By Chris Dailey
One Pro Sports Management (OPSM) just wrapped up its annual Pro Showcase in Tulsa, Oklahoma in conjunction with USL Championship side, FC Tulsa.
“The combine has been going well, I like what the guys have been doing. Competing at a high level and trying to impress and seeing the leadership qualities and individual brilliance is nice to see. It’s nice to see these guys in an unfamiliar position where they need to meet guys and having these combines are perfect for having more guys within a group in preseason,” said FC Tulsa’s manager, Blair Gavin, was very impressed with the quality the candidates that took the pitch showed, so much so he called three of them into preseason with the club.
Rodolfo Prado, who played college soccer at Grand Canyon University was joined alongside fellow GCU teammate, Cam Weller, and former captain of Xavier University, Pol Hernandez.
Apart from those three standouts, players were scouted from clubs such as Detroit City FC, Rio Grande Valley FC, Lexington SC, and Forward madison. These clubs all came to scout potential signings for their upcoming USL seasons as preseason is rapidly approaching.
OPSM founder, Jeff Addai, spoke upon the success of the event, stating, “We get so many inquiries of players that want to go pro, so we decided to make an environment where players – semi-pro, college, and from all around North America – can apply to be invited to an OPSM Pro Showcase. For this event, we did over 400 applications. Basically, what our agency does for a month or two is to see the best players, and once we do, we partnered with FC Tusla to run the event and they’re facilities were accessed. They guaranteed two players into preseason but by the end of the event because of the amount of talent there they ended up picking three.”
The talent was simply undeniable, and the work that goes into scouting the best talent to attend the event was a tall task that OPSM managed to do successfully.
The other clubs were all very impressed with the talent on display and are preparing to reach out to certain players from the event throughout the offseason.
“We haven’t seen this much quality at a combine, ever. But every combine has been getting better and better. There was a very good group of players for the University of Tulsa and we had players such as Luke Jefres and Mariano Faszio – whose brother plays in Serie A – and Alex Lopez, all players from University of Tusla who did well at the D1 level,” said Addai on the talent on display at the combine.
However, it wasn’t just North American ballers showing out in front of very impressed professional scouts.
“We even had guys from the UK such as Trevor Kacou who plays well in space, really good talent. Also, we had players who were from France such as Nathan Ntalu, he was the MVP of the showcase game. The coaches were amazed to see his talent,” said Addai in regards to the international talent on display.
OPSM continues to make strides in making young amateur and semi-professionals dream of becoming a pro come true.
As more professional clubs start to take notice, such as FC Tulsa has done, more success stories will appear.
“We (OPSM) wanted to add more combines to other markets. For example, we just announced a showcase in Oakland using the Oakland Roots facilities to track more people from the West Coast area. We also have events in Canada, including Toronto and Vancouver, and we want to focus on hitting the major American and Canadian markets so that we can see the best talent and provide the best players to these teams and give these players the opportunities because that’s what it’s all about,” stated Addai.
The OPSM mission is clear: to scout the best young talent and provide them with their lifelong dream.
OPSM has three remaining destinations remaining on the Offseason Pro Showcase Tour, in Toronto (Jan. 11-13), Oakland (Jan. 27-29), and Vancouver (Feb. 1-3). Players interested in attending one of the events can apply by visiting the OPSM website.
For more information, visit opsmpro.com.
