Tomorrow’s NWSL stars took center stage on Saturday.
On Saturday, NWSL held its college draft. This year’s draft had a little more intrigue, as two new teams, Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC enter the league in 2022. Wave FC got to commence honors, as they held the first pick in the college draft. The Wave, already boasting a strong squad with Alex Morgan, Abby Dahlkemper, Teagan McGrady and Jodie Taylor, got its first chance to add to its team.
San Diego chose Naomi Girma, a defender out of Stanford University. She played her youth, high school and college soccer in Northern California, but will now be calling Southern California her next home, as she is the first ever player drafted by Wave FC. Girma was one of two first round selections made by San Diego, as hled the ninth pick, and used it on forward Marleen Schimmer out of Grand Canyon University. Girma will be reunited with McGrady, as the two grew up in the same area and played together at Stanford.
“I’m so excited to play with her again,” Girma said about playing with McGrady. “She’s an incredible outside back and a great leader as well. I’m excited to learn from someone who already has experience in the league and someone who I’m already comfortable playing with.”
San Diego was not the only team to hold two first round selections in this draft, as previous expansion side Racing Louisville also had two first round picks, both of them inside the top five. Louisville had the second pick in the draft, and they selected midfielder Jaelin Howell out of Florida State. Howell had a spectacular career in Tallahassee Fl., as she won the Hermann Trophy in 2020 as the women’s soccer player of the year, then this past season, helped the Seminoles win the College Cup title.
However, the two teams that carried the most intrigue in the first round of the draft were the North Carolina Courage and the Orlando Pride, both of whom possessed three first round selections. The rebuilding Pride used its first round selection on Mia Fishel out of UCLA, who will once again play for recently hired head coach Amanda Cromwell, whom she played for at UCLA. Orlando then had the 10th and 11th picks, they used the tenth pick on defender Caitlin Cosme from Duke University, then selected forward Julia Ashley out of Santa Clara, who had helped the Broncos to back to back College Cup appearances in 2020 and 2021, and claiming the title in 2020.
“So super excited obviously, great value for the fifth pick,” Cromwell said about drafting Fishel at No. 5. “She’s a student of the game coming out after her third year. There’s so much room for growth still, but she also knows kind of what her goals and plans are and that’s to be on the national team one day and be an impact player on the national team.”
The Courage, champions in 2018 and 2019, used this draft as an opportunity to get younger. North Carolina went across the state border into Virginia for its first two selections, as they used the third pick on midfielder from Virginia Tech, then used the sixth pick on Diana Ordonez from the Virginia Cavaliers. Ordonez actually had another year of eligibility remaining, but chose to turn pro this year.
“I know the amount of games that there are in the (NWSL) season, that is expanding, which is making more room for development, which I think is really good, especially for younger players coming in just to not necessarily be counted out as a rookie,” Ordonez said. “I think the nature of having a few more games gives a little bit more room for development. So I think that’s an exciting thing about the expansion of the league.”
North Carolina used its last first round selection, which was actually the last selection of the first round, on Kaitlin Fregulia out of Long Beach State, making her the first player out of the Big West Conference to be drafted in the first round.
“The Big West is an underrated league,” Fregulia said. “It starts off with exposure and stuff. I mean, the smaller schools maybe don’t necessarily get the exposure as the SEC or the teams that are always in the NCAA tournament and stuff, but Division I soccer has so much depth in it. There’re amazing players at every organization. So I just think the fact that I was given that opportunity and looked at, it’s just huge. I don’t even have words to express it.”
The Washington Spirit carried the second round, as they had three selections. The Spirit drafted Tinaya Alexander out of LSU, Madison Elwell out of Vanderbilt and Lucy Shepard out of Hofstra. Angel City FC, the team entering NWSL with San Diego Wave FC, did get to draft a player until the third round. Hope Breslin got to have the honor of being the first ever player drafted by the Los Angeles-based franchise, as Angel City took the midfielder from the University of Illinois. Breslin was actually one of two players drafted by Angel City in the third round, as Angel City drafted Lily Nabet out of Duke, then opened the fourth and final round by selecting Miri Taylor out of Hofstra.
