Goalkeepers are, more often than not, a little different … sometimes certifiably insane. By that definition, SMU’s Craig Hill is not a normal goalkeeper.

“Out of all the goalies I have met, Craig is probably the most even-keeled and well-rounded,” junior SMU defender Adam Still said. “Most goalies really are crazy, but he’s not.”

Hill spent the summer before his senior season training with FC Dallas (photo by SMU athletics).

What Hill lacks in lunacy, he makes up for in the other attributes needed to successfully man the net for a winning soccer team. The fifth-year senior from San Antonio is exceptionally quick and athletic, has very good hands. He also is calm in pressure situations and fearless when throwing himself in front of the ball.

SMU goalkeepers coach Paul Hason runs a drill in preseason camp called “Fear Factor Training.”

“Our goalies are fearless,” Hason said. “In ‘Fear Factor Training,’ we ask them ‘what are you willing to do to save a goal for SMU?’ At that point, we blast shots at them from very close range, and they have to block them without using their hands. They have to be willing to throw their bodies in front of the ball — anything to keep the ball out of the goal.”

When reminded of the drill, Still acknowledged that his teammate might be a little crazy.

“You can’t not be crazy if someone kicks a ball at you at point-blank range,” Still said. “Craig is tough. He’s not afraid … ever. They ask the goalies what they’ll do to stop a goal, and Craig will do anything.”

“That’s something Paul likes to do at the beginning of the year,” Hill said. “He’ll put us through getting pelted by a ball from 2-3 yards away, over and over and over again, not moving, not flinching, not showing pain. It’s a grueling drill, but it makes you think about doing what it takes to put your body on the line to stop the ball from going into the goal. When you’re operating with the adrenaline of the game, you don’t think about getting hurt. You think about having to make the save. You accept it, and you deal with it, because you have to make the save.”

During his tenure on the Hilltop, Hill has grown from a fearless defender of the SMU net to a polished anchor of the Mustangs’ defense. In 19 games this season, Hill has allowed barely over one goal per game (21) and picked up four shutouts, raising his career total to 14. In the Mustangs’ second-round NCAA Tournament game (fifth-seeded SMU received a bye in the first round), Hill came up with a save in the penalty kick shootout to help his team advance past Creighton after a 2-2 draw.

“We have all the confidence in the world in Craig — he’s the leader of our defense,” Still said. “When that (Creighton) game went to a shootout, we felt like we had the game won. We knew he would come up with the save we needed, so all we had to do was make our shots. Craig did his part, and our guys made their goals, so we moved on."

Hill then pitched a shutout in SMU’s 1-0 victory over William & Mary Sunday night, lifting his team into an NCAA quarterfinal matchup against North Carolina that will be played at 6 p.m. Friday night.

Hill acknowledges that like quarterbacks in football and pitchers in baseball, goalkeepers sometimes get more blame or more credit than they might deserve.

“Sunday, for instance, I really didn’t have many saves (against William & Mary), because the defense did a good job stopping shots and shutting the other team down,” Hill said. “I really don’t read too much into what people say about me. On our team, we talk about the ‘back six’ — that’s me, the back four (defenders) and (defensive midfielder) Kekoa (Osorio). Those guys have played great in front of me all year. As a group, we have done a pretty good job, and that’s enough.”

Craig Hill shut out William and Mary last week in the third round of the NCAA Tournament to raise his career shutouts total to 14 (photo by SMU athletics).

Hill redshirted the 2006 season when he first signed with SMU, and saw spot duty as a redshirt freshman before taking over the starting role as a sophomore.

“With Craig, there has been consistent growth since he got here,” SMU head coach Tim McClements said. “He has put time into improving all aspects of his game, and he has been fortunate to do it as a starter most of the time, and we have been very fortunate to have quality players to push him.”

Hill has been pushed since he arrived at SMU — even before he got on the field. At the end of the spring after his freshman season, then-head coach Schellas Hyndman met with Hill.

“Schellas talked to me in a meeting at the end of the spring, and he said ‘at one point, we didn’t think you’d ever play here,’” Hill said. “I was surprised — I didn’t realize I was in that boat at the time. I had never thought of me as not starting. I had always had the mentality of starting, even at SMU, where they have had some great goalkeepers. So it was good to know you can’t take anything off. You have to go for it right off the jump.”

Ironically, it was Hyndman, now the head coach of Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas, who issued Hill his latest challenge when he invited Hill to train with FC Dallas over the summer. While there, Hill worked out daily with FCD goalies coach Drew Keeshan, as well as keepers Kevin Hartman and Dario Sala.

