With today's signing of Hesron Barry, Indy Eleven's roster currently stands at 20 players. From what I've been told, there will be one more signing later this week and then the team will put a hold on any new players for a bit. Add a few Academy players and the team can take part in some 11 v 11 scrimmages, but won't have too many extra players if/when the injury bug happens as the season progresses. So I suspect the team likely hasn't completely filled out the roster and will add some more later (maybe not until the season has started), but they won't be actively signing any players after this week.
Later this week though, Indy will be holding their annual open tryout. I would recommend you go watch Matt Sheldon's recent video on his Become Elite YouTube page titled "Are Open Try Outs, Combines, and ID Camps Still Worth it in 2026?" I've thought for a long time that open tryouts at a professional level, even one at the level of USL Championship, is more of a money grab, but Matt's video provided some really nice insight for me to think that maybe Indy's open tryout isn't a complete money grab. Thinking about his video as it relates to Indy's open tryout, Indy might be an ideal place for a player to go to an open tryout based on these reasons:
- Indy has a history, albeit limited, of signing players from their open tryouts. It's a long shot, but it has happened.
- Indy invites other teams from the area to participate in the tryout, usually including teams like Fort Wayne FC, Detroit FC, South Bend, and even coaches from Mississippi Brilla were there one year. This means that your $250 registration fee can go a long way to finding a club. It might not mean a contract with Indy, but it might mean a contract somewhere.
- Indy had an entire YouTube reality series in 2024 entitled "Undrafted" where they went through the process of giving guys a chance to make the team through a summer-long tryout. A player did get signed from the series, but left the team fairly early. It did show though that over the years they will look for players in unique ways.
- Coach McAuley. Sean seems to have the heart of a youth development coach so that's one aspect of it, but more importantly this year, McAuley and the team are looking for a roster that is "younger and hungrier." A guy that pays $250 to attend an open tryout is often younger and hungrier by nature. As Roman Pierce would say, they "hongry".
Based on the signings for the team this year, McAuley said he wanted younger and hungrier, and the player signings are definitely the former. The average age of the new players is 25.4 years old, with a team average age of 26.75 years old. Back out the effect of the ages of the midfield three (Blake, Lindley, & Quinn) and the average drops back down into the 25s again.
The team is clearly going young again. A young, and hungry, open tryout player doesn't seem out of the question this year if there's a guy who meets a need. The success of this season could come down to McAuley's ability to convert a team of young, hongry players into a team that has something to prove and never stops fighting until the last whistle. In the past, including this offseason, McAuley has said that some of the roster moves that were made in years 1 and 2 of his tenure hampered the teams ability to sign players they wanted and when they needed help. Those roster contract issues have been fixed coming into this season so what you're seeing on the field this season feels like what McAuley wants. How quickly he can get them all to gel may go along way to determining if this is a successful, playoff participation year or another year of wondering what went wrong.
I doubt there will be a player from the open tryout that makes the roster, but you never know.
