Players from all over the world are invited to Highmark Stadium in hopes of landing a job playing pro soccer for Riverhounds SC. These trialists, as they are called, get what is essentially an invitation to training camp.
It’s like “Hard Knocks” for soccer.
While the Riverhounds provide housing to trialists, they are unpaid, and they aren’t guaranteed, well, anything.
But that doesn’t stop dozens of players from moving to Pittsburgh in hopes of securing a roster spot.
“Life is all about taking risks. You know what I mean? Sometimes you have to take a risk,” said Neco Brett, who made the team in 2018 as a trialist.
‘This is my dream’
Last year, the Riverhounds entered the season with 23 players signed, and that number will be around the same this year. At the start of training camp, 13 players were under contract, which would theoretically leave room for around 10 trialists for when the season opens March 16.
But some of those spots go to players like Christian Volesky, who was signed to a full contract a couple days into training camp. Volesky, 26, played for other USL clubs the past few years.
“There’s players all over the world trying to get in the USL at the present time,” coach Bob Lilley said.
The Riverhounds invited 14 trialists at the start of preseason Feb. 4. Five were cut after one week. Six were cut after the second week. Two more lost their spot after the third week, to some fans’ surprise. Only Caleb Smith remains from that group. The Riverhounds announced his signing Feb. 22, 18 days in to training camp.
“It was an amazing experience,” Smith said. “This is my dream. I’ve been working for this my whole life.”
Smith recently graduated from SMU, where he played for four years while majoring in journalism, and was with the USA U-17 national team.
“The day before I graduated, I got a call,” Smith said. “They wanted me to come down for an invite trial … I graduated Dec. 15 [a Saturday] and then, that Monday, I traveled down here to try out.”
Smith wasn’t the only one with a quick turnaround. Eti Tavares and Ethan Kutler both arrived at training camp last Thursday and were in a preseason game Friday.
But none of those players have or had a guarantee of anything more than a tryout.
“It was all on faith,” Smith said. “I’ve been praying a lot, asking God if this is the right place for me, then I need to come here. And I think he showed me that this is the place I need to be.
“My only other plan was to find a journalism job. But I knew that I wanted to play pro, I knew that I had the ability to do it, I knew that I worked hard to do it, to get to this point. So I kind of knew that something good would happen. And something good ended up happening.”
For Brett, a trialist last year, it was all about confidence.
“I knew exactly what I can do. And I asked a few guys what exactly the coach wanted, and I knew exactly what he wanted. So I knew I could deliver,” Brett said. “After the first four, five days, I looked around and I saw the team, and I knew exactly what I was doing. So I was pretty confident that I was going to get signed.”
Brett, Jamaican-born, went to Robert Morris. He had previously played in the USL and appeared in one MLS game with the Portland Timbers.
“The reason why I did it, I think, Pittsburgh is my home away from home. Because this is where I came and go to college,” Brett said.
Brett made the team — and led the Riverhounds in goals last year.
The process continues
A new crop comes in every week looking to get a contract. The second week’s roster contained the nine who remained from the beginning and three new trialists. Of those, three that joined in week 2, only Sammy Kahsai, a midfielder from University of Maryland Baltimore County, remained by week 3, joined by seven new hopefuls. And the search goes on.
“Meet the standard,” Lilley tells the trialists. “If you’re watching a player train, with your players under contract … if they can keep up and meet the standard, they may be a good option for us.”
To an untrained eye, the trialists and contract players blend in. In practices, the only differentiation is if they have a number on their pants.
At a preseason game Friday against NCAA College Cup runner-up Akron, the Riverhounds’ starting lineup included three trialists. One of those, Nazeem Bartman, part of the third-week additions, scored the game’s only goal on a nifty move.
Every day through preseason, Lilley and the coaching staff evaluate the trialists in both practices and preseason games while preparing for the season ahead.
“They’re either good enough, or they’re not. It’s not like a math test where the answer is defined,” Lilley said. “It’s getting the best player you can get … sometimes it’s just not the right fit.
“Until you get them into training with your guys, it’s tough to judge on video. So you bring them in, and you see how dynamic, how creative, how consistent, how technical they are.”
One player from the first group of trialists, David Greczek, is currently trying out with the Chattanooga Red Wolves of USL League One, a tier below USL Championship.
Monday, the Riverhounds announced Kahsai’s signing, but the roster released that same day also featured three new trialists, with players like Justin Donawa, who played at Dartmouth from 2015-18. The roster no longer includes Tavares or Bartman.
The churn continues until the final roster is set at the end of next week, with more than a few players having earned their spot the hard way.
Ari Levin: alevin@post-gazette.com.
First Published: March 6, 2019, 12:30 p.m.
