Academy players sign to play college soccer

A dozen current and former Philadelphia Union Academy members put ink to paper to sign National Letters of Intent today in the annual first day of the signing season.

The signings included two who hadn't previously made their commitments public in forward Tiger Graham, who will be joining Academy alum Matthew Greer at Dartmouth this fall and goalkeeper Justin Bajek, who will join Sebastian Elney at Maryland.

The Philadelphia Union officially announced a class of 10 college signings in a press release.

Forward Michael Swift was not included in that list, even though Clemson announced the Tennessee native as one of its signings on Twitter. Also not included in the release is former U16 midfielder Jack Skahan, who made his commitment to North Carolina official. He'll join current defender Auston Trusty and 2015 graduates Will Campbell and Sean Wilson in Chapel Hill.

Academy seniors who haven't yet signed to play college soccer include Abu Winter, Alexander Soto, Emmanuel Perez, Freeman Dwamena, Lamine Conte, Tarik Gazko and Yosef Samuel. Last year, Sean Wilson announced his signing with North Carolina in late April and Oliver Calvo didn't sign with Louisville until June.

The full list of current and former Academy signings is below:

Matthew Ralph

Matthew Ralph is the managing editor of Philadelphia Soccer Now. He's covered soccer at all levels for a decade in the Philadelphia region and has also written for TheCup.us, NPSL, PrepSoccer and other publications. He lives with his wife and two young children in Broomall, Pa., but grew up in South Jersey and is originally from Kansas.

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