high schooler. It gave me belief in myself to take my game to the next level. Ballard’s been a place to grow with so many people, coaches, teammates, and friends. It’s an amazing place to play soccer, but also an amazing place to be as a person. I can’t thank enough the people in the organization from the top down. Thank you Ballard.”

And so, I’ll leave you with this: No, thank you Joe Dale. Mr. Ballard, you’ve been a joy to watch, cover, and support over the past four years. I not only know you as a Ballard FC legend, but as a great teammate, leader, and human being. Thank you so much for what you have done in a Ballard kit, and I cannot wait to keep supporting you in your professional career.

Written by Max Dresbach