Major League Soccer's Rapids to hold open player tryouts November 18-19 at the Cherry Creek Soccer Complex

Registration for the tryout camp will begin promptly at 7 a.m, and will end immediately at 9:45 a.m on Nov. 18. There will be no preregistration, and no late registration.

The camp will give local players an opportunity to showcase their talents in the hopes of landing a spot on an MLS roster when the league begins the first season of competition in April.

Colorado Rapids General Manager Richard Levine and Dave Dir, the Director of Player Development for MLS, will oversee the camp along with several local coaches and trainers. While a large pool of domestic players with MLS potential have already been identified by league scouts, the open tryouts are geared toward finding talented players who may have been overlooked in the initial evaluation process.

"Because of the size of this country, there is the chance of players being missed through our conventional evaluation methods," Levine said, "For that reason, we want to make sure the top local players in Colorado get a chance to show they can compete on this level."

All 10 league cities will be conducting tryouts before the end of the year, with the best players convening in early January for league-wide MLS player combines. All MLS coaches and talent evaluators will be at the combines, which will feature the bulk of players which will fill up MLS rosters when the league kicks off the inaugural season in April.

"Each MLS team will have several international players, U.S. National Team players and Olympic pool players, as well as players from the other U.S. professional leagues and some college stars," Dir said. "The competition for roster spots will be intense, but these tryouts could help us identify a handful of MLS candidates to help make the league even stronger."

In the event of inclement weather the tryout camp will be held at the Westminster Sports Center.

For more information call the MLS player hotline, 1-800-678-1328 or 303-299-1570.