Rapids History By The Numbers: #33

We're at our final long list of the series.  After this the remaining numbers have only been worn by one or two players total.  33 does seem to be popular though with eight different players:

Matt Okoh (2000)
Ritchie Kotschau (2001)
Eugene Sepuya (2005)
Daniel Wasson (2006-2007)
Cesar Zambrano (2008)
Tony Cascio (2012)
German Mera (2013)
Jared Watts (2014-2017)

That's a real mixed bag.  Sepuya and Zambrano each made one appearance so they're out.  Mera only made 13 appearances, with only 6 starts and Kotschau arrived midyear and only made 11 (all starts).  He switched his number the next season.  I'll eliminate both of them as well.  That leaves us:

• Matt Okoh - Attacking midfielder that went to Regis Jesuit High and DU.  After bouncing around for a while he made it on the Rapids for a season before being traded to the Revs.  In that season he made 12 starts and 21 appearances, scoring 2 goals and racking up 6 assists.
• Daniel Wasson - Defensive midfielder that grew up in the Springs and went to the Air Force Academy and the University of Texas before being drafted by the Rapids.  He made 22 appearances over his two seasons, but only 9 starts, recording one goal.
• Tony Cascio - Winger that was a first round draft pick.  In his rookie season he made 29 appearances, with 18 starts.  He had 3 goals and 3 assists.  The next year he changed his number.
• Jared Watts - Defender that was a second round pick.  In 4 seasons, mostly under Pablo, he made 71 appearances with 61 starts, recording a goal and an assist.

Looking at that we can eliminate Wasson, considering he didn't do any more than Okoh or Cascio did.  Cascio played almost 1700 minutes in 2012, contributing to 6 goals.  Okoh played a little over 1000 minutes and contributed to 8 goals.  Hard to say Cascio deserves to be picked over Okoh given that.

Comparing that to Watts is difficult.  Watts started the majority of the games in the 2016 season, when we had the best defense in the league.  He also played a number of games for the 6th best defense in 2015.  The defense in 2014 and 2017 was woeful though.

In the end I'm going to go with Okoh, but i wouldn't disagree is people thought Jared Watts was the better choice.  Surprisingly there doesn't seem to be a picture of  Okoh in a Rapids uniform that doesn't belong to Getty Images.