An impressive 256 players showed up to Orlando City’s open tryouts on Saturday and Sunday at the Seminole Soccer Complex in Sanford, Fla. 16 teams of 16 players participated in 20 minute matches, each in front of a coach that helped Orlando City’s staff look over each and every single player. Saturday and Sundays tryouts lasted approximately two hours.

Orlando City coaches Adrian Heath and Ian Fuller were a part of a much bigger team evaluating the talent during the weekend. New Orlando City Soccer Midfielder James O’Connor was assisting the evaluation process, as he’ll assume a role similar to Fuller’s of player/coach in 2012. U23 Head Coach Joe Avallone was also in attendance, with his eyes also on younger players who have the potential to join the PDL squad in hopes of one day playing for the pro team.

“We got a lot of friends out here locally to help us scout the talent,” said Heath. “We called in a lot of people. We wanted to make sure everyone was properly evaluated. One positive is that, I feel, no one was overlooked.”

Last year, Forward Dennis Chin was the standout of the open tryouts. Who will it be this year?

“We’ve decided to bring four players from the tryouts into camp,” said Heath. “If you told me we would bring in four players to camp before the weekend, I’d be delighted with it. We’ll see what these players can do in camp and hopefully they’ll succeed.”

The open tryouts provided a great amount of energy and plenty of good soccer for all coaches to look over. Heath wrapped up his comments about the weekend by describing everyone’s positive outlook and overall high level of energy at the tryouts.

“We had four hours of football in two days with the right attitudes and a lot of good players,” Heath said. “I couldn’t ask for much more.”