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Inside the NWSL’s first combine: Can the league create a more robust pathway for American talent development?

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BRADENTON, Fla. – The politely remixed Christmas music on the IMG Academy’s speakers was no match for the collegiate soccer players near the middle of the lacrosse field on Tuesday morning. The players only began convening in Florida two nights earlier, but they knew each other well enough to know that the best way to get through high performance drills at 10 a.m. was with a healthy dose of encouragement, their exuberant cheers for each other audible to the NWSL scouts watching in the distance and any other passerby.

It was an energetic start to the NWSL’s first-ever combine, the league’s method of making up a developmental gap after abolishing the college draft in a new collective bargaining agreement with the Players Association in August 2024, becoming the first major professional American sports league to do so. Forty-five players from across the NCAA landscape received an invitation to showcase their talents for the NWSL’s clubs, 15 of which sent technical staff to gather information. The event was a year-plus in the making for Karla Thompson, a veteran youth coach and scout who joined the league as the head of player development just weeks after the college draft became a thing of the past, the planning process continuing even as players made their way to the Sarasota metropolitan area.

“We were adding players until probably 48 hours from [the start],” Thompson candidly admitted. “Literally.”

The combine’s main goal is an obvious one — to provide prospective professionals an important avenue to make the leap and for their future clubs to have as much information as possible before offering those contracts. The tangential objectives, as Thompson laid them out, are almost too significant to be considered secondary — the NWSL executive hopes the combine can act as an incubator for female athletes and coaches alike, an important accelerant in a rapidly evolving women’s soccer landscape globally.

“We’ve got the men’s World Cup in 2026, we’ve got the Women’s World Cup in 2027,” she noted. “We’ve got the Olympics in ’28 [in Los Angeles]. We’ve got the Women’s World Cup again in ’31, here [in the U.S.], so the things that we do now is what’s going to affect us in 2031 so I think that we’re looking to try and be an impact in 2031.”

Filling in the developmental gaps

The U.S. is a historic superpower in women’s soccer, even amidst a real belief that the nation is still a sleeping giant in the world’s most popular sport. Six to eight percent of U.S. children aged six to 17 play soccer according to recent data and make up a player pool of several million, but scouring every pocket of a vast nation has been much easier said than done. There are multiple youth soccer set-ups girls can enter, from the Elite Club National League to the Girls Academy and the Olympic Development Program, and a wide network of college soccer teams they can join after the fact. Thompson wanted the combine to be a centralized meeting point for a wide variety of players and for the technical staff members that can offer them a pathway to turning professional.

“Right now I feel like our scouting is very myopic, that we only look at one area,” Thompson said. “I think most of our scouts are going to look at the Power Four, Division I [schools]. Can you look beyond that? There are some players — and there’s some players here – who play for mid-majors, who play for junior colleges, who play for smaller schools. There’s talent all over this country but if we don’t look to enhance that talent, we’re going to continue doing the same thing we are and we’re going to continue bringing in more and more international [players to the NWSL] that I think that we have here in this country so they can develop our domestic talent?”

The list of invitees changed as high profile college prospects landed professional contracts without the help of the combine but by the midway point of the three day event, there was already proof of concept.

“I think it just goes back to Karla’s why of making sure that there is enough platforms for enough of these high-level players and we scoured DI, DII,” Katie Ritchie, an ex-professional turned youth coach who helped facilitate things at the combine. “We weren’t just scouting the Power Fours, put it that way, and it was important to us that we got kids that weren’t necessarily the top ones that all of the clubs have identified. We brought in players that maybe were a little bit more under the radar, not playing in some of these quote-unquote top programs that now that we’ve seen them for two days, we’re like, nobody looks out of place. Do you know what I mean? And that’s what’s been the coolest thing for me is that we’ve found some players that maybe wouldn’t have had the opportunities and we’re providing that landscape for them to still be able to go and show that they deserve to be in this environment.”

