2023 NWSL Draft

Mocks have Izzy D'Aquila too low. If she goes as projected, the lucky team will get a 1st-round talent

 

She definitely improved in her final year.

 

I was wondering how many players drafted in the third or fourth rounds became regulars in the NWSL. A few it seems. In 2014, Emily Menges and Kristen Hamilton were drafted in the third and fourth rounds -- and Hamilton was the last player chosen in the draft. In 2015, and Caprice Dydasco and Lo L'Bonta were drafted in the third and fourth rounds.

Prominent undrafted players who've made a splash: Bethany Balcer and Kelli Hubly.

 

Hopefully Portland benefits the other clubs’ mistake in not taking her. Perhaps they had other needs to fill for other positions.

 

Few players can prove people wrong. But usually the first round especially number 1 pick can change the dynamics of the league in the first year or so.

 

Add Sarah Gordon, Kailen Sheridan, and Bella Geist to the low-draftee list.

Depending on your definition of "prominent", Hubly's year also saw Meghan Cox and Crystal Thomas - and, of course, Mal Pugh. 2018 had Liz Ball.

 

Just for fun, here's a compilation of how each team did on draft day from various news outlets:
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/ne...rn-an-a-washington-spirit-make-puzzling-move/
https://www.si.com/soccer/2023/01/13/nwsl-draft-grades-how-club-fared
https://justwomenssports.com/nwsl-draft-2023-grades-kansas-city-pride-gotham/
As a note: it looks like these outlets are judging the clubs on the entirety of their draft day moves, i.e. other acquisitions outsides of the draftees themselves seem to be included in these grades

KC : A (A, A+, A)
ORL:A (A-, A, A)
NJY: A- (A-, A-, A-)
HOU:A- (B+, A-, A-)
POR:B+ (B, B+, A)
LA : B (B-, B+, B+)
RGN:B (B-, B, B)
SD : B- (C+, B, B)
CHI: B- (C+, B-, B+)
LOU:C+ (C+, C-, B-)
NC : C (C-, C, B-)
WAS:C (D+, C-, B)

 

just read this

To Whom It May Concern: pic.twitter.com/z45OX5Rx0v

— Nicole Danielle (@nomychaa) March 31, 2023

The draft is a showcase event for the league. A chance for players and teams to celebrate new beginnings. If Clubs have 60 days to sign players to contracts from the day they report to training camp. If players are required to tryout in order to receive a contract, then all the draft does is place draftees in the same boat as non drafted FAs. Potentially worse, as a non drafted player can choose where to tryout. if you draft a player, surely you must come to a contractual agreement with them before expecting them to do team activities? The draft seems like a way for teams to take a low cost, exclusive look at a player before committing to them. In the case above the player financed travel to the team and had to leverage local connections to try and get settled. Something she clearly was unable to do.

In my opinion the draft should only be as long as the number of players the NWSL is willing to commit to a contract with BEFORE asking a player to participate in team activities.

If teams are unable to scout players to a level that they feel comfortable offering them a contract, then thats an issue. The player in question has the tools to be a very good player in the league. Key player on a final 4 team that had other pros. Youth International. If you have not seen enough of her to offer a contract, then dont draft her. Simple.

 

Why should the NWSL be different than every other US pro league? NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA draft picks are not guaranteed to make the team either. Candidly, that tweet demonstrates nothing other than a grown woman who is upset that she was cut. If anything inappropriate happened she doesn't articulate it. It was embarassing to read. When a boss fires you they don't send you out the door with roses. This is no different.

 

i agree. no one is guaranteed to make a team. no other league i know does not give drafted players contracts until after then have "tried out" for 60 days.

 

How familiar are you with the inner workings of other leagues?
Other leagues have players trying out such as draftees and invitees camp contracts which give specifics like stipends, meals, board and living expenses, expectations, injury situations and how handled, as examples are spelled out.

 

The key word is drafted. Lets just focus on that.

 

Any player going to the preseason camps are all invitees. You are not attending without that team taking your exclusive rights. That alone carries a higher degree of protection under the law then a walk-on who paid to attend.

Other pro leagues have protections for themselves and the tryout players in the form of a Pro Tryout Contract or a Training Camp contract that specifically details everything.

I am aware of draftees [as they were given the public face to the team on draft day] in sports including soccer, that were contracted, even verbally, before 60 days and some were injured. However as all are invitees they should be treated equally.

 

I dont think you are correct. If they are all invitees, then the draft, as I mentioned in my original post, is a waste of time. Players attend tryouts all the time, but being drafted in the NWSL does not give you any protection. The tryout contracts you mention in sports are irrelevant.

@ytrs said " NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA draft picks are not guaranteed to make the team either. " this si true, but they are not going into training camps without a contract. If you get drafted, first step is to negotiate a contract. The players attend camp, and perform organized team activities.

In the player example above, if she was an invitee, she could have left KC and gone anywhere else on her terms as soon as she felt things were not going well. She could have gone to Orlando earlier and in a better frame of mind to make the team.

We disagree on this. Drafted player should not set foot in training camps without a contract.

 

Here is what I believe the facts are:

A club is not required to offer contracts to drafted players, and drafted players, in many cases, enter camp without contracts. The draft does not guarantee the player a contract, nor does it guarantee the club the player will be willing to play for it even if the club offers a contract. (For example, she could sign a contract with a team not in the NWSL.) It does give the club the exclusive rights to the player for a 60 day window from when she is present and able to play, so far as other teams in the NWSL are concerned. If they do not come to an agreement within that window, the player becomes a free agent within the NWSL. One thing I do not have any idea about is whether there are requirements clubs must meet (or some clubs voluntarily meet) in relation to the player during the window (e.g., regarding housing, meals, health insurance), but I do not recall seeing any NWSL rule on this.

