By Jon Johnson
The favorite Bible verse of Dothan United player Josh Hallenberger is Joshua 1:9, which reads, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
In so many ways, Hallenberger lives by those words.
He’s strong and courageous on the soccer field – always seemingly right in the middle of the action while creating winning plays for the Dragons.
Hallenberger has never been afraid to move on to other places, having played collegiately at Clemson for two years, Akron for two years and California Baptist University for one.
Without a doubt, he’s been tested in more ways than one, having to put discouragement behind at a number of different stops.
“For me, I’ve had a crazy journey,” Hallenberger said. “I’ve had some family stuff that I’ve gone through, and throughout college, I really just relied on soccer to be good for me. Obviously with all the transferring, and injuries and all that stuff, it didn’t.”
Hallenberger lost his father to cancer when he was a teen, underwent heart surgery during his freshman college season at Clemson and broke his ankle right before his senior year at Akron.
He relies on his Christian beliefs to steer him in the right direction, though there were times he struggled to let things fall where they may.
“Towards the end of my (college) career, I realized that God is pulling me back to Him, and maybe all the transferring, all the craziness, every year changing, made me realize that I just need to be thankful and grateful that God has given me the life I have,” Hallenberger said.
“So, I definitely think the Bible verse resonates with me for that reason, because God is everything. We need to be strong and courageous, and we shouldn’t be discouraged or dismayed, because at the end of the day God is with us and He has a plan for us.”
Though he grew up in San Antonio, Texas, the family moved to Houston during his high school years so he could play for the Houston Dynamo Academy, a prestigious soccer development club.
While he got plenty of soccer experience during those years – which included being a developmental player on several USL clubs – Hallenberger also went through plenty of personal ups and downs.
“I was very immature growing up, through high school and college,” Hallenberger said. “When I was a freshman in high school, I lost my dad, so I didn’t really have that fatherly figure. He passed away two weeks into my freshman year of high school.
“I let my immaturity get to me at times when it didn’t go exactly as planned …all that emotion that people see on the field … I didn’t put it in the right direction. I was negative at times and didn’t give it my all, because I was frustrated at times.”
A heart abnormality would put a damper his freshman college year on the Clemson soccer team.
“When I was 15 years old, a couple of weeks before my dad died, I got invited to a national team camp,” Hallenberger began. “In order to go there, they had to do an EKG (test that records electrical signals to the heart), and that’s when it first showed up that I had extra pathways in my heart. But they ended up clearing me and I went there (to camp) and never had any real problems from it.
“Then in my freshman year at college, I did another EKG. Again, they saw it and they cleared me, and then I got COVID and another EKG happened. Then they were like, ‘You know what, it may be best that you just get the surgery done so you don’t have to deal with it the rest of your career.’
“They went in and they burned two extra pathways in my heart. My EKG will never be normal, but I’m completely cleared to play as long as I want to, and as long as God lets me. I’ve never had an issue with it except my heart rate is a little bit quicker.”
As a sophomore at Clemson, Hallenberger was a part-time starter and decided to transfer following the season to Akron University, which was a good fit for him before more troubles followed his second year there.
“I finally got to the place where I was hopefully going to be that 90-minute starter my senior year and I broke my ankle in my last training with a USL2 (team) before I went back to school,” Hallenberger said.
Hallenberger was able to start playing about midway through his senior season at Akron, but not to the extent he had hoped for due to the ankle injury. Since he had an extra year of eligibility that had been granted to NCAA athletes during the Covid pandemic, he decided to enter the transfer portal.
“Within the first week they (Cal Baptist) offered me a scholarship,” Hallenberger said.
Thus, Hallenberger was off to California Baptist University in Riverside, Ca., for a final season of college soccer.
Once the season ended at CBU, former Dothan United coach Carl Reynolds reached out to Hallenberger about joining the USL2 team here and he was eventually on his way to the Circle City.
Hallenberger was a key in helping the Dragons reach the USL2 semifinals a year ago and decided to return for a second season when offered by new head coach Ricky Davey.
“I spoke with Ricky in March and I felt a really good connection with him,” Hallenberger said. “I loved my experience last summer, so I was like, ‘Let’s run it back and do it again.’”
Hallenberger has played a variety of positions in soccer – defender, midfielder, forward – thus is able to lend credible instruction since he’s played all over the field.
“It allows me to get perspective on what they’re dealing with … whether it’s the pressures, or the mistakes, or the good things,” Hallenberger said. “So if I see something, I can go to somebody on the field and speak with them and kind of explain to them what I see and try to help out that way.”
In some ways, Davey perceives Hallenberger as another coach on the field.
“I think any sort of instruction we give to him, or give to the group, he’s able to bring it onto the field and pretty much put it into play straight away,” Davey said. “His commitment shines through, and I think it rubs off on other guys, too.”
Davey has watched Hallenberger emerge as a true leader.
“Josh is unique,” Davey said. “I think he plays with a certain passion. He motivates the group, I think, in his own way, but he has the team at the forefront of his mind all the time.
“He’s extremely dedicated to what we’re trying to achieve as a group, and just so into this whole thing. If you tell him to run through a brick wall, he’ll say, ‘How fast; how high.’ He’ll do anything for this group.”
Strong, courageous and not afraid.
That’s Josh Hallenberger in a nutshell.
