From growing up in Europe to nearly having the lower half of his right leg amputated before his sophomore season, senior forward Ben Highton’s path to the NCAA Division III tournament was anything but traditional.
Born and raised in London, Highton spent the first eleven years of his life in the United Kingdom before moving to Darien, Connecticut in 2006.
“It was a tough transition,” recalled Highton. “It probably wasn’t until eighth grade that I really got accustomed to the [United States].”
The tribulations didn’t stop in junior high, though. Highton decided to take a fifth year of high school to really focus on his academics as he prepared for the jump to college – a jump that found him enrolling at the nearby Fairfield University for the fall of 2015.
“I had a good freshman year at Fairfield,” said Highton. “The ups and downs balanced out, but the experience [overall] wasn’t how I wanted it to go, in terms of soccer, people, and my education.”
It was then that Highton faced one of the biggest crossroads in his life – would he move on from what he had grown accustomed to in Fairfield?
“My parents pushed me to do what I thought was right; they didn’t necessarily push me in one direction or another. They’ve taught me to make the difficult decisions to do what’s right for me,” he said.
Highton decided to make the switch from Fairfield to Connecticut College before his sophomore year, when a career-threatening bacterial infection put him in the hospital for nine days – while he prepared not only for the move to Conn, but for the start of a new soccer season with new teammates and coaches.
“I had [Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (more commonly referred to as ‘MRSA’)] in my right leg. I had a small cut on my knee, worked out at the gym the next day, and by the following day it had swelled up to a point where I couldn’t even get out of bed. My entire family was in Spain, so a family friend drove me to the hospital, where I was put on antibiotics for five days.”
The antibiotics removed about half of the infection from his leg, but his body had developed a blockage that wouldn’t allow for removal of the rest of the MRSA. Had the infection spread further, the entire bottom half of his leg might have had to have been removed.
“The doctors didn’t have time to wait to see how it would play out, so they acted then and there. The surgery was a success, and after two weeks on crutches I was walking normally again.”
While this scary experience started his Conn soccer career on a rocky note, Highton faced yet another career-threatening injury earlier this season, when he dislocated his elbow in a game against Hamilton College.
“The day I hurt my elbow, they said I was done for the season.” While this injury could have ended his college career, Highton took it as motivation to get back to his team before the end of the season. The rest, of course, is history, as Highton returned for the team’s NESCAC quarterfinal loss to Hamilton, as well as the team’s two NCAA tournament games against Thomas and Ramapo Colleges.
Highton hopes that the underclassmen take note of his speedy recovery to use as inspiration should they face similarly small odds of returning from serious injuries.
“I hope they can look to my experience to see that I had that happen, and say ‘if he can do it, I can too.’”
Now that his senior season has wrapped up, Highton has turned his attention to life after graduation.
“I’m going to spend a large amount of time in England, seeing some relatives I haven’t seen in a while. My family always goes back at the end of the summer, and I’m always in [pre-season workouts] so I haven’t had a chance to go. I’m going to spend that time making up for lost time.”
He is also considering pursuing coaching badges to coach college soccer while also trying to follow up on his senior internship by working in recruitment in New York City.
And while his Conn soccer career has officially come to an end, he’ll remember it for all of its highs and lows – from overcoming a pair of career-threatening injuries to beating Middlebury in Vermont for the first time in years during his junior year to the team’s utter dressing-down of Thomas College in the NCAA round of 64 on November 10.
It’s been a unique ride for Ben Highton, to say the least. While he will be moving on from Connecticut College in May, he’ll leave having impacted dozens of lives with his determination, work ethic, and selflessness.
