It’s been nearly 36 years since Pete Caringi Jr. heard his name called on draft day. In 1978, Caringi was pulled into the NASL as a draft pick of the Washington Diplomats, the culmination of a college career that included a national title with the University of Baltimore.

The feeling could soon be passed down a generation.

UMBC striker Pete Caringi III is among the group of 50 players invited to this weekend’s combine in Florida, and he has a legitimate shot at being drafted in the opening two rounds of next week’s draft in Philadelphia. As a coach, Caringi Jr. is excited to have one of his most successful players on the verge of a professional career.

As a father? Well, that makes the situation a bit more special.

“You want any one of your players to be in a position that they can play at the next level, especially MLS,” Caringi Jr. said. “It’s even more special to have one of those players be your son. I’m very proud of him, proud of what he’s done. I know he’s been around the game his whole life. One of his goals has been an opportunity to play at the MLS level. It’s been a special time for me, I have to say.” 

Caringi III leaves UMBC as one of its most decorated players of all time. He scored 37 goals in his college career, 27 of which came over the last two seasons. He guided UMBC to its third America East title in four years this season with two goals in a 4-0 rout of Hartford in the conference title game in November. Last month, he became the first First-Team All-American in program history.

As an out-and-out striker, Caringi III is generally projected to go somewhere in the second or third round next week, though draft fates often change in the blink of an eye. Over the years, he’s developed into a madly buzzing hornet around the area with a fiendishly robust appetite for goals. It’s been his positioning and a tidy touch more than anything that’s allowed him to rocket up draft boards and become one of the nation’s most coveted poachers out of college.

“I remember coming (into UMBC), I had myself down to be a goal-scorer, but I grew more with holding the ball, being stronger with flicking, with leadership roles on this team,” Caringi III said. “I’d been a captain in high school and everything, but I took a different role this year. Just being able to score in clutch situations in our championship and the UConn game (a penalty kick loss in the NCAA Tournament) and everything, just the progression of me as a person and as a player, I’m grateful for those four years.”

Caringi III grew up around the game. His dad took over the head role at UMBC in 1990, two years before his only son was born. The son followed the father to Retrievers games from before he could walk, diving headfirst into playing styles, tactics and positions. As a seven-year-old, he was there to rush the field with the team when UMBC won the NEC title in 1999.

“It gave me a good sense right away of how it is at the higher level,” Caringi III said. “I know the players he’s coached, and they told me stories my whole life. At a young age I was already kind of being molded into a college player with a professional outlook. I kind of knew what I had to do. I wanted to be part of that. Hearing their success made me hungry and driven to be part of that and possibly surpass them.”

Caringi III developed into a fearsome striker and one of Maryland’s top recruits with Development Academy side Baltimore Bays Chelsea. He scored 16 goals in his final season in the academy, which drew interest from a number of top programs, including NC State and Maryland.

Caringi III always figured he’d play for his dad. He felt comfortable around the program, and leaving home never really occurred to him until his last year in high school. According to Caringi Jr., that warded off a few programs who probably thought Caringi III’s recruiting chase was already a closed case. In actual fact, it was. He took a few token visits, but Caringi III never seriously considered going anywhere else. 

“I just think a lot of coaches liked him,” Caringi Jr. said. “A lot of those guys I see now, a lot of those ACC schools, they all say, ’We wanted Pete, we wanted Pete’ coming out, but I just think they thought automatically that he was coming here.”

As the Bradley family can attest, shouts of nepotism over Caringi III’s four years were unavoidable. They served as fuel for Caringi III, who managed to find a balance with his dad between home life and time spent going to work. 

“It’s always a weird situation,” Caringi III said. “People aren’t going to talk about the coaching to me when they have problems with the coaching. If there’s trouble they’re probably not going to come to me. If I would get any good treatment people would think it’s because of my dad. My whole life I’ve always gotten that. There’s people to this day that still think that, ‘Oh, your dad got you here.’ It’s just motivation.”

Wherever that fire emanated from, it helped keep him sharp. Caringi Jr. says his son developed in critical stages, allowing his back-to-the-goal game and skills as a provider to develop alongside his preternatural ability to find dangerous slivers of space and exploit them for goals. From his freshman to his senior year, Caringi III put on about 15 pounds to fill out his 6-foot-1 frame, which helped develop his image as a target striker for the next level. He projects as a sort of Jack McInerney type, a tireless worker with a never-ending motor and a fearless streak a mile wide. Perhaps not the most athletic striker in the pool, Caringi III is nevertheless a whirling dervish of a forward, constantly prodding, searching, running.

Now, Caringi III is on the cusp of a new adventure. It’ll take some work for him to crack an MLS roster, but he’s sure he’s up to the challenge. So is a proud dad, who’s looking forward to another draft experience. 

“From a personal standpoint, watching your son grow up, his goal was always to play in MLS,” Caringi Jr. said. “To watch him now and to see him train hard for it and really bust his butt, and now he’s evolved in the last couple years, it’s something that’s hard to put into words.”