NWSL growth continues, bringing aboard players for the future, adding more talent and money

Chicago, IL-The opening round of the 2019 National Women’s Soccer League College Draft began with many collegiate players wanting to play into the next level of soccer at the professional level.

Most of the players selected in the opening round were from teams that played in last month’s College Cup and with a number of them had played soccer in California. All with the expectations and the opportunity which happened at McCormick Place on Thursday.

Tierna Davidson of Stanford was the top overall pick in the drat selected by the Chicago Red Stars  She’s a defensive/midfielder that can fit in this season for the club and might be one of the best players for the future in women’s soccer. Which she chose to leave Stanford a year early to pursue her dream just this past week of entering the draft.

“I’m really bummed that I couldn’t make it to the NWSL draft, but I’m extremely honored to have been chosen No. 1 overall by the Chicago Red Stars,” said Davidson, who had a video message recorded while being with the United States National Team in Portugal. “I’d like to thank Rory (Dames) and the rest of the Red Stars for having confidence in me. I’d also like to thank my coaches, teammates and family for pushing me to be a better player and person both on and off the field, supporting me in every decision that I make.”

For the Red Stars, their decision and sights set on taking Davidson was the right choice in the preparation for the draft and had a good one compared to other teams.

“I think everybody views the draft differently,” Chicago Red Stars head coach Rory Dames said. “I’m sure there’s three or four teams that will be feeling very good. That they made their teams better and got them what they needed to get done. Then there were teams that were here, because if they weren’t here would get fined. So, I feel what we set out to do with the draft and what we needed to adjust with the team. Some things we wanted to do with the long term with the future. I think we had a good 48 hours.”

The rest of the opening round, Sky Blue FC with the second pick took Hallie Mace off UCLA. They also had the sixth pick in getting Julia Ashley of North Carolina.

Washington Spirit made some moves for more picks in the opening round and had four of them. At number three, they got Jordan DiBiasi of Stanford and with the fourth spot Samantha Staab of Clemson University.

Champion North Carolina Courage had two choices in the first round. Leah Pruitt of University of Southern California and with the last pick of round one Hailey Harbison of Pepperdine University.

‘It was a good draft,” North Carolina head coach Paul Riley said. “The three we went in to get, we got, and then (Kaycie) Tillman was a huge bonus a the end. Now it’s up to them to be ready. They’ve got to compete. I think this year more than ever with a 26-player roster.

Player’s salaries are on the rise for 2019 – NWSL announced at the beginning of the College Draft that their will be a change in the roster rules to increase the roster size.

The NWSL senior rosters will expand to a minimum of 20 players and a maximum of 22. In addition, the League has created four new supplemental roster spots allowing teams to sign up to four additional players at the league minimum and not count against the salary cap.

“This is an important step in the growth of the league,” NWSL Managing Director Amanda Duffy said. “In addition to these roster changes allowing the league and its teams to provide additional employment opportunities for more players.”

Also, the NWSL will be increasing to $421,500 for each NWSL club for the upcoming season including an increase of $54,000for two new spots. The minimum and maximum salary figures will be rising to $16,538 and $46,200 respectively.

Here’s the list of selections for each round:

2nd Round

3rd Round

4th Round