The sentiment that valuable talent goes overlooked in the U.S. is pervasive, arguably the only thing stakeholders agree upon as they try to map out what exactly the solution to that issue is. Thompson and her colleagues are quick to admit that the combine is a fix, not the fix. There was some immediacy in the combine’s proceedings, though – the 15 clubs at the IMG Academy had the chance to schedule interviews with any of the 45 athletes on-site, at least a handful likely to earn professional contracts in time for the new season.

“I’ve got a handful of kids that I think that, one, weren’t on the radar at all and now should be on some radars, two or three that I know that some scouts are like, we would like you to come now,” Thompson said. “Now it’s just the decision of the kid, whether or not the player wants to come out of college early or fulfill their four years.”

A focus on humility

While the combine kicked off with high performance drills, the most anticipated events were the scrimmages, the first of which came after lunch on Tuesday. The scouts’ greatest learning opportunity came in settings that most resembled professional games, but there was just one issue as team news came in – the teammates had very little familiarity with one another.

Much like the first session of the day, the players were louder than any external noise. Shortly before kickoff, teammates stood in a circle introducing themselves one by one. The very first scrimmage was defined by a cacophony of instructions – players trying to work out their newly-formed team’s press, building defensive organization on the fly, asking for the ball to ensure there was no silence. They settled in eventually but not entirely – the ball was at a goalkeeper’s feet on Wednesday and just before play resumed, a very important question was clear for many to hear: “Who’s my left back?”

Adding to the hilarious confusion was the fact that the scrimmages served as full-throttled auditions, players receiving instructions to change positions at different times. It may have felt like a departure from a professional game but the takeaways were plentiful for the combine coaches and the scouts alike.

“Actually, I brought that up to a couple individual players because I said you could tell that at the beginning, you were a little hesitant, but you could see yourself get played into the game,” Thompson said. “We tried to do our best to put them into their primary positions but then we started moving players around and just kind of said, ‘Look, it’s just soccer. You dribble, you pass, you shoot, that’s the game, no matter where you are,’ and the willingness for them to just take that was fantastic, because we know when you go into the pro environment, you may be coming in as a winger, but you probably end up as a fullback so having that flexibility and that humility to say, ‘Yes, I’m willing to go wherever you put me,’ Is important, and it’s important that we show them that.”

Humility was a buzzword at the combine, one that was drilled into the prospective professionals by a batch of visitors. Retired player and current NWSLPA deputy executive director Tori Huster provided an introduction to the union, while current NWSL players Abby Smith and Messiah Bright hosted a question-and-answer session.

No query was off topic as combine participants asked about everything from the on-field transition to personal finances and managing free time, Bright and Smith especially offering a truthful and unvarnished outlook on a future that hopefully awaits some of the combine’s participants. They appreciated the insight on the ups and downs of the professional experience, as well as dealing with agents not settling for the first contract offer they see. The one takeaway that had most of the combine participants scribbling in a notebook gifted to each of them by Thompson, though, was about what rookies should do to serve as the best colleagues possible to the veterans on their new teams. Smith and Bright were straightforward – an open-mindedness and willingness to ask questions. Smith referencing U.S. women’s national team midfielder Sam Coffey as an example to follow, recalling with a laugh how Coffey always had a notebook with her during her rookie season with the Portland Thorns in 2022.

“Look at where she is now,” Smith concluded.

A marker for the NWSL’s evolution

The combine served as a crash course to professional soccer, especially when grouped with the youth combine that took place days earlier that served as a platform for high school-aged players. The jam-packed nature of the NWSL’s convention at the IMG Academy was by design, in part because recruitment pathways in a post-draft reality are not the only gaps the league needs to fill in.

