Growing up in Carmel, Indiana, Cam Lindley never had a different address. He was born at the hospital on 86th Street, the only one in the area at the time and the same one his now wife Olivia was born, and started playing soccer with the Carmel Dads’ Club when he was just three years old.
He attended King of Glory Preschool, Pilgram Lutheran, Woodbrook Elementary, Clay Middle School, Carmel High School and, finally, Guerin Catholic.
The Early Years
Lindley always knew he was going to play soccer. His parents, aunt and uncle all played collegiately and his sister, Cassidy, who was a member of Indy Eleven’s USL W League National Championship squad, followed suit as well.
In his words it was, “You’re doing this.”
From Carmel Dads’ Club, Cam went on to play for Carmel’s original youth club, Carmel United, at Shelborne Fields on the west side of Carmel. He continued when the club was changed to Indiana Fire and, outside of the year and a half stint he trained and played in Chicago where the side won a National Championship, he continued with those Carmel clubs all the way up until he signed with the University of North Carolina.
He was Carmel, Indiana, through and through.
In the final two years of his prep career, Lindley was ranked as the No. 1 player in the 2016 class by College Soccer News and was a five-star prospect according to Top Drawer Soccer. In 2015, he was named an NSCAA All-American and the NSCAA Youth Boys’ National Player of the Year.
His life was full of consistency from his youth playing days and similarly through his two years at UNC, and much of that consistency was right up the road from Indianapolis. However, his decision to enter the professional ranks in the spring of 2018 would lead to anything but the familiar for the next nearly five years.
Life as a Tar Heel
Just like he knew he was going to play soccer at an early age, he also knew Carolina Blue was in his blood. His dad’s side of the family is all from Greensboro and dad was a huge Carolina basketball fan growing up.
“I always wanted to go there as a kid and when I got the chance, I didn’t bat an eye,” Lindley said.
The success he saw in his early playing days continued in Chapel Hill. As a freshman, he earned second-team All-America accolades and was the ACC Freshman of the Year, helping lead the squad to the NCAA College Cup. With all the early triumphs, there was talk of going pro, but ultimately it just wasn’t the right time for that. His Homegrown rights were owned by the Chicago Fire, and it didn’t seem like the right fit for him.
“It wasn’t a do or die moment,” Lindley said of having to decide about going pro. And with the decision made, he was set for another season at UNC.
The Tar Heels won 17 games in 2017 and made it back-to-back College Cup appearances for the school. Lindley posted another All-American season and was named the ACC Midfielder of the Year and a semifinalist for the Mac Hermann Trophy, which annually honors the top collegiate soccer player in the United States.
He now had two seasons under his belt, including a campaign that produced seven goals and 13 assists, tying him for fifth on UNC’s single-season assist list. And just like after the 2016 season, a decision had to be made.
There was no question for Lindley that he was going to earn his college degree and now that he had completed two seasons and three semesters at North Carolina, he had the assurance that he could do that no matter how long it took.
“The night before I was supposed to start class my sophomore spring, I get a phone call saying, ‘Orlando City just decided to trade for your Homegrown rights,’” he said. “‘We’re going to draft up a contract.’”
So, Lindley signed a contract and was on a flight to Orlando the next day, knowing that he could go pro and receive a guaranteed education.
“When Orlando came calling It seemed like it was a better fit for me with the staff, the way they were going to play with the players they had there and the club itself,” he continued.
Off to the Pros
Lindley played in four total matches for the MLS side in 2018, and so began the consistency shake up. In May of 2018, he was transferred to then-USL Championship squad Saint Louis where he saw action in one match before heading back to Orlando at the end of the season. Orlando again sent Lindley off on loan for the 2019 season, this time to Memphis 901 FC where he scored a pair of goals across 27 matches.
Then, after two seasons of back and forth, it was back to Indiana for the kid for Carmel.
“I was so excited to come home and play for the team [Indy Eleven], but then all of a sudden that hit,” Lindley said.
‘That’ being the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was just kind of a weird situation, but I had a lot of family and friends here and I was in a place where I could still, from a distance, see people I hadn’t seen in a while.”
Included in that group of people was Olivia, who lived just a short distance away with her family in a suburb of Chicago at the time. The pair reconnected and the rest, as they say, was history for the couple.
On the field, though, the year didn’t quite go according to plan. He was finally home, but he couldn’t fully do the things he used to do and, with Indy only playing 16 matches that season, he played just 12.
