USL News Release

Friday, December 11, 2009

TAMPA, FL – Two coaches from last year’s USL championship games – Leigh Cowlishaw and Larry Sunderland – and 44 players from the Premier Development League were among the names announced Thursday by Major League Soccer for the league’s annual college player combine set for January.

The 2010 combine will separate all players into four teams and feature two games per day at Central Brower Regional Park on Jan. 9, 10 and 12. Each team will be led by an experienced Division I coach who will be assisted by an experienced soccer professional. Cowlishaw has been paired with Michael Noonan, head coach at Brown University, and Sunderland will be working with Todd Yeagley, head coach at the University of Wisconsin.

Cowlishaw is coming off of a second USL Second Division championship in four years and was recently inducted into the United Soccer Leagues Hall of Fame in November. Sunderland, in his third year as coach of the Chicago Fire of the Premier Development League nearly led his team to an unbeaten season at 10-1-5 and was just shy of a league championship, finishing as runners-up in the playoffs.

The initial player list of 62 announced Thursday was determined by a select panel of Division I college coaches representing all conferences who nominated and voted for players in conjunction with MLS coaches. Additional collegiate players from NCAA Division II and III schools, NAIA schools and Division I alternates will be added to finalize the 2010 combine list. The final player list and team assignments will be announced in the coming weeks.

Among the 44 players with PDL experience on the combine list are nearly enough Chicago Fire players to comprise their own team at the combine. Ten former players from the development squad from over the past four years will be coming together looking to join a long list of other players from the team that have gone on to successful professional careers in MLS and USL.

List of PDL players [+]     Full combine information [+]