“If you compare girls and boys playing football, boys enter into academies and these types of really systemized development programs a lot earlier than girls do,” Sarah Gregorius, a former New Zealand international and the NWSL’s senior sporting director, said. “Someone like a Jude Bellingham or a Phil Foden, taking an England example, they spend a much longer period of time in an environment like a Manchester City academy, not only just learning how to play football and all of the technical and tactical and physical things that need to be developed to do that, but also just having access to nutritionists, sport scientists, understanding loading, having their loading being tracked over an extended period of time. Girls just don’t have access to that at that same level just yet and I think what we’re trying to do in the NWSL is reach further down, make sure that we are giving girls who are developing, going through those pubescant and pre-pubescant years access to more opportunities to learn what is to be a professional so that by the time they arrive on the NWSL stage, on the professional stage, they just more equipped.”

The combine is merely one facet of a larger focus the NWSL has taken in the youth game, the league’s leaders frequently honing in on the importance of a pipeline to maintain a high product quality. The investments include a forthcoming Division II league, currently slated for a 2027 start, as well as additional tools for clubs who have finally begun to create full-fledged scouting departments. For some of them, the youth and adult combines were a fact-finding mission first.

“Through the lens of Gotham specifically, we have a scouting department, we have resources allocated to scouting so we’ve been working across the calendar year in both these spaces, identifying college players that are looking to go professional and young players to identify them for future as they go through their college journey,” Gotham scout Richard Gundy said. “For us, it’s very much about just broadening our knowledge of players. We have specific needs right but we also are maybe looking at tracking players for the future, et cetera, so no specifics from our standpoint.”

Thompson also used the combine as a pathway for female coaches at the early stages of their careers, hoping to provide clubs with a glimpse of their potential. Ritchie was joined by the likes of Gina Lewandowski and Sammy Jo Prudhomme, the pair formerly competing in the NWSL and now working as coaches at varying levels of the youth game. Creating that pipeline is vitally important – the NWSL will have 16 teams next season but there are just four female head coaches in the league, headlined by 2025 Coach of the Year Bev Yanez.

“My first priority was to make sure that we had a female staff,” Thompson said. “It was very important because I just feel like there needs to be a better pathway and pipeline of female coaches that we can present to our clubs that they are capable of coaching at a high level, so that was my first priority. Then my priority was like, now I need to go and find high level coaches, coaches that either coach pro, played pro or coached for the national team and surprisingly, that list is very small. I really didn’t have a big list. Luckily enough, I know a lot of them personally, so I reached out to them early, I think in June or July and said hey, can you put this on your schedule? And they were like, ‘I’d like to be a part of this.’ I think all of them were just like jumping at the chance because they understand the importance.”

It calls back to Thompson’s opening remarks the night before the combine began, anchored by a reminder to the players to have fun. That piece of advice may as well have been for everyone else on the premises, too.

“We’re still losing a lot of players out of the game because the game’s no longer fun,” Thompson said. “It’s just so structured and so [focused on] winning mentality that if you’re not enjoying it, you’re not going to continue doing it and whether or not they continue on in a professional life or career, or the length of the professional career, we still want to be fans of the game and still love the game so even if I get injured and I still love the game, then I’ll still want to be part of the game so I have to have fun and then on top of that, when you’re having fun, you play better.”





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Score from East Providence at Barrington boys basketball on Dec. 22

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December 23, 2025

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Updated Dec. 23, 2025, 10:19 a.m. ET

BARRINGTON — Championship. That’s what’s on the mind of the Barrington boys basketball team. 

And if the Eagles can play like they did in the second half on Monday, that’s definitely within reach.

The talent is there. The chemistry is unquestioned. Barrington is built to win a title this season and showed as much in the last two quarters against East Providence, turning a tied game into an 81-60 victory that shows exactly what this team is capable of.



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Coalition celebrates Community Champions | Carson City’s Trusted News Source Since 1865

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December 23, 2025

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The Churchill Community Coalition on Dec. 17 named Daylene Starr, left, Andy Lenon, Star Olsen and Dawn Blundell as 2025 Community Champions.