If anyone has gone through the rules on this and they are different than what I have described, please offer corrections.

 

yes. I know what the rules are. Im saying the rules are ridiculous. Its a free exclusive tryout. Do you think any of the unions in MLB,NHL,NBA etc operate that way? The clubs are required to meet certain expenses, but in the case above they failed to even do that on a timely basis. Imagine being drafted and having to pay for your own flights to the team.

 

I am only offering my experience having family and friends that are or have been professional athletes in various sports including soccer.

I disagree. The preseason training contracts are used in most sports. It details exactly the expectations which is why NFL,NHL, WNBA, NBA use them. There is not misunderstanding.

There are rights that are taken by teams in all the sports even invitees. This prevents the player from club jumping during preseason. An understanding can be reached where the player can take rights elsewhere if agreed to by player and party.

The draft is so the teams get those specific athletes. Their rights are taken. Draftees can refuse and ask to have rights returned and given to another team.

In soccer since there are so few spots, it seems clubs reach out and invite players so they don't have to use a draft pick. They are invitees.

Many teams have open try outs where players pay to get a look. The preseason is only for invited players, included draftees, through the contract with the team or an invite by them.

 

No player should be going to any professional preseason camp without a preseason camp contract which details in writing what the player is to receive and expectations of both parties.

This is employment not college or club.

 

We have to remember that there are no contracts with clubs in the NWSL barring National team players.
All player contracts are with the league, which has ultimate control about where a player plays in the league and the conditions of employment.
This is different than any other league in the World except the MLS.
Before a player enters the draft or is even drafted, they agree to abide by the league rules on draft, trading, etc if the do sign a contract.

 

Even if drafted players don't have full player contracts yet, they did have to register with the league to be drafted, and as other have mentioned this process does (or at least should) have some sort of legal protections included. I know some people will read her story as "just" a player "upset" at being cut, but even if you take that spin, there are still some troubling parts that can't be waived off as exaggeration. Even if it's fine for teams to not have branded stuff for training camp, and maybe okay for them to not pay for invitee travel, it doesn't cost anything to give proper advance notice of a schedule, and a professional sports org absolutely should have proper training materials (i.e. properly sized things) for their players. Their treatment of players' mental (and subsequent physical) health is also suspect - especially as another current player in the replies to the tweet corroborated the difference between KC and ORL in terms of player treatment. Now, I think there may also be some truth to the idea that this player maybe wasn't ready for the responsibility, independence, and intensity of being a professional - but it's still also true that KC apparently did her a quite disservice in her attempt to adjust.

 

I only saw the tweet from her 'mommy' which was quite odd for an adult in a professional setting. Imagine your mom sending a tweet out at your boss who fired you from Hewlett Packard.

Maybe I did not read it closely enough but I saw no accusation of anything factual other than that she claims the coach did not really give a reason why he was cutting her. I did not see anything about schedules or branded stuff. And, 'mommy' did say they put her on a flight home after they cut her so that sounds to me like KC paid for her travel.

As for NFL, NBA, etc, they cut draft picks in the middle of preseason all the time. Almost never do all 7 rounds of draft picks make a team.

KC had so many draft picks in this draft that anyone with basic math skills could see that some of them were going to get cut.

 

I think you missed the first tweet, which said, among other things:
"....Mykiaa was given little to no information until a few days before arriving in Kansas City about her upcoming schedule, as a matter of fact, she had to make arrangements with my mom and step-dad (who thankfully live only a few hours away from there) to pick her up from the airport and get her to her hotel to be sure she had a ride! The flight there was spent out of her own pocket....The first week of preseason, she had to provide her own food and find her own way around this new town thousands of miles away from her home. Luckily, her grandma and grandpa were able to stay a few days to help her get groceries, all her necessities and make sure she was settled in. When it was time to go to training, oversized items were thrown at her, and Current labels ironed on before her eyes, minutes before going outside to practice. ..."

Honestly, some of this just sounds like she was not prepared to be an adult after college (which seems corroborated by the fact that it is her mom tweeting this). Things like getting yourself to a hotel from an airport or getting your own groceries is something you should be able to do. But, also according to the CBA, pre-season players even without a SPA get a per diem for food in addition to housing, so the groceries should have been paid for, in any case, even if she had to go get her own. I think they'd also be paying for her travel although that doesn't seem to be clearly stipulated in the CBA, so maybe not. Even if they did, it might have been reimbursed after she bought the flight; that's not clear.

The complaints of the player not eating or sleeping much do indicate that she was clearly struggling to adjust, but I don't think KC is necessarily responsible there as it seems that mostly she was just struggling with being outside of a familiar environment away from home and the issues with eating and sleeping continued at Orlando. Someone should have spoken up if they had noticed, but she was also in a new environment, where those that could have noticed also would not have known her baseline. And it doesn't seem Orlando noticed it either, but at least did follow up on it. (But, maybe KC would have as well, if the reason for leaving KC had been on her own accord and for her own mental health rather than being waived by the team.)

I guess, I'll just say, sure, there could be improvements on communication from KC on the preseason as well as in monitoring players' mental health. And if they're not, I do hope that teams do pay for travel for draftees to preseason camp in the future, and that that gets added to the CBA. Overall though, I think it comes down to a player not being ready for being a professional and having a helicopter parent.

EDIT: additionally, I found in the CBA that trialists can a weekly stipend of $25 for transportation, or may use a shared team vehicle. And in the competition guidelines it says a team may provide reasonable relocation expenses to a trialist (but doesn't say required...but that would seem to include the plane ticket to preseason.)