Michael Richardson- Surry Central (1999-2003)

       North Carolina boasts one of the most prolific goal scorers in national high school men’s soccer history in Michael Richardson.

       A 2003 graduate of Surry Central in Dobson, Richardson set the state records for goals in a single-game, a single-season and a career. His junior year he scored 10 goals in a single game, which was the new record at the time and currently ranks second all-time, and drove home 87 goals for the season.

       As successful as his junior year was, his senior year raised the bar further still when he led the entire country with 92 goals, breaking his own state record (87) he set the previous year. All told, Richardson's mark of 209 career goals is good enough to rank third all-time nationally, with his state mark being more than 40 goals better than the next total. His record breaking senior year earned him all-conference, all-region and all-state honors and the 2002 Northwest 1A Player of the Year as he helped lead the Surry Central Golden Eagles to a conference championship and a berth in the state semi-finals in just the third year of the program’s existence.

       After his brilliant high school campaign, Richardson went on to play both collegiately and professionally. At the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, he had a solid career accumulating 11 goals and nine assists. His senior year he earned All-Southern Conference honors after starting 24 of 25 games for the Spartans and registering 5 goals and 9 assists. Later in the spring of 2007, Richards signed with the Charleston Battery where he tallied one goal and 6 assists in two seasons.

       Michael Richardson’s national and state record-setting high school career earned him a spot as one of the “Names in the Book.”