The Churchill Community Coalition on Dec. 17 named Daylene Starr, left, Andy Lenon, Star Olsen and Dawn Blundell as 2025 Community Champions.

The Churchill Community Coalition recognized Dec. 17 Dawn Blundell, Sarah Lavy, Star Olsen, Andy Lenon and Daylene Starr as 2025 Community Champions for their contributions to building a better community.

Blundell serves as the senior pastor at Epworth United Methodist Church and the Wolf Center Community Services. During the recent disruption in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program she stepped up to organize meals, volunteers and food bank resources for affected families. She also facilitates a group for LGBTQ+ individuals called “The Rainbow Connection.”

Lavy also played a vital role in managing resources during the SNAP shutdown. She coordinates an annual coat and clothing drive, prepares Thanksgiving boxes and connects sponsors with struggling families for assistance at Christmas.

Olsen, co-owner of Bighorn ATV, currently serves as a board member and volunteer with the Fallon Theatre. She has also given her time to groups such as the Churchill County High School Grad Nite committee, local schools, Girl Scouts, kid ministry and youth athletic programs.

Oasis Academy Vice Principal Lenon was recognized for his dedication in connecting students with resources they need to succeed personally and academically. He is known as someone who the students and staff can depend on to have their best interests at heart.

Starr runs an in-home daycare while volunteering as the secretary of the Fallon Youth Football Board, ensures the snack bar is always fully stocked and performs administrative responsibilities.

The devoted sports mom also serves on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Board with a key role in supporting the annual Battle Born Broncs Rodeo.





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PLANT CITY DOLPHINS WIN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

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December 23, 2025

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Undefeated 8 and under team has a 21-0 record.

Steve Marshall served in the Army for 14 years, including deployments to the Horn of Africa and Syria, then left in 2024. He is currently a Fire Medic with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

When he returned from Syria, he began coaching to share the experience of football with his six-year-old son. In May 2025, he heard that a head coach position had opened up for the Plant City Dolphins. He had never been a head coach, but he applied and got the role. Marshall’s goal for the boys: “I want them to push themselves through adversity, play as a family, protect each other, and have fun loving the game of football.” 

The season started in June. The Dolphins won two preseason jamboree games, then went 10-0 during their season, winning the Tri-County Division Championship by beating the Dover Patriots in Dover. In the subsequent playoffs, they won both games, then won the Tri-County Superbowl. The team also won two games to emerge victorious in the Strawberry Jam Tournament. This made the team 17-0. 

As a result of this success, the Plant City Dolphins were allowed to put together an invitation-only team to compete in the United Youth Football League National Championship. There, the team won all four games, ending the season 21-0. In the championship, the Dolphins defeated a team from Cleveland by scoring in the last minute, and holding the line on a 4th-and-1. “Their execution was fantastic, so they didn’t look like little seven-year-olds and eight-year-olds,” Marshall said. “They looked like little men, the way they played football. Our quarterback is the best 8U player in the country. He can throw a football 50 yards.” 

During the season, the boys on the team scored 529 points while allowing only 25 points, and had 18 shutouts. “I know this season put a lot of core memories in these kids forever,” Marshall commented. “They’ll never forget it.” 

This success didn’t come without hard work. The team practiced twice a week. Including games and watching film, the coaches put in at least 14 hours a week, and some spent even more time watching film. Marshall gave enormous credit to his coaching staff, praising his phenomenal offensive, defensive, and assistant coaches. “You never know you can do something until you finally do it,” Marshall said. “I never thought that after seven months of coaching, that I would find myself winning a National Championship. You always think you have a championship team, but to be gifted one like I was, and have the coaching staff I did…some of them would drive eight hours on practice days. To have the group we had, the parents we had, the kids we had. It was a perfect storm to make this happen. It takes a village to make this happen, and we had the perfect village. These kids got these rings and these trophies, and it is a beautiful thing.”



