Proud St. Louis Park High School soccer alums and brothers Max and Nick Kent recently wrapped up their soccer season with Minneapolis City Soccer Club.
Max, the older brother by six years, wrapped up his fifth and final season as a member of the backline and first on the same field as his brother.
“It was great playing with my brother,” Max said of helping Minneapolis to a club-best 15 points in the Deep North Division of USL2. "The most we ever ‘played’ together growing up was in our backyard in St. Louis Park. But again, six years is quite a bit of separation, so it has been a while since we could kick together. It was a great time and honestly a learning experience.”
Nick learned about the team from his brother and started playing for the younger Futures team in the club in his early high school days. He continues to play between college seasons at Macalester, where he will be a junior.
“It was incredible playing with Max this summer, and I’m so happy that I was able to play with him at some point in my career,” Nick said. "There was truly no better feeling than playing alongside someone who means so much to me.”
The Crows, as Minneapolis City SC is known, went 5-7 during the regular season to place fifth among the six teams.
Nick Kent led the regular season in goals with two and played 990 minutes, while Max was held off the scoresheet in 952 minutes. Both started all 11 games for City.
The summer wasn’t quite over for the Crows, as they reached the Minnesota Super Cup final, which was played July 26 at Stillwater High School.
St. Croix Legends beat City 3-0 in the second iteration of the competition. City was without seven first-team players due to college preseason training or other commitments. St. Croix was missing key players, but the Citizens (City supporters group) made their presence known early and often.
The Super Cup began in 2023 to unite adult amateur teams across Minnesota and different leagues to play for local supremacy. It was won last year by Med City from Rochester, who beat the Minnesota United U19 team.
End of an era
The end of the season marked the end of competitive soccer for Max, who plans to move to California in the fall to pursue new opportunities.
Max learned about City after being encouraged to try out by some youth soccer friends as a freshman at Macalester College in St. Paul.
Max played during the summers while working on his undergraduate degree between 2017-19.
He returned to the Crows in 2021 between the two years he played at Syracuse University as a grad student.
Living and working in Washington, D.C., limited his ability to return to Minnesota to play for the Crows before he found a new job that allowed him to work remotely from Minnesota.
This year, he marked his fifth and final season as a solid starter along the backline with the Crows.
He said the time is right to focus on his career, which includes moving to California. “I also think there comes a time in every athlete’s career when their mind and body start to tell them when it’s time to focus on other things,” he said. “I noticed this voice come into my head quite clearly as we finished the season. I love the game and Minneapolis City dearly, but I have a lot of other aspirations.”
Coming into the season, Max kept his outlook within reason, knowing the level of play in the league continues to rise.
“I didn’t have massive expectations coming into the season,” Max said. “In previous seasons with the team, I was used to winning consistently. However, I knew the competition [level] had improved with the league change.”
The 2018 team won the National Premier Soccer League’s North Conference title, one of five clubs to go unbeaten during the regular season. They scored an NPSL-best 46 goals. The Crows would win a third consecutive North Conference crown (2019 and 2021) before moving to USL League Two in 2022.
This year, the Crows scored 11 goals compared to 18 goals allowed.
“My goal was to instill leadership and maturity into a team that had evolved massively since I had left,” Max said. An early-season coaching change was by far the toughest obstacle facing the team. It Made it a challenge to hit our groove when we wanted to. On the flip side, the highlight was probably towards the end of the season when we started to play really well and have consistent performances under the new coaching staff.”
That new staff includes Justin Oliver, Tudor Flintham and Matt VanBenschoten.
Besides playing alongside his brother, Nick noted the 2-1 win over first-place Thunder Bay back on July 12 at Augsburg’s Edor Nelson Field in Minneapolis for the Gene Party, which helped raise money for M Health Fairview Masonic Children Hospital’s gene therapy research.
According to a story about the denim-clad party posted on mplscitysc.com :
“Our fans were awesome. Big Gene Party hit. Super cool that City does things like this to help the community, and it’s an awesome story.” City coach Justin Oliver said about the party to help support City volunteer Scott Menk’s son Evan, who goes through gene-therapy treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.”
According to Nick, the sellout helped create an intense atmosphere. “It was unreal with a ton of fans and good energy, and at the end of the day, we were able to come away with a win, which always feels good.”
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