How Independence's Miles Kipley represents a new breed of goalkeeper

THOMPSON'S STATION — There’s an adage in soccer that you have to be a little crazy to play goalkeeper. Independence goalkeeper and Belmont signee Miles Kipley wouldn’t fight that characterization.

“I probably have a little edge to me,” he said. “I don't know, something about stopping someone from scoring, I mean, penalty shootouts — I've definitely made some people cry from that. But if you have the ... to get in front of a 60 mph shot, then you have to be a little crazy.”

While Kipley cops to a shred of eccentricity, Independence coach Eric Bossman says it's Kipley’s calm and poise on the ball that has helped lead the Eagles to an 11-1 start and one of the best defensive records in Middle Tennessee.

Through 15 games, Kipley and the Eagles' defense have had 11 shutouts and conceded just seven goals.

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“He is a little eccentric, I will admit, as most keepers are. But, no, he's actually pretty level-headed, and that calmness helps us a lot as well because, again, we play the ball through him,” Bossman said. “He's a third player, sometimes, in our possession game. And his calmness kind of flows through the backs as we're playing, because we try to possess the ball a lot and he plays a huge role in that.”

Kipley represents a shift in the training of goalkeepers in recent years. While in the past goalkeepers were on the field to stop shots, nowadays it’s just as important for a goalkeeper to be good with his feet, providing an additional offensive option.

Kipley’s ability on the ball has been a major reason Independence is able to play the possession-based style of soccer that has propelled them to a strong start.

“He’s a huge reason we can do it, because he can use his feet as well as our field players. … He's two-footed, which you don't see a lot of keepers who are two-footed,” Bossman said. “He's composed on the ball. He can hit the 60-yard line drive; he can hit a big diagonal switch; he can do all those things and that makes it just so much easier for us to be able to play how we want to play.”

Rather than sending the ball up field at the first opportunity, the Eagles prefer to build out of the back, passing their way from the goalkeeper all the way up to the forwards. It's a system they’d be unable to play without a keeper as poised on the ball as Kipley.

Acting as a fifth member of the backline when Independence is on the ball, Kipley can often be seen spraying passes from his own box right to the head or feet of Independence’s forwards 60 yards downfield.

“He’s got really good foot skills, better than a lot of players out there, I feel,” Trevecca signee and Independence center back Seth Isbell said. “So it's really good because we're able to keep possession, me, him and my other center back Jack (Weibel). So he gives us a lot of comfort when we're building out of the back because that's what we like to do.”

The one stain on Independence’s defensive record came last Tuesday against two-time defending state champion Brentwood. Brentwood put four goals past an Eagles defense that had conceded only three goals up to that point.

Despite the loss, Independence sits in second place in District 10-3A, and Kipley has hopes of an appearance at the TSSAA state tournament before heading off to Belmont.

“Going into the state tournament is our main goal of course, just because I'm not 100% sure if Indy has ever done that before,” Kipley said. “I mean, we'd love to keep the Indy name good just because our basketball team won the state championship, so hopefully the soccer team can do something like that.”

Harrison Campbell covers high school sports and more for The Daily Herald. Email him at hcampbell@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @hccampbell7.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Independence soccer goalkeeper Miles Kipley more than a shot-stopper