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Sporting Kansas City II announced they have signed forward Preston Judd for the 2021 USL Championship season, pending league and federation approval.
The 21-year-old Nevada native played his junior year of college at the University of Denver in 2019 where he scored seven goals and an assist in 19 appearances. The 2020 season was delayed until the spring of 2021.
Judd’s first two college seasons was at California Baptist University where he notched 22 goals and four assists in 39 games before moving to Denver. His 15 goals in 19 games as a sophomore in 2018 with two assists earned him a First Team All-WAC, Second Team All-Far West Region and WAC All-Academic team honors. His 15 goals was fifth in the nation among Division 1 programs in 201
Sporting Kansas City was able to take a close look at Judd when he was one of the top college players at Sporting KC’s 2020 College Invitational Combine held at Swope Soccer Village.
Judd displayed a nose for goal and a competitiveness that could fit in well with SKC’s style of play while matching up well with other top college players.
LRT: This is interesting because Judd was/is on the MLS draft list. So SKC could be considered to be working the system a little bit - but they've earned that right by building a dev infrastructure that is attractive to the player (and holding a combine of their own, of course)
— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) January 13, 2021
One interesting note is that Judd was eligible to be drafted by MLS but Sporting KC was able to sign him ahead of the MLS Superdraft. “Working the system” is a talent of Peter Vermes.