Saturday morning at Starfire Sports was virtually the same for Darwin Jones as any other day he's spent at the Tukwila complex in the past five years. He played soccer with teammates he knows well, took instructions from the Sounders FC technical staff and had lots of fans watching him.
There was, however, one thing that made it a unique and memorable day for the 22-year-old.
“It was a totally different feeling going into the locker room and having my name above a locker,” said Jones, who on Saturday participated in Sounders FC’s first training session of the year as the club’s newest Homegrown Player. “Getting my own number and making it official – It’s really exciting.”
It was a similar feeling for midfielder Cristian Roldan, the club’s first-round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft who played alongside Jones at the University of Washington. Although he grew up in southern California, the Emerald City became a second home for Roldan over the last two years as he starred for the Huskies and his younger brother played at Seattle University. Sounders FC is the team he wanted to begin his professional career with.
Jones says that during their two years together at the UW, he and Roldan often talked to each other about the possibility of them both joining the Rave Green. It was somewhat of a farfetched idea, but one they secretly hoped would become a reality.
On Saturday, Roldan and Jones walked out of the locker room and once again took the pitch wearing the same jersey. They and their Sounders FC teammates were greeted by over a hundred supporters who began chanting as the team warmed up for its first training session of 2015.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Roldan said after training. “Darwin’s been my teammate for two years now, and I’ve gotten along with him very well on the field and off the field. I can’t wait to play alongside him.”
Roldan and Jones aren’t the only local products to recently enter the league. In fact, a couple of their former UW teammates are now their Cascadia Cup rivals, as defender Andy Thoma was drafted by the Portland Timbers and goalkeeper Spencer Richey by Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
Jones can’t help but smile as he reflects on how things worked out for the group of Huskies.
“It’s pretty cool that we’re all in the same area and we can still communicate,” he said. “But at the end of the day, on the field we’re rivals.”
