FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – There will be a few new faces present when the New England Revolution officially convene for 2015 preseason camp on Thursday evening, including forward Sean Okoli.
Acquired in a draft day trade with Seattle Sounders FC last week – the Revs sending the 33rd overall pick to the Pacific Northwest – Okoli is afforded somewhat of a fresh start in Foxborough after making just three appearances (totaling 19 minutes) in his rookie season with the Sounders.
“Our coaches have spoken to him,” said General Manager Michael Burns. “We thought he might be looking for a change in the sense of he didn’t play a lot for Seattle last year.”
Okoli grew up in Federal Way, Washington – the same hometown as Kelyn Rowe – and signed a Homegrown deal with the Sounders last January after a standout three-year career at Wake Forest University. He registered 24 goals and nine assists at Wake and was considered a first-round SuperDraft talent before Seattle secured his signature.
Considering his age and years of experience at Wake, moving Okoli away from his hometown club was less of a concern for Burns and the Revolution.
“He’s a Homegrown kid, but he’s not 16 or 17,” said Burns. “He’s a 21-year-old, so he has a little bit of experience, certainly in college, and a little bit of professional experience. So he’s not so young to where we were uncomfortable about trying to make a move for him.
“He’s old enough and has enough experience now that hopefully he’s going to be able to adjust, adapt and be ready to fight for minutes.”
The nature of last week’s trade – Sounders GM Garth Lagerwey approaching the Revolution’s draft table just as New England was on the clock to select at 33 overall – had the look of a last-minute deal to outsiders, but it was anything but a snap decision from the Revolution brass.
“We’d had some previous conversations with Seattle,” said Burns. “They’d known that we had interest in Sean. They had their sights on their pick in [Northwestern goalkeeper Tyler Miller], even though there was a lot of speculation that he was going to go to Europe, which in fact he did.
“It worked out for them and it worked out for us.”
The next step will be making it work for Okoli, who will be part of a revamped Revolution forward corps which parted ways with Andre Akpan, Geoffrey Castillion, Dimitry Imbongo, Patrick Mullins and Tony Taylor through various mechanisms this offseason.
Okoli will have every opportunity in preseason to impress head coach Jay Heaps and the rest of the Revolution staff, but Burns indicated that there will be no immediate burden of expectation placed on a player who’s played only 19 professional minutes.
“He’s a young player that had a good college career while he was at Wake, so hopefully he’s going to come in here and provide depth,” said Burns. “The expectation obviously is not for him to come in and start minute one of game one. If that happens, then great – he’ll have that opportunity (to earn it). But we felt we were a little thin up top and he gives us depth up there for sure.”
