Mason Toye made an impression in Orlando once and now he may be doing it again.
When he was a sophomore in high school, he was playing at a tournament at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. That’s when a coach at Indiana University saw him and knew immediately Toye was destined to be a college star.
Now, at the MLS Player Combine in Orlando, he is trying to show he can someday be a star in professional soccer as well.
“It is sort of ironic, isn’t it?” says Toye, who is projected to be one of the top players taken in the upcoming MLS SuperDraft. “Orlando has been very good to me.”
What’s also ironic is that Toye ended up at Indiana – one of the nation’s most storied basketball schools. At 6-foot-3, Toye actually gave up soccer for six months in high school so he could play basketball
“I just wanted to figure out exactly what I wanted to do,” recalls Toye, the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year last season. “Basketball was always in the back of my mind and I wanted to give it a shot as my main sport. I always had a passion for basketball and I had a really good time with it, but I came to realize soccer was the sport for me.”
Although he was quite good at hoops, he’s much better at filling the net on the pitch rather than on the court. He has the frame and the skills to be a star forward in MLS, but he knows he has to bulk up and hulk up and start using his size and strength as advantages.
The most common knock against him is that he is a big guy who plays small. He has great feet, but is he aggressive enough to accomplish great feats?
At 6-foot-3, 180 pounds, MLS scouts will tell you he needs to me more physically dominant.
Says Minnesota United FC assistant coach Ian Fuller: “He has to use his athleticism and his frame to his advantage, but that comes with experience. When you’re younger, you concentrate on the technical skills, but when you get to the next level, you need to start using your size and strength.”
Toye agrees.
“I need to be stronger and I need to play to my size,” he says. “Growing up, I never really had to be strong and physical. It was more about developing my skills and my feet. I didn’t need to hold the ball and be strong in the middle. Moving up to MLS, I need to use my size and strength as an asset.”