Tacoma Defiance announced Wednesday evening that midfielder Jesús Pérez had signed with the USL Championship team. Pérez was selected in the first round of the MLS Super Draft by New York City FC as the 22nd pick of the draft, but didn’t last beyond the first couple weeks of preseason with the MLS team and joined Tacoma when they opened their own preseason training camp.
Jesús “Chino” Pérez, a native of Waukegan, Illinois, spent a year with the Chicago Fire Academy before starting his college career at Akron in 2016 where he played with his Tacoma Defiance teammate Nick Hinds.