The 2021 and 2022 seasons took Lindley to, first, San Antonio and then Colorado Springs, and it was time to get his focus back. The 2020 season didn’t finish how he wanted it to, and San Antonio was going to be a good fit for him to develop his game as a player.
“So, I said, okay let’s go for it. Going down there was great; it was a great environment to walk into and learn a lot, so it was kind of easy to get going from day one because I didn’t play many games the year before, so I was just itching, and I was so hungry to play games and get going.”
Lindley played 31 games in San Antonio, helping the team to the USL Championship playoffs, and before too long, Colorado Springs came calling. It was an important decision for Cam and Olivia, who had recently married at the end of 2021. Olivia has a degree in education, and Colorado Springs was going to give Cam a two-year deal.
“At the time you really weren’t getting two-year contracts, so that meant Liv could work and teach. That was important to us she was able to teach, because on year deals you can’t really get a job and say, ‘Hey, I’m leaving in 6 months.’”
Another 30+-game season followed for Lindley, who helped lead Colorado Springs to the Western Conference Final against his previous club, San Antonio. It was the best season statistically to date for him during his professional tenure, scoring a pair of goals and registering nine assists.
One can’t argue that the last two years were good experiences for the couple, “But, obviously, we always had our eye on coming back,” Cam said.
Coming Home
A sense of consistency returned for Lindley in 2022 when he signed a contract for his second stint in the Circle City. This time, it felt different.
“100%,” Lindley said of this return. “One, because I was way more established in the league. I think I only played like 27 games before I came to Indy the first time. Then, when I came back, I had played two 30-game seasons. It was easier for me to walk in and be myself and the staff and guys were good, so it was an easier transition for me.
“Plus, I was more mature. I was married at the time; I was expecting a kid. I was way more ready than I was the first time around.”
Lindley has played in 50 matches for the Boys in Blue since returning, logged more than 4,100 minutes and helps captain a squad that is currently unbeaten in ten straight matches across all competitions, including a club-best six wins in USL Championship matches after returning to the USL Championship playoffs in 2023 for the first time since 2019.
The fulfillment hasn’t only come on the field, though. With the return of Lindley and his family to Indiana, there’s happiness off the field as well.
“When I found out we were moving back to Indy for the 2023 season I was thrilled and couldn’t have been happier,” Olivia said. “It was a dream to have all of our family here, as well as raise our daughter, Skylar, here!”
Olivia’s entire family is in the area as well. Her parents live on the border of Carmel and Noblesville, she has a brother in Carmel and another who is on the cross country and track team at IU Indianapolis.
To her, being back in the area couldn’t mean more. “Being able to grow up here and raise our daughter here is a dream come true. Wherever we are, this is where we consider home.”
The World’s Game, Indiana’s Team
It’s been over 11 years since the Circle City welcomed the Boys in Blue with open arms on January 16, 2013, and a lot has changed since the inaugural match on April 12, 2014.
A teenage Lindley would tell you he was definitely a fan during those early years, going to matches and even getting the chance to train with the team briefly, and he would also tell you soccer just keeps getting bigger in the area.
“It’s everywhere,” he says.
Indy Eleven currently supports more than 18,000 youth soccer players as part of its Youth Development Program and recently added over 6,000 players as part of the newly launched Indy Eleven Academy. Add to that the Indy Eleven Pro Academy, the state’s only currently established MLS NEXT program, that is coming off its third consecutive U20 Academy Cup Championship, while also winning the inaugural U20 Academy League National Championship in 2021 and the U15 Academy Cup in 2023. It’s an impressive development from youth soccer to first team.
“I think that’s amazing,” Lindley said. “There’s a pipeline to the first team and we’ve never directly had that here in Indy, so I think it’s absolutely amazing. I think, too, those younger kids will now really have a chance to say, ‘Okay I wear the same jersey as the first team.’
“Hopefully us [first team] players can get involved and be around training and stuff like that so they can see that, and they can aspire to get better and it’s only going to make the level of soccer in Indy so much better.”
Lindley sees himself in a central, and integral, position. A bridge between coaches and players, the older ones to the younger ones as the club now offers a unique opportunity to Academy players with the chance to get their foot in the door. As the kid from Carmel, he’s seen the transition and the growth of the Indy Eleven name firsthand.
“I’m jealous,” he said. “I wish I had it.”
