FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The resumes started to pour into the office of New England Revolution vice president of player personnel Mike Burns in the days after last January's invitation-only tryout.
From far and wide, a couple hundred aspiring professionals sent packages to the Revolution technical staff in hopes of landing a slot in this year's invitation-only tryout, held Monday night.
"If you look back through the history of the Revs, there were some years where we had an open tryout, but then we got 200 players showing up and some guys would be in workboots," Burns said. "You want to be realistic, but at the same time, you want to give guys an opportunity."
Approximately 30 players earned a chance to show off their abilities at the Dana-Farber Field House. Most of the lucky few were Division I college players from local universities who missed out on a chance to attend the MLS Player Combine slated to begin on Saturday. Players from other local colleges comprised the remainder of the pool.
"Some of these guys were up to go to the combine, but never made it," Revolution head coach Steve Nicol said. "This year, the standard was probably as high as it has been in the last two or three years because we've invited a lot of players from Division I schools and a few of them were close to getting in the combine."
Nicol and his coaching staff oversaw the tryouts, which consisted of scrimmages between three assigned teams. Within two hours, the chance to impress passed and the hopefuls were left to wonder whether their name would be called in the MLS SuperDraft on Jan. 16 or whether the Revs might invite them to preseason camp for an extended look.
"We don't know yet if we'll invite any of these guys to preseason or if we'll ultimately end up signing any of them, but I can say that over the last five or six years, this was the best group of players we have invited," Burns said.
The comparatively shallower tryout pool in previous years still yielded results. Current players Chris Tierney (2008) and Brad Knighton (2007) joined the team through the tryout process, while former Revolution striker Connally Edozien (2005) spent a year with New England before carving out a successful career in the USL First Division.
"If you find one player, it's worthwhile," Burns said.
An opportunity for that one chosen tryout player may not exist on the senior roster this season. New England holds seven draft picks in the four-round SuperDraft and has four open roster slots. Experienced players could also arrive and take the roster spot of a tryout participant or draft pick. Smaller roster sizes and the elimination of the reserve league have already led to the release of most of the Revs' developmental players.
"It's more difficult for sure," Burns said. "Without a reserve division, it's going to be more difficult for guys to make roster spots. From my perspective and from our coaches' perspective, that's better because it means more competition. From their perspective, I'm sure they'd rather have a few more roster spots because it would make their job a little easier."
Even if this year's tryout reaps no dividends for the senior roster and even with the avalanche of resumes bombarding the office over the course of the year, Burns said the team will likely continue to hold similar tryouts in the future.
"We feel like it's worthwhile to have," Burns said. "I'm sure there are some people out there who would like us to have more than one tryout a year, but this time is conducive for us in terms of our schedule, our coaches' schedules and the facility schedules here. It's something we've always done and I don't foresee us not doing it."
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