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Nantucket Current | Turf, Truth, And The Health of Our Island

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December 23, 2025

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To the editor: As a member of this island community and a supporter of Nantucket’s young people, I want to speak from both the heart and the facts about our proposed synthetic turf field.

Much of the recent conversation has focused on fear — fear of PFAS, fear of microplastics, and fear of change. Those concerns deserve to be heard and addressed. But they also deserve to be balanced by current science and an understanding of what this project truly means for our kids, our schools, and the fabric of our island community – not backdoor lobbying and fear mongering.

What the Science Shows: Earlier generations of turf fields did contain PFAS additives used to strengthen plastic fibers. However, today’s technology has changed dramatically. In March 2025, FieldTurf released independent testing results showing no detectable PFAS in new turf products using natural infills such as cork and sand — verified through EPA’s most advanced testing protocol FieldTurf, 2025. Similarly, AstroTurf announced in 2023 that all U.S. fields are now manufactured without intentionally added PFAS AstroTurf, 2023. These shifts show an industry moving toward safer, more sustainable materials.

Yes, we must remain vigilant and ensure ongoing testing. But painting all synthetic fields as environmental hazards ignores this progress and prevents honest discussion of what our students truly need.

What Our Students Need: Over 70% of Nantucket High School students participate in athletics — nearly twice the national average. That’s not just a statistic; it’s a lifeline. Organized sports are linked to lower rates of substance use and improved mental health among teens, particularly in small or geographically isolated communities like ours CDC Youth Risk Behavior Data, 2023.

Our island faces one of the lowest ages of initiation for drugs and alcohol in the country. The more opportunities we provide for safe, structured, year-round activity, the better our chances of keeping kids engaged, connected, and healthy.

A turf complex does more than withstand weather. It gives teams consistent practice time, reduces cancellations, and allows for shared spaces that promote inclusion and camaraderie. When athletes feel pride in their facilities, it spills over into school culture: better attendance, improved grades, and fewer students feeling the need to leave the island for boarding schools to pursue athletics.

The evolution of artificial turf technology has led to products that offer enhanced safety, playability, and durability, addressing many historical concerns associated with earlier generations Gosnell et al., 2022; Russo et al., 2022. These advancements include improvements in infill materials and shock pad designs, which collectively contribute to reduced impact forces and improved biomechanical responses during athletic activities Gosnell et al., 2022. This allows for more consistent playing surfaces, reducing the risk of injuries compared to natural grass fields that can degrade over time due to weather and overuse. Furthermore, artificial turf fields have demonstrated the potential to significantly increase participation opportunities in sports by providing reliable playing surfaces year-round, which is particularly beneficial in regions with challenging climates or high facility demand May & Parnell, 2018. This expanded access to sports facilities can lead to numerous positive outcomes, including improved physical health, enhanced mental well-being, and greater social cohesion within communities Logan et al., 2023. The increased usage of these surfaces can also lead to economic benefits through enhanced revenue generation from rentals and event hosting, while simultaneously reducing maintenance costs associated with natural grass fields Barnes & Watkins, 2022; May & Parnell, 2018. Beyond these tangible benefits, participation in high school athletics has been linked to improved academic performance, increased accountability, and enhanced communication skills, translating directly from the field to classroom success Selber & Selber, 2021. These comprehensive benefits underscore the strategic value of investing in high-quality athletic infrastructure to foster holistic student development and community engagement Popek, 2024. Specifically, the overall injury rates on modern artificial turf are often comparable to, and in some cases lower than, those on natural grass, particularly as design and maintenance protocols have become more standardized Gosnell et al., 2022; Jastifer et al., 2018. For instance, third-generation artificial turf has significantly improved shock absorption and player-surface interaction characteristics, addressing concerns such as injury occurrence, physiological fatigue, and biomechanics during activities like cutting, turning, and kicking Strutzenberger et al., 2020.

