Jan. 12, 2016 WASHINGTON - Four members of the Georgetown University men's soccer team were among the 72 participants in the 2016 adidas Major League Soccer (MLS) Player Combine held January 8-12 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Keegan Rosenberry (Ronks, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite), Cole Seiler (Anderson, S.C./Christ Church Episcopal School) and Josh Turnley (Beaver, Pa./Beaver Area) were invited in December, and Joshua Yaro (Santa Barbara, Calif./Cate School) was added to the mix after signing a Generation adidas Contract with the league last week.
The Combine was the final event before the MLS SuperDraft which will be held on Thursday at 1 p.m., in Baltimore, Md. The No. 1 pick will be announced live on ESPN's SportsCenter. The Combine included games with the 72 participants divided into four teams of 18 with college and MLS coaches on the sidelines. It also had strength and agility testing as well as an interview portion.
By all accounts, the Georgetown quartet impressed both on and off the field.
Rosenberry was solid on the first day of games at right back covering some of the best attackers at the Combine. The following day, the Hoyas flexed their muscles dominating the agility testing.
Yaro was second in the 30-meter dash with a time of 3.93 seconds, while Rosenberry was 20th overall clocking a time of 4.13 seconds. Rosenberry was then fourth overall in the 5-10-5 Shuttle finishing in 4.11 seconds. Turnley was right on his heels tying for eighth in a time of 4.20 seconds. GU shined in the vertical jump with Turnley leaping the highest at the Combine going 33.5 inches, while Rosenberry was second with 32 inches and Yaro was third hitting 31.5 inches.
On the second day of games, it was Seiler who made an impact at center back for his squad. He showed his toughness and organizational skills, as well as his proficiency sending long diagonals up the field and hitting the intended target in stride.
On the final day, the teams mixed up the lineups so the Hoyas had fewer opportunities to shine after making their marks earlier in the Combine.
Hopefully for the quartet the groundwork has been laid. In an article on MLSsoccer.com, Yaro and Rosenberry were ranked as the top players at their respective positions. Seiler came in as the fourth-best center back at the combine, and Turnley was listed as the fifth-best left back at the event with all four Hoyas being named at the top five at their position.
Georgetown already has two players signed from the 2015 team, as Brandon Allen (Old Bridge, N.J./St. Joseph) and Alex Muyl (New York, N.Y./Bard) both signed Homegrown Contracts with the New York Red Bulls in December. Including Yaro, Georgetown Head Coach Brian Wiese has now had 12 players be drafted or sign with an MLS club or the league in his tenure on the Hilltop.
On Thursday, there will be a livestream of the SuperDraft on MLSsoccer.com starting at 1 p.m., along with a draft tracker, where fans can see all the draft picks as they are announced.