A pair of former high school soccer stars will be among the highly sought-after players in next week’s Major League Soccer SuperDraft.
Cate alum Joshua Yaro and Santa Barbara High grad Tony Alfaro are on the list of prospects for the Jan. 14 draft in Baltimore.
Yaro, who completed his junior season at Georgetown, signed a Generation adidas contract with MLS on Wednesday and is now eligible for the draft.
Generation adidas contracts are offered to a handful top college underclassmen and high school seniors. The contracts are typically larger base salaries and don’t count against a club’s salary budget.
With his signing, Yaro, the Big East Defender of the Year and a two-time first-team All-American, is projected to be the No. 1 choice in next Thursday’s draft. The Chicago Fire have the top pick.
Yaro turned down a GA offer after his sophomore season at Georgetown. He said he was committed to getting his college degree. He is one semester shy of earning his degree in international relations and anthropology.
“If I would have left last year, I would have really had an issue with getting my degree,” Yaro told the Seattle Times on Wednesday. “That was a deciding factor for me.”
Yaro this past season was named a Scholar All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
At Cate, Yaro led the Rams to back-to-back CIF Division 7 Championships in 2011 and 2012.
Alfaro won a CIF Division 2 section title as a junior in 2010 and a Division 2 regional championship during his senior year at Santa Barbara. He was the CIF Division 2 Defensive Player of the Year in 2010.
He played collegiately at Cal State Dominguez Hills, where he was a four-year starter at defender. He earned NCAA Division 2 first-team All-American honors as a senior.
Alfaro scored one of the greatest goals in Santa Barbara High soccer history. With time running out in the second overtime of a 2011 CIF quarterfinal game at JSerra in San Juan Capistrano, Alfaro booted a 50-yard free kick that sailed over a scrum of players and into the goal for a stunning 2-1 win.
As of Wednesday, Alfaro was the only Division 2 player invited to the MLS Combine in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The combine brings 60 draft-eligible players together for a series of games in front of MLS coaches.
UCSB senior defender Duncan Backus also was invited to the combine, which runs Jan. 7-12.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.