The seven players who recently signed with Project-40 have now been assigned to MLS teams, league deputy commissioner Sunil Gulati announced Jan. 26. Expansion teams Chicago and Miami each received their first Project-40 player, with former South Carolina striker Josh Wolff joining the Fire and former Columbia keeper Matt Napoleon heading south to become a member of the Fusion. Four teams received their second Project-40 players. D.C. United (which already has Ben Olsen) received Judah Cooks of Maryland. Olathe, Kan. native Scott Vermillion was assigned to Kansas City, joining last year’s Project-40 allocation, Nino DaSilva. San Jose added U-23 keeper Andy Kirk, while the Tampa Bay Mutiny received Washington defender Chad McCarty. Virginia forward Brian West was allocated to the Columbus Crew and has been training with the team since last week. “The quality of this year’s Project-40 class is outstanding,” said Gulati. “During the 1998 season, we anticipate several opportunities for these young players to contribute to their MLS squads. We expect to add more players to the program in the next few weeks.” Gulati also announced that the coach of the Project-40 select team that will compete in the A-League this season will likely be named in the next two weeks. Gulati, U.S. coach Steve Sampson, Olympic coach Clive Charles and U.S. Soccer’s Hank Steinbrecher are considering candidates.