PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – The occasion is the Major League Soccer SuperDraft, and things are buzzing.

The house is packed. A ton of local and national media are on hand, with several hundred visitors to the NSCAA Convention stopping in to check on the proceedings. Music is blaring, players are getting selected and the executives of the MLS teams are wheeling and dealing.

While the crowded ballroom at the Pennsylvania Convention Center signals a sustained momentum in terms of fan interest for Major League Soccer, the most notable aspect of the day for me is to think back at how far some of these young men have come since I watched them playing youth soccer.

Danny Mwanga was the first selection of the draft, the Oregon State forward taken by the hometown and expansion Philadelphia Union. Mwanga played for the Westside Metros soccer club in Portland. Virginia’s Tony Tchani, taken #2 by New York Red Bulls, played at Beach FC in the Tidewater area. Ike Opara, a Wake Forest defender chosen by San Jose, mentioned North Carolina club Triangle FC in his speech.

I remember watching Amobi Okugo playing in the Manchester United/Nike Cup in Portland as a U14 player, then later at the U.S. Club Soccer id2 event in Jacksonville, which led to him being chosen for Bradenton Residency. Okugo was drafted by Philadelphia out of UCLA where he was our TopDrawerSoccer.com Rookie of the Season this year. Another player just out of residency and our #1 prospect for the 2009 graduating class, Jack McInerney, was also taken by Philadelphia in the first round. I remember seeing Jack play for the U15 BNT and the Cobb FC club team out of Georgia.

Among a number of touching and thoughtful thank you speeches, Jack was kind enough to wish his sister Kacey, a good youth prospect of her own at ASA Xtreme in Georgia, a happy 16th birthday. Family and God were common themes in the post-selection speeches, and Blair Gavin of Akron made one of the best. I remember meeting Blair in the lobby of a Holiday Inn in Bradenton where as a member of the U18 Men’s National Team training there, he rightfully pointed out to me I was wrong in not including him on the Players To Watch list. I certainly never forgot him after that.

The last player in the 1st round was Mike Stephens. Mike just finished his career at UCLA, but before that he played at residency and before that with Sockers FC out of Chicago. That’s where he was when I first saw him as a U14 BNT player at the National ID camp in Concord, Mass., scoring 6 goals one afternoon in the hot match.

A few selections earlier Wake Forest’s Corben Bone was taken by Chicago. I saw his parents Mark and Yvonne in the foyer of the ballroom afterward and remembered talking to them on the corner of a field at the Dallas Cup when Corben was a U15 player for a great Solar SC team. I’ve had hundreds of these conversations with parents from around the country during games, but it’s always nice to see players make it big.

Corben was one of four Wake Forest players taken in the 1st round and that is pretty impressive. Demon Deacons’ coach Jay Vidovich called it “a pretty good day” in a masterpiece of understatement as he left the ballroom. Along with Bone and Opara, Austin da Luz (Greensboro SC – New York Red Bulls) and Zach Schilawski (CASL – New England Revolution) also went in the 1st round. A pretty good day indeed.

It really was, for me, but especially for a lot of players and families. These players come out of the college and club soccer matches and teams that we cover on TopDrawerSoccer.com  - so pay attention!