Sporting Kansas City announced Tuesday that the club has signed 2012 MLS SuperDraft second round pick Cyprian Hedrick.

“It is an amazing achievement for me, my family and my friends. It has been a very long road up until now, and the road doesn’t stop here,” Hedrick said. “It’s an amazing feeling, but now it’s just time to get to work to stay where I am and keep improving. I love it, I couldn’t be happier.”

Primarily a centerback, Hedrick attended Coastal Carolina University, where he was named Big South Defensive Player of the Year in 2011 and was named to the First Team All-Big South and the NSCAA’s All-South Atlantic Team. He was also recognized as an NSCAA Men's Collegiate Scholar All-American firstteam selection.

“At first we thought that he was extremely athletic, and we needed to spend some more time developing the technical aspects of his game,” Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes said. “We know now that he’s much further along than we thought and he’s been able to take instruction from our staff and implement it very quickly into his game. He has impressed all of us and he is a guy that we feel we can continue to build over time.”

Born in Cameroon before coming to the United States at a young age, Hedrick began his collegiate career at San Jacinto College and earned NSCAA All-Region honorable mention recognition for the 2008 season. Hedrick then went on to spend three seasons with the Chanticleers before Sporting Kansas City selected the 22-year-old with the 30th overall pick at this year’s SuperDraft in Kansas City.