Benjamin (Ben) Willis is a native of Federal Way, Wash. and he played as the starting goalkeeper at Federal Way High School. He continued his soccer career at Division I Gonzaga University, where he was a three-year starter and played in 57 games for the Zags.

After graduating from Gonzaga with a degree in kinesiology, Willis played for Lane United of the USL Premier Development League from 2016 to 2017 before joining the Seattle Sounders U-23 side in 2018. In 2019, he joined USL Championship’s Rio Grande Valley FC (who were affiliated with Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo), where he played for two years before retiring from professional soccer to focus on coaching.

Willis returned to the Puget Sound region to begin his career as a coach. He served as the assistant/goalkeeper coach for USL 2’s Ballard FC from 2022 to 2023 while simultaneously holding the women’s assistant/goalkeeper coaching position for the University of Puget Sound from 2022 to 2024.

In 2024, Willis was hired as the head coach for FC Olympia’s USL W League team and led the team to a conference finals appearance. Later that year, Willis made the jump to coaching in the professional leagues as he was named the assistant/goalkeeping coach for the USL Super League’s Lexington SC.