Sporting Kansas City has signed Zach Wright, 22, who attended Blue Valley Northwest High School for his senior year, as a Homegrown Player.
A forward, Wright signed the one-year contract with options for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
During 2013 and 2014, Wright competed for Sporting KC Academy U-18s during the U.S. Soccer Development Academy campaign before playing college-level soccer.
Wright scored 15 goals with 28 assists during four years at the University of North Carolina.
“Zach showed a lot of improvement at North Carolina after playing for the Academy,” said Brian Bliss, Sporting KC director of player personnel, in a news release. “We are excited for him to start competing with the team during the preseason.”
Wright was the leading goal scorer for the U-18s in his lone Sporting KC Academy season. He attended Blue Valley Northwest High School as a senior after moving to Kansas City from his hometown of Smithville, Texas.
A heralded college recruit, Wright embarked on a successful career at North Carolina where he played 79 matches with 61 starts. He assisted at least five goals in all four seasons with the Tar Heels – reaching a career-high with 11 assists during his senior campaign in 2017.
In each of his final two seasons as a Tar Heel, Wright was a Second Team All-ACC selection and ranked third on the ACC assist charts.
Wright becomes the seventh Homegrown signing for Sporting KC. MLS established the Homegrown Player initiative in 2007, allowing clubs to promote youth academy players to professional contracts.
According to MLS rules, a club may sign a player to a professional contract without subjecting him to the MLS SuperDraft if the player has been a member of a club’s youth academy for at leat a year and has met training and retention requirements.
Sporting KC currently holds two first-round picks, No. 13 and No. 18, in Friday’s 2018 MLS SuperDraft.
The team does not have a selection in the second and third rounds, but has the No. 75 and No. 82 picks in the fourth and last round of the SuperDraft. The first two round selections are Friday, while the third and fourth rounds are Sunday.
Sporting KC travels to Scottsdale, Arizona, on Monday for the first phase of the club’s 2018 preseason. Manager Peter Vermes’ men will return to Kansas City on Feb. 3, then travel back to Arizona for the second leg of preseason in Tucson from Feb. 9 to 25.