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News about Seattle Sounders FC's burgeoning Academy system is hot right now. Sounder at Heart can confirm via multiple sources that Sean Okoli and Darwin Jones were both offered contracts over the winter. Liviu Bird has contract information that SaH can not get verified. Sources also told us that a third potential Home Grown Player was offered a contract as well - Aaron Kovar.
Kovar, a wide midfielder, had two goals and six assists and started all 21 matches during his sophomore season at Stanford. Jones is coming off a junior season in which he scored seven goals and had four assists in 20 appearances.
With Okoli's tweet earlier this afternoon and the information coming to Sounder at Heart, it appears that early this week The Future will become the present for a second straight year. It is expected that at least two of these three HGP candidates will be signing, with information conflicting as to if all three are going to be with the First Team in 2014.
With one of the younger Academy systems in the league, the pace of signings is slower than other MLS sides. That looks to be changing. DeAndre Yedlin broke the ice and became an All Star in his rookie season. That should not be the standard to which other Sounders HGPs are held, but it does appear to be a symbol that the youth ranks of the club are stronger than previously thought by some in the front office.
