This World Cup Season Our Hall-of-Fame Former Soccer Pro VP Gets a Kick Out of Protecting Your Infrastructure Like He Protected the Goal.

As the World Cup kicks off, one local data center professional will be watching with a sharper eye than the rest of us.

Mike Barbarick, vice president of sales for Direct LTx, has made his professional career protecting the infrastructure of Philadelphia-area enterprises as a data center and telecom network sales professional, helping them find affordable and sensible solutions for their unique needs. 

Prior to his IT infrastructure career, Mike protected something else, his team’s goal as he patrolled his end of the soccer pitch.

In addition to being our team member most excited about the World Cup having kicked off in Qatar, there’s something else notable about Mike.  He is now a Hall of Famer, a recent inductee into the Delaware County Athletic Hall of Fame.

The path Mike forged to this honor is an impressive one.   He got his start playing soccer for Rose Tree Soccer Club and starred at Penncrest High School, leading the Lions to the Central League championship.   Complicating his recruitment by major college soccer programs, Mike’s family moved out west as he graduated from high school, which resulted in him playing not in our area but at the University of Washington in the Pac10, the leading soccer conference at that time. 

Mike starred for Washington and still holds the goals-against record at the school, allowing only 0.44 goals per game.   After being named team MVP of the Huskies in 1980 he was invited to the US Olympic Team tryouts.  

Following his graduation from Washington Mike played professional soccer throughout the 1980s.   He had a successful North American Soccer League career with the Seattle Sounders and San Diego Sockers, included being nominated for NASL rookie of the year following his initial campaign.

Following his time in the NASL Mike returned to our area, where he patrolled the pitch locally for the American Soccer League’s Pennsylvania Stoners and later played for the United Soccer League’s Houston Dynamos, Canton Invaders, and back to the Dynamos, winning championships, putting up league-leading statistics, and earning all-league honors along the way.  

Mike wrapped up his career playing International Series games for the Dynamos against major teams from England, Ireland, and Mexico as well as the US National Team.  Having reconnected with the area during his time playing professional soccer here, Mike embarked on a career in technology in the Philadelphia area. 

Known for utilizing his savvy and foresight in sensing threats from the opposing team, for more than twenty years Mike has done the same for Eastern Pennsylvania enterprises.   He now protects the IT infrastructure, websites, and networks of Direct LTx customers in our Reading data center.   It has been a pleasure to have this savvy soccer and data center sales veteran on our team for the last few years helping our customers navigate their digital transformation strategies in the fast-changing world of data centers, cloud, and hybrid computing. 

Mike is always willing to talk soccer or technology.  Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn   a https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebarbarickdirectltxt or by emailing him at mbarbarick@directltx.com

From all of us at Direct LTx, congratulations to Mike and his fellow Hall of Fame inductees and Go USA!!!