Brandon Pollard

Brandon Pollard played college soccer at the University of Virginia, where, as a defender, he helped them win the NCAA title in three consecutive years, 1992-94. Pollard was a first-team All-American in his junior and senior years. Pollard played for the US at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and internationally also played at the 1993 U-20 World Cup and the 1995 Pan American Games.

After the Olympics, Pollard joined Major League Soccer (MLS), having been selected in the third-round of the 1996 MLS Draft by the Dallas Burn. He played four years in the league, mostly with the Burn, retiring after the 2000 season. In 2000 he was also loaned out briefly to the Tennessee Rhythm and the Texas Rattlers. In 1999 Pollard had his best year in MLS, but in the play-offs was taken down on a vicious tackle by Demo Kovalenko that broke his leg. He returned in 2000 but was never the same player and retired shortly thereafter.

Pollard stayed in Dallas where he met a woman 21 years his senior, they fell in love and married. She came from a family of beekeepers so together they started the Texas Honeybee Guild, and Pollard described himself as, “ I’m a fulltime educator. I just manifest my teaching through beekeeping. I’m a 24-7 beekeeper.”