“That was very beneficial to me, as a goalkeeper, to see what the next level is like, especially training,” Hill said. “I felt like I got much better and my understanding of the game grew.

“One of the main things that I picked up was my efficiency in my movement. I was relying on my athleticism to get from point A to point B to make saves, but at the professional level, to see the older guys who don’t necessarily have that quickness, technical understanding of how to position their bodies to get the job done. Me, picking that up, while have that quickness. The goalies coach (Drew Keeshan), said ‘watch how you’re moving before the shot toward the ball, and then watch how they do it’ and I saw I wasn’t being as economical. Once I applied that, saw a massive difference.”

That he got to train with FC Dallas to sharpen his skills with an eye toward a possible professional career is impressive in and of itself, considering Hill was benched for a couple of games during his junior year.

The decision to sit Hill, McClements said, was extremely difficult.

“Very rarely do we pull a guy after one bad game, but we just thought he could benefit from a little perspective that he could get by watching from the side,” McClements said. “We put Kevin (McMullen) in for a couple of games, and I think that as unpleasant as it was for Craig, it helped him. He came back in with a better understanding of the way Paul (Hason) saw things, and he was very focused and got back to being one of our top players.

“I also have to say that when a team is not performing well, with the talent that we have, it’s not just one guy. It wasn’t just Craig — we were struggling as a team. Craig is very competitive, and I’m sure he didn’t like it, but he has a very professional approach, and he learned from it and got better from it.”

“That was a pretty big low in my soccer career,” Hill said. “I had never been a backup, besides my first year in college, and I had never been benched before. At the time, we were just getting shelled, couldn’t keep ball out of net, and if it helps the team, I’m fine with it — see if a different goalie could help. It was disappointing, but I didn’t have much to say about it. We need to change something.

Defender Adam Still (background) says Craig Hill is tough and never afraid, and will do anything to save a goal for SMU (photo by SMU athletics).

“I guess it actually was good for me to sit out. It gave me a chance to see from an outside angle what was going on. So that was a wakeup call, but the fact that we didn’t make the tournament for the second consecutive year meant that it had to go to another level.”

Hill said that training with FC Dallas not only honed his technical skill and physical and mental training, but it also improved his ability to lead. His ability to help the Mustangs “go to another level” got a boost when he returned from his summer with FCD.

“Last year, I was a captain (along with forward Paulo da Silva and defender Esteban Mariel), but because I was a junior, I didn’t feel like I had a lot to say in my captaincy. Paulo and Esteban were seniors. Players naturally looked to them. But after seeing how the FC Dallas players work with each other … I think I brought a little of that back.

“Now I’m a captain again, along with (midfielder) Kekoa (Osorio), and we — along with (defender) Leone Cruz — took a different approach. We missed the (NCAA) tournament for two years, and that’s not supposed to happen at SMU. We decided that we’re never going to take a day off. This team is never going to take a day off. We weren’t going to let that happen ever again.”

“Training with FC Dallas was a great thing for Craig,” McClements said. “He saw the way the pros train, the way they prepare for games, how strong they have to be — physically and mentally — to succeed. He’s not 6-foot-5, but he’s not short, either (Hill is listed at 6-2). His frame allows him to cover the goal really well. Craig is very quick and athletic, and technically is a good goalkeeper, but you can’t teach experience, and that experience training with FC Dallas was a great opportunity for him.”

Before Hill and the other SMU seniors can worry about potential professional careers, however, they have unfinished business at the college level. Hill said the Mustangs are approaching Friday’s game at UNC — like their first two games in the NCAA Tournament — with the attitude that they want to play the best in order to prove they are among the best.

“One of the big things that (SMU assistant coach) Phil Wolf says when he talks to us is that other teams talk about how they don’t want to play ‘hard teams’ — they’d rather play weaker teams,” Hill said. “He talks to us about wanting to play those teams, and we do want that — I know I do. I want to be trusted to know where I stand. That’s how I see the North Carolina game. Every team left except Michigan is a top-10 team. We believe in our ability, and we want to play the best teams to show we’re the best team out there.”

The Mustangs enter Friday’s game with plenty of familiarity with their opponent; the teams played an exhibition game during the spring. Hill said he admires the ability of the UNC squad and the fact that the Heels and Mustangs have some similarities in their playing styles, but he remains confident he and his teammates can pull off another victory to keep their season alive.

“From what I remember play them this spring, they’re very talented group,” Hill said. “They like to pass the ball like we do, quite a few offensive weapons like we do. Basically our challenge is to limit their chances. Our defense has been playing really well, and I know our offense is going to score goals. So if we can limit their chances, and I can make a few saves, we feel like we can get another good result.”