yeah yeah! breanna boyd got picked by the courage...awesome fit!! she's a great player...so stoked! elaine
so ur gonna be a charge fan now elaine? Hey Atlanta has Hooper and Nonen!! Don't cheer on the Darkside!! just kiddin Courage fans. I just hope we will have more entertaining games in the future...
Burke! Meghann Burke I know the Courage may not need a GK, but getting a player the quality of Meghann Burke that late in the draft can't be all bad. Burke!
After the trade for Minna Mustonen I thought that the Courage had filled all four of their international slots. I wonder if Boyd has a green card or perhaps dual citizenship status?
Re: Re: Draft Picks [R] no she does not...she's not a dualie nor have a green card... article form courage site: http://www.carolinacourage.com/338319.html it'll be interesting to see what happens in terms of the 4 player rule thingie... elaine
Re: Burke! Actually after the retirement of Emily Oleksiuk it was important for the Courage to draft a goalkeeper. Courage goalkeeper coach Scott Calabrese was interviewed right after Burke was selected and he said that he felt that Burke would be able to not only "push Lucks," but also be able to "accept that role" of being the Courage's backup keeper.
Boyd Article Thanks for letting me know about this article at the Courage site. Good job by the Courage getting an article about Boyd up on their site so fast.
Burke! 8) Carolina - Breanna Boyd, Defender, Nebraska 16) Carolina - Meghann Burke, Goalkeeper, Saint Louis Univ. 24) Carolina - Heather Ragsdale, Midfielder, Texas A&M 32) Carolina - Kate Gordon, Forward, Marquette For a team picking last in every round that's a great draft for the Courage. What is the deal? Two players out of the C-USA? If I'm not mistaken, Burke and Gordon are only the 2nd and 3rd players to make the jump from the C-USA to the W-USA. I can't say that much about Gordon since I only saw her a couple of times, but I have no doubts about Burke. I call her the rock. In four years I think I saw her drop the ball once. (that is, I think she dropped it) I could post links to articles about her all day, but I'll just post the latest: Burke Earns Program's First All-America Selection Meghann Burke SLU needs to update her bio. When it comes to Burke I am totally biased. I admit it, but it doesn't change the fact that Burke is a great pick for the Courage. What am I saying? She would have been a great pick for anybody. To tell the truth, I was kind of hoping that she would go to a team where she could move into a starting job (I figure that's half the teams in de Woosa, but maybe not the Courage). But she's certainly not a player I would want on the other team. In other words, I'd just as soon have Meghann Burke on our side. The first player from my favorite college team to go to the WUSA, and they go to my favorite team. Awesome.
Ragsdale? When she was first selected Ragsdale was described as being a tall forward in the mold of Fotop & Prinz (and also Mustonen.) Does anyone know anything more about Ragsdale?
C-USA? Sorry, but I'm not sure what you mean by "C-USA." Is that the name of the conference that SLU and Marquette play in?
Re: Burke! Congratulations XYZ!! I'm happy for you that the draft went so well. I find it very interesting that Branam was still available and the Courage passed on the UNC player and instead selected Burke. I definitely did not expect the San Diego Spirit to end up selecting two of the three UNC players available in the draft.
Meghann Burke Thanks for clearing that up. Thanks also for all of the information about Meghann Burke.
Ragsdale Bio I just took a look at Ragsdale's bio posted at the WUSA site and they have her listed as a 5'10" forward: Heather Ragsdale
Heather Ragsdale - TAMU website Kate Gordon - Marquette website Kate Gordon - wusa.com Breanna Boyd - wusa.com Don't be fooled by Burke's bio on the SLU website, where it says, "2001 C-USA third-team All-Conference selection". Third team my butt! Admittedly, her stats weren't good in 2001, but stats can be misleading. Burke was the best GK in the C-USA 4 years straight. The defense in front of her in 2001 stunk big time, and that is an understatement. It was so bad they actually played with 5 defenders for a couple of games. Burke got hung out to dry a lot. I'm guessing he's right on both points.
Re: Ragsdale? Heather is impressive. A leader! Ugh I have to be proud of a courage player. She work well. Strong Fighter loves to play and shows it.
Ragsdale Thanks for your input on Ragsdale. It seems very unlikely now that the Courage will end up with both Ragsdale and Mustonen on their 18 player roster. I only saw Mustonen play once in San Diego for the Power and was not overly impressed with her physical toughness.
Re: Ragsdale Yea Mustonen never really impressed me. Seems like more of a waste of international spot.
Good, but not great draft for Courage... I really wish the Courage would have been able to draft at least one midfielder today. Too bad that Carolina ended up using their second pick in the draft just to replace a player who retired.
Re: Re: Burke! Branam is from Placentia California so San Diego is a good fit for her. PS, just got back in town. Thanks for all the info folks!
Branam From what little I saw of her, Branam seemed like a real warrior. Interesting that the Spirit will now likely have two UNC goalkeepers in camp along with Pagliarulo.
Four International Player Limit Here's a quote from this article about Boyd: Interesting that the author of this article mentions that the Courage now have five international players even though the league limit is four. I actually thought that teams were not allowed even temporarily to have more than four international players on their rosters. At least this was one of the reasons the Spirit gave for releasing Bente Nordby when they were in the process of attempting to sign Hanna Ljungberg.
Why Not Use the Discovery Process? Since it appears as though the Courage aren't going to acquire any international players through the Discovery Process for this season, I wonder why the Courage weren't able to sign Breanna Boyd the same way that the Spirit have apparently signed Boyd's Canadian and Univ. of Nebraska teammate Christine Latham? It would have been great if the Courage could have signed Boyd and then still had their 1st round selection available to sign a midfielder like Erin Misaki.