2010 Draft Class starting to pay dividends

It's long been a mantra of American sports that the way to win is to 'build through the draft'. Indeed, looking at teams like the NFL's Green Bay Packers and the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning and you'll see teams filled with talent that was picked up through the uniquely American draft systems that most sports around here use. Scouts are rarely used to find players already in the game as they tend to be used in football, but to determine potential of kids in colleges, bred to be put into the big leagues as rookies by selection in drafts.

In our sport, it tends to work a bit differently world-wide. Teams have academies that train their footballers up from very young ages to play for their teams or use as transfer bait to get money or other academy players. MLS isn't like most footballing leagues though, and it is actually quite possible to 'build from the draft' as it were in this league. Colorado is starting to now see some great success in that regard from their two-man 2010 draft class.

The Rapids went into the 2010 draft with no first round pick, although having a pick outside of the top 5 is really a crapshoot in most cases; MLS drafts tend to have a group of a couple really good players that people assume will be the next stars of the league and then a ton of other players to be picked apart by teams below. The second round tends to be even more a crapshoot, and that's where the Rapids two picks were in 2010. After a series of trades they wound up with two picks in a row, the 22nd and 23rd picks.

Needless to say, the 2010 draft class was looking like a usual draft class in MLS, which is to say nothing special. With no development league and the team having those two players in areas where depth and injury weren't problems appeared to stunt their growth as well.

Are Ross and Andre two guys who I would want starting on my team every game? Not quite yet. There's still a bit to go for the young guys. However, the growth and potential that they have shown this year might mean that the Rapids really do have two hotly contested positions filled beautifully for the future, and in an always shifting league like MLS that can never be understated.