The Independent Weekly’s commentary on local sports
One of the Carolina RailHawks’ biggest off-season questions was answered today when the team announced that midfielder Daniel Paladini, last year’s team Most Valuable Player, has re-signed with the Railhawks for the 2010 season.
John Cunliffe, 2007 MLS Combine MVP, in a 2009 game against the Vancouver Whitecaps (Photo by Rich Bostwick)
No, the RailHawks aren’t picking players in today’s MLS SuperDraft, to be held in Philadelphia at 2 p.m. However, recent history shows that the RailHawks and other D2 teams can expect to see some of these highly touted first- and second-rounders in the next couple of years.
Thanks to a blog I encountered on the Internets, I now know that three players who performed so well in recent MLS combines that they were named MVP of the thing are now Carolina RailHawks. That’s right. Here’s the list of recent combine MVPs:
Obviously, being named MVP of a brief meat market scouting combine is no sure ticket to D1 stardom. (Indeed, in a post on Tuesday about the combine, Ives Galarcep made a passing reference to Kreamalmeyer’s award.) But the three future RailHawks all proved to be solid performers in D2 and could perhaps feature again in the MLS. And no doubt there will be a number of draftees today who will find their niche in D2 rather than the MLS.
In scanning the recent first and second rounds of the MLS draft, I see that a number of picks ended up with the RailHawks: Cunliffe (2007, No. 7 overall); Nate Norman (2007, No. 21); Plotkin (2006, No. 20—three behind Jozy Altidore!); Jack Stewart (2005, No. 10); Josh Gardner (2004; No. 13—five behind Clint Dempsey!); David Stokes (2003; No. 5); Chris Carrieri (2001; No. 1).
Let’s look at another sampling of future prospects: the history of Generation Adidas (and its forerunner, the Nike-sponsored Project 40): There are definitely some future stars there (Tim Howard! DaMarcus Beasley!), but there are others, of course, who went on to relative anonymity, including two who more or less ended their careers with the RailHawks: the aforementioned Stokes and Carrieri.*
What all of this shows is that forecasting which college stars will become top-flight first division pro players is a highly inexact guessing game science. Who knows how Danny Mwanga of Oregon State, who is projected as the No. 1 overall pick, will pan out for the expansion Philadelphia Union? Or Teal Bunbury, winner of the 2009 MAC Hermann Trophy, awarded to the best college player in the country?
Here’s another interesting local angle to today’s draft: Seven of the top nine projected selections featured in the 2009 NCAA College Cup that was held in Cary, NC, last month.
The draft today promises to be fun. And of course, it will be interesting to look back on it a year or two from now to see how today’s stars of tomorrow ultimately fared.
UPDATE NO. 1 (Jan. 15, 2010; 10:46 a.m.): The Richmond Kickers of USL’s second division announced Thursday that Carrieri, who played for them in a part-time capacity last year, will play full-time this season.
UPDATE NO. 2 (Jan. 15, 2010; 10:48 a.m.): Opara, a 6-foot-2 defender who went to Jordan High School in Durham and then Wake Forest University, was selected third overall in the MLS SuperDraft by the San Jose Earthquakes. Schilawski, a forward and native of Cary who had an illustrious career with CASL, Cary High School, the Cary RailHawks U23 PDL team and Wake Forest, was taken by the New England Revolution with the ninth overall pick.
While flipping through my soccer channels in search of a game, I spotted USL Breakaways on Fox Soccer Channel and taped it. Given the news of the past few weeks, and the generally clumsy PR operation of the United Soccer Leagues, I wanted to see how the USL is presenting itself.
I watched the hour-long program, which was hosted by Andrew Bell, former marketing director and current president of the Charleston Battery, who is young, British (Scottish?) and has a bit of Warren Barton about him (he’s also an FSC announcer). There wasn’t much news in this infomercial, produced for USL by Cultural Videos and Sports Communications, Inc., but I noticed a couple of points of emphasis.
First, the opening 30 minutes were devoted to the Super-Y league and its annual tournament in Tampa. We saw kids playing, and interviews with U15 players and coaches. No doubt intentionally, this segment spotlighted one of the main strengths of the United Soccer Leagues: fostering youth development.
After a segment featuring banquet highlights from the annual general meeting, and the Hall of Fame inductees (including Scott Schweitzer, star defender for Rochester who coached the Carolina RailHawks for its first two seasons), the theme of “development” was picked up midway through the program with an interview with USL President Tim Holt.
Holt didn’t engage directly with the fact that the first division that seems to have all but collapsed, but instead sounded the theme of “player development.”
Here are his remarks in full, with emphasis added:
Tim Holt: Yeah, it’s exciting, there’s a new direction, a new culture about USL. Probably most people know at this point, USL was acquired by NuRock Soccer Holdings from Nike, which was the previous owner. Nike Inc and the Umbro brands and Nike Soccer Brands will stay on as long-term partners in a 10-year partnership, so we get the best of both worlds. We have committed ownership from NuRock, Rob Hoskins, Alek Papadakis, their CEO. They’re soccer guys but they’re accomplished business executives, and they’re really bringing professional—more sophisticated approach to everything we do from our front-office standpoint, allowing us to serve our teams better. And it’s just a real exciting time, obviously, to be able to continue the relationship with Nike and Umbro, especially Umbro, the long time partners with USL, it’s very exciting. So we’re a few months into that transition, it’s been almost seamless, and we look forward to furthering that into 2010. Continue reading »
The Rochester Rhinos fulfilled recent speculation today, announcing that they would join the nine other ownership groups that are poised to begin play next spring in the North American Soccer League, which now claims 10 teams.
Last week, Carolina RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman told Triangle Offense that he expected there would be at least 10 teams but refused to confirm speculation about Rochester’s status.
Here’s a link to the early thoughts of Jeff DiVeronica of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “Devo” is an excellent, insightful soccer reporter; he’s also been consistent in his scorn for the breakaway league.
For those keeping score, the USL First Division is down to four teams, following today’s announcement from Rochester and the decision of Cleveland and Charleston to take themselves down to the USL Second Division:
Press release after the jump. Continue reading »
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