Quick question - are we tipping our hand too quickly here by announcing this? I mean technically anyone can draft him in the draft correct? Players don't have to go to the combine to get drafted - NY convinced Occean (???) to skip the combine so they would have the inside shot at drafting him late. Of course, the plan worked out but not fully since he never accepted their contract and went to Norway (?).
Is it tipping your hand when the player probably wouldn't otherwise get picked in the first couple of rounds? I don't think the likes of Red Bull, Chicago or New England are evening going to take a sniff of this guy when compared to other players in the draft and/or those at the combine.
Can teams draft unsigned players? I'd think United would use a Discovery allocation on him after the draft, much like with Boswell.
Teams can only draft players that are on the "draftable" list. I don't believe that you must be signed to be on the list.
I think teams can request players be added to the list, but if they do so, they must draft them if no one else gets them first. I read that somewhere, but can't remember where.
I think any player signed even after the draft has to be on that list. I think I remember (there have been alot of tailgates since then) that United added Bozilla's name to the list on the last day, figuring no other team would draft him because they hadn't heard of him, but that made it possible for United to sign him later "undrafted". But they do keep changing the rules .......... him being local with the new local talent rules may make it possible for us to announce his invite before the draft, where before we would have kept quiet until after no-one picked him.
Yes, I'm sure dude that's charging me $500 to show up at traffic court with me is thinking the same thing as he makes Moose's monthly wage
If he's not on the official draft list, he can't be drafted. Otherwise, teams would be hiding players willy-nilly, and the list wouldn't be very official. I recall Boswell and Occean being told specifically by their teams not to attend the combine or try to enter the draft so that their teams could sign them without a problem.
I guess I still don't understand--can he skip the draft, or not? 6-4 versatile players with national awards under their belts and a significant aerial game don't get passed over on draft day.
If no team asks for him to be put on the draft list, then yeah. I think the trick is not letting other teams know about him and for the player to not show an interest in MLS. That would explain the last sentence regarding him planning on going to law school. He tips his hand at going back to school to throw off other teams thinking about him, while DC makes sure he's good enough if they do want to sign him. It's a risky move, but if it pays off, DC basically gets a free draft pick.
I swear I read that anyone can request a player to be added to the draft list, but if only one team requested, they were on the hook for drafting him. Maybe that was if the guy signed. I am looking, but can't find it. I want to say Ives or Connolly had it somewhere.
Actually the NSCAA ranked Williams #9 in their final 2006 list following a season with 14 wins, 1 loss, and 2 ties. But Div III is a long way from the MLS, no matter how big this guy is.
Hopefully this kid is a diamond in the rough. Though, in going by our history, we haven't had the best of luck with Division III Player of the Year pick-ups. The last one didn't make it through training camp. Anyone else other than me remember Hayden Woodworth? Old interview with Ray from '03: http://www.soccerloop.com/2003/03/Ray-Hudson/
Williams is a bit of a D-III sports factory, albeit one with very high academic standards. Steinbrenner is an alum, so they're not hurting for $ (he paid for their football stadium). Of course, I feel obliged to point out that Back In My Day, Wesleyan pwned Williams in soccer (okay, so we beat them in the finals of the D-III New England Championships one year...which sucked, b/c the third place team got to go to the NCAA tourney, since at the time NESCAC wasn't allowing member schools to go to the NCAAs). One of the better players from that Wesleyan team (Amos McGee, I think) ended up playing in MLS for Tampa and Chicago...and he was maybe 5'4", not 6'4"... Wesleyan, btw, still has more Certified NFL Coaching Geniuses (two) than Williams. So maybe we can't play, but we can think! Woo! All you D-III haters can check it at the door. There are a lot of reasons why some very talented athletes would opt for a school like Williams over a D-I school.
I played D3 ball. The pace of the game at that level is WAY below D1, and D1 is considerably slower than MLS. You hear that claim made pretty often - that the biggest hurdle for college players going into MLS is getting used to how much faster the game is at the pro level.
How fast does he have to be to stand at the penalty spot and let Christian Gomez bounce balls off his head into the net? I remember Hayden Woodworth - he made our all-name rookie team that year long blondish hair if I recall, he was an alternate for the all-hair team as well.
Well unless you want him breaking Bobby's record for own goals you do have that tricky thing called offsides
I was talking about corner kicks, no offside. Since we haven't scored on a corner kick since (it seems) the Carter administration, I see where you would not have thought of a corner kick first from my post
Matters which D3 schools I think- Williams is probably better than a good portion- approaching half- of D1 schools.