Late Wednesday, Loudoun United announced that three players had been added to the pro roster for the remainder of the season; defender Allexon Saravia, who had been on loan from the D.C. United Academy and was with the Black-and-Red in preseason. The others are forward Christian Sorto, who was with the Academy this spring but had been spending most of his time with Baltimore Armour, and John Murphy, last of the New York Red Bulls II in 2018, but was with their Academy for the proceeding three years. Saravia is 18, Murphy and Sorto are 19.

The additions of the three bring Loudoun’s roster total to 18, but it’s what coach Ryan Martin said as part of the signing that is of note:

Using the strong player pool in the DMV has been one of our goals when putting together this roster.

Martin has been coach of the squad for about a month and put his mark on a bit. Consider that not only Saravia is the first D.C. Academy player to sign a pro contract for Loudoun, but Murphy has given pro starting debuts to 4 Academy players, and has included 2 others on game day rosters, with more to follow, as soon as tomorrow’s game with Atlanta United 2.

At a recent pair of open training sessions at a field several hundred yards away from where Loudoun United will be playing their home games at Bolen Park, the training roster included several other names, including reported future addition Alexis Cerritos, former Maryland Terrapin (and later Portland Timber) Schillo Tshuma, and Academy alums such as Iker Bustamante, Omar Sene and Taofik Lucas-Walker.

Martin’s focus on the pipeline is evident with hopefully bigger and better things to come within it.