SLO native Chris Seitz at top of his game with MLS’ FC Dallas

It’s been quite some time since Chris Seitz patrolled the soccer fields of the Central Coast as a three-year starting goalkeeper at San Luis Obispo High School.

And it’s been a long, winding road for Seitz since he left, first moving to Thousand Oaks for his senior year and then to play at the University of Maryland before embarking on a professional career in Major League Soccer that has spanned the past 10 years and taken him to Salt Lake City, Philadelphia and now Dallas.

But 2016 has been a banner year for the 29-year-old.

Seitz not only took over as FC Dallas’ No. 1 after just two seasons ago languishing as the team’s third-stringer, but he also established himself as one of Major League Soccer’s top goalkeepers with a league-best goals against average (1.04) and second best in shutouts (9) and victories (14). He’s been the defensive leader on a team that is also eyeing MLS history, having already won the U.S. Open Cup trophy and Supporters’ Shield (awarded to the team with the league’s best regular season record) this season.

If FC Dallas — which starts its playoff run Sunday with a Western Conference Semifinals match — can win the MLS Cup, they will be the first club to ever complete a calendar year “treble.”

“It’s great,” Seitz told The Tribune in a phone conversation this week. “It took me a little bit to get here, obviously.”

Seitz’s road is not uncommon for American goalkeepers.

With few spots available in North America’s top-flight league – MLS’ 20 teams rarely carry more than three ’keepers on their rosters – even goalkeepers with elite credentials often struggle to get a shot. And Seitz’s résumé is certainly unassailable.

He led Maryland to an NCAA championship as a freshman starter in 2005 and left after his sophomore season sporting a 0.77 goals against average and 28-5-3 record when Real Salt Lake took him with the fourth overall pick in the 2007 draft.

He also earned his way into the U.S. Men’s National Team that year, getting time with the U-20 and U-23 teams and even earning a first-team call-up for a friendly against Brazil.

But he rarely saw the field in his first three seasons in the league playing behind Salt Lake’s Nick Rimando, widely considered the league’s greatest ever to play the position.

Seitz was provided a chance to start with the Philadelphia Union in a 2010 season that he said was “a bit of a learning curve” before he was traded to Dallas the following year. There, he first played behind another entrenched veteran, Kevin Hartman, for three seasons.

And in 2014, rather than name Seitz the starter, Dallas signed Peruvian national teamer Raul Fernandez. Seitz still started 14 games that year as Fernandez struggled. Yet the following season, Dallas was still reluctant to turn over the reins completely to Seitz as up-and-coming Mexican international Jesse Fernandez caught the eye of head coach Oscar Pareja, limiting Seitz to just seven games in 2015.

“I’ve bided my time here in Dallas, and when I was given an opportunity this year, I made the most of it,” Seitz said.

His opportunity came when Gonzalez was away from the team for long stretches playing with the Mexican U-23 national team in its Summer Olympics run. Seitz stepped in and didn’t let go.

Seitz — whose parents, Michael and Sharon Setiz, and sister, Caitlin Baumhefner, still live in San Luis Obispo — said that constant struggle throughout his career is part of what makes him the player he is today.

“It makes you cherish it when you get it, you know,” he said. “Opportunities are hard to come by, especially for goalkeepers, so when you get those opportunities — Jessie was with the national team this year, but whether it’s through that or an injury or whatever it is — you have to make the most of it.

“It’s kind of cliché ... but you have to be able to embrace that opportunity and run with it. I’ve been lucky enough to do that this year.”

Perseverance would be one way to describe what has made Seitz successful. Another trait stemming from a selfless act he made four years ago — donating bone marrow to a dying man he did not know — also has a hand in shaping who Seitz is as a player and person, outlined in a recent Los Angeles Times article.

“His character,” FC Dallas goalkeepers coach Drew Keeshan told the Times. “That just sums it up in one action. He’s a selfless guy.”

Seitz cut his 2012 season short to undergo the bone marrow donation process when he learned Navy veteran Phil Richiuso, who had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, was in dire need. Seitz, who had previously signed up for the bone marrow registry in solidarity with a teammate whose wife was diagnosed with leukemia, made the initial decision to donate without assurance from FC Dallas that he would be brought back for another season, though they later extended his contract.

The medical procedure extracted the marrow from his pelvis bone, leaving him unable to return to the field until he was completely healed. He said for people who work a desk job, it only requires about two weeks of downtime.

The league honored Seitz’s sacrifice by naming him the 2012 MLS W.O.R.K.S. Humanitarian of the Year. With Seitz now under the spotlight for his play on the field, the story is again garnering attention — something he is once again grateful for.

“I love talking about it,” Seitz said. “The more we talk about it and the more my story gets out there with Phil, the more that people hopefully get out there and sign up. And that’s ultimately the goal with it, you know, and that was my goal originally in talking about it, trying to get as many people on the registry and signed up as possible. … Because I’ve seen firsthand how it can affect a family positively and negatively.”

Now Seitz is set to bring all that experience, in soccer and life, to bear on his team’s ultimate goal to win an MLS championship. And Dallas is as poised as any team, with Seitz’s leadership of a veteran back line that allowed the second fewest goals in the Western Conference.

“It’s been a good year, personally,” Seitz said. “But that only comes with a good team and a good defense to help me along the way, so I’m a bit of a product of a good team and a back line that has supported me and helped me progress this year.”

Dallas is also able to draw on the experience of a deep playoff run last season, finishing with the West’s best record and losing to eventual champion Portland Timbers in the Conference Finals. In 2014, Dallas lost in the conference semifinals.

“Our team has found success in the regular season quite a bit in the last few years, and this year is the first year we’re really kind of grasping the opportunities with Open Cup and obviously winning Supporters’ Shield, as well,” he said. “But now it’s just understanding what it takes to get over that final hurdle. And we obviously have one more challenge this year in winning MLS Cup.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "SLO native Chris Seitz at top of his game with MLS’ FC Dallas."