one of my friends from school got drafted by d.c. united!

[Euphrates]

He wasn't even invited to the MLS combine and he got picked in the 3rd round. He sent a DVD of himself to all the coaches and some of his friends from Georgetown harassed coaches. I'm over the moon for him, he was always the most talented striker we had in a pretty decent high school team.

 

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog...ited_draft.html

 

Meet Your New D.C. United Draft Picks: Ricky Schramm

 

(And thanks to Reader Dan for the e-mail.)

 

So in the third round of today's MLS SuperDraft, D.C. United selected Ricky Schramm, forward, Georgetown.

 

Ricky Schramm, forward, Georgetown, didn't even apply to Georgetown until a week before the deadline, when the coaching staff invited him to come visit the campus and told him to apply just in case. Interest had been fairly modest. No schools were offering him money for soccer. He paid his own way at Georgetown for the first three years before getting some athletic scholarship money as a senior.

 

Ricky Schramm. (Courtesy Georgetown Athletics)

 

The 5-foot-11 Schramm led Georgetown in scoring his final three years, finished tied for third all-time at the school with 39 goals (in 77 games) and was the Big East Offensive Player of the Year as a sophomore, but he didn't get invited to the MLS pre-draft combine. He didn't see himself showing up in the mock MLS drafts online. His pre-draft hype was supplied by his friends, who, on their own, decided to register for BigSoccer and to talk Ricky up (seriously, follow the links). And without a spot at the combine, on his coach's recommendation, he cut his own highlight DVD and mailed it off to every MLS coach, finding their addresses on team Web sites.

 

"My mom has always instilled in me the strongest work ethic you can imagine, being in people's ears, being annoying if that's what it takes," Schramm just told me. "This process has been about me being a twit in the ear of the coaches and of the guys making this happen."

 

So DCU invited him to their own combine, which takes place after the SuperDraft but before the supplemental draft. Schramm said absolutely he'd attend, but he also said that he'd love to work out for the club even sooner if possible. So last week he met up with some of the DCU guys--Ben Olsen, Clyde Simms, Jamil Walker, both Carroll brothers (!), Justin Moose, etc. They played small-side, on a 20-yard field, with garbage cans as targets. Schramm's game is about speed and open spaces, but still, he thought he showed well. When he left, D.C. officials said they'd see him at their pre-supplemental draft workout.

 

He said he had no reason to think he would be picked today, but still, for whatever reason, he decided to get together with some friends for the draft. Wound up being about 20 people. They showed the draft at an off-campus house, using a projector. Everyone was laughing, eating chips and dip, having a nice time. Then Schramm got selected by the league's most successful franchise, located in his adopted city, in the third round.

 

"The room fell silent, and then just erupted," Schramm said. "Everyone was freaking out. I still have to wait until tomorrow to watch the archived draft. I didn't hear what they said, didn't see any of it. I'm pretty sure [the broadcast] didn't have much information on me, which was typical. I could have given them that stuff in a heartbeat, but they didn't reach out at all."

 

Anyhow, this turns out to be the best possible situation for Schramm. He only needs eight more credits to graduate, so staying local should facilitate that. He'll have an English major and a Spanish minor (lit favorites including 19th Century British [especially Keats] and Faulkner). His friends are already asking for invites to D.C. United parties; he's trying to tell them that he hasn't even been to preseason camp yet.

 

Schramm's followed the MLS "religiously" over the past few years, and he knows about all the supplemental draft picks and anonymous college players who have turned into MLS starters. He said he's never been the most technically skilled player, but that he's used speed and vision and hard work to make up for that, putting himself in the right spots to succeed. He said he knows he'll be considered a longshot to catch on with MLS, but that being an unknown has served him well his whole career.

 

"Just like my process for college, my whole venture was just to get picked up by anyone," he said. "D.C. United is probably taking a chance on me. The draft is all about taking chances. But I don't care about that because I know what I can do. That's the only way you can really get by. You can't have guys hyping you up the whole time. You just have to know it."

[Sion]

drafting is stupid

[Euphrates]

Well the MLS is stupid, but it was his best chance of becoming a professional footballer without moving to Europe and disrupting his entire life.

[Spike]

schramm - isn't that a word that borat uses?

[Buzz]

Well done to yer mate and good luck to him. Reminds me a bit of David Seaman, he was released from somewhere, so his mum made him write letters to every club in the English leagues, and got in a Peterborough where as a kid, I watched him play his last game for the "POSH" as he moved to Birmingham, or QPR or somewhere. He ended up doing alright for himself though.

[anfield]

drafting is stupid

 

It would stop chelsea from buying all the youngsters....

[Guest Scot]

drafting is stupid

 

It's a great system. Encourages parity and negates the collecting of stars.

 

System in Britain/Europe wouldn't permit it, though.

[Hassony]

how does drafting work? is it like each team gets a pick like in the school ground?

[Guest Scot]

how does drafting work? is it like each team gets a pick like in the school ground?

 

Bit like that. Worst team gets first pick in the draft and so on down. Teams may exchange picks for players, eg: Watford get first pick in the draft but trade the pick for, say, Xabi Alonso and Liverpool take the best player in the draft, which happens to be a player we may need more.

 

Makes it hard for one team to gather up all the talent.

[Hassony]

do the players have a say in this?

[Guest Scot]

do the players have a say in this?

 

Sort of. In theory no they don't. In practice if they really dig their heels in they may get a trade. Eli Manning did this: refused to go to San Diego and forced a trade to the NY Giants. An early sign of Eli's brilliant judgment .

[Maldini]

I can never understand how such a rampantly capitalist country has such a socialist setup for their main sports.

[_00_deathscar]

It's a great system. Encourages parity and negates the collecting of stars.

 

System in Britain/Europe wouldn't permit it, though.

 

It also wouldn't work across Europe.

 

How do you decide which country is the worst across the many leagues in Europe?

[SkippyjonJones]

I can never understand how such a rampantly capitalist country has such a socialist setup for their main sports.

because it ensures that a lot more games are competative so that TV pay more money for the rights to show them. ergo its a capitalist drive behind it all.

[Guest Scot]

It also wouldn't work across Europe.

 

How do you decide which country is the worst across the many leagues in Europe?

 

hence why I say Britain/Europe

 

What's more the draft largely depends on the college system, that we don't have

[Jarg Armani]

english football is too corrupt for drafting to work.

[Guest Cardie]

Sort of. In theory no they don't. In practice if they really dig their heels in they may get a trade. Eli Manning did this: refused to go to San Diego and forced a trade to the NY Giants. An early sign of Eli's brilliant judgment .

 

A sign of NY and Eli's 'brilliant' judgement.

 

San Diego got one hell of a deal from that.

[Guest Scot]

A sign of NY and Eli's 'brilliant' judgement.

 

San Diego got one hell of a deal from that.

 

Yeah. Eli's a biff.

[Bologna]

english football is too corrupt for drafting to work.

You should see Italy, mate