A Healthier Island Spirit: Athletics are community-building. Friday night lights, youth clinics, and shared victories bring us together in a way few things can. They give our young people — and all of us — something to rally around. That unity matters on Nantucket, especially at a time when our community often feels divided.

This project isn’t just about turf. It’s about belonging, opportunity, and hope. By investing in a modern, responsibly designed athletic complex, we are choosing to believe that our island’s future will be stronger when our youth are supported, active, and proud to call Nantucket home.

Sincerely,

J. Brent Tartamella



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The Breakaway: Youth hockey talk with Dallas Kuntz – The Dickinson Press

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December 23, 2025

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DICKINSON — Hockey in Dickinson is continuing to grow and evolve since it was established back in 1985. The sport expanded four years later with Dickinson High getting a boys and girls team. Over the past 11 years, enrollment in youth and high school programs has tripled — increasing from about 200 participants to nearly 600.

“As Dickinson has grown with the oil boom, it’s created another opportunity for kids. One thing that I think we do really well at hockey that other sports can’t compete in is we’re able to get them in the door at 3, 4, 5-years-old,” Dickinson hockey coordinator Dallas Kuntz said. “You never know if they’re going to be stellar athletes, but I feel we’re getting more of those athletes coming out and playing hockey because we’re able to target that age range to get them hooked on the game.”

The Dickinson Hockey Club, known as the Dickinson Outlaws, expanded further heading into the 2025-26 season. They added an additional bantam B team, for kids aged 13-14, to go along with its four peewee teams and five squirt teams.

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The Dickinson Outlaws Bantam B team in action at the West River Ice Center on Sunday, Dec. 21.

Jacob Cheris / The Dickinson Press

“I think hockey, more than any other sport or activity, teaches life lessons. It’s a sport very similar to golf in the aspect that till the day you quit playing, you will not attain perfection — skating, puck skills, all that kind of stuff,” Kuntz said. “It’s a sport that you’re not going to get better at unless you truly dedicate yourself to it. I also think that it’s the best team sport.”

One program that continues to grow exponentially is the girls hockey clubs. Dickinson now fields separate 10U and 12U teams instead of one group composed of players aged 9-14.

Most players that go through these youth programs at an early age tend to have more success when they arrive at the high school level. Meanwhile, there have been a small number of individuals who are still playing hockey past high school. While the pipeline is small, Kuntz expects that pipeline to grow.

“We have a lot of kids in our youth program that we’re gonna be seeing in the next year or two. I’m really excited to see what our high school programs are gonna look like and that’s a credit to the kids that are coming up,” Kuntz said. “We have more kids today that are on the ice 12 months a year, or they’re putting the work in away from the rink. We started our summer program here three to four years ago. We got over 200 kids that are on the ice in the summer, Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.”

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The Dickinson Outlaws squirt team celebrates a goal at the West River Ice Center on Sunday, Dec. 21.

Jacob Cheris / The Dickinson Press

Two of the most notable figures that are still playing are Michael McChesney, who is in his third season in the Southern Professional Hockey League with the Peoria Rivermen, and Sierra Raatz, who is in her third season of ACHA club hockey at Adrian College.

One of the foundations of the success of the Dickinson Hockey club is its Learn to Play program. This is the grassroots of young players in the area to get their feet wet and hold a stick and shoot a puck for the first time. The high school players also hop out on the ice to provide instruction and guidance.

“It’s giving those kids that introductory balance. We just want these kids buzzing around on the ice. We can teach them proper knee band, proper stride, but we just want the balance and we want them to be super aggressive,” Kuntz said. “The best hockey players that I’ve seen come through are the ones that, when you put them on the ice and they don’t know how to skate, they literally run three feet and then just wipe out.”

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Young hockey players in action at the Learn to Play program.

Jacob Cheris / The Dickinson Press

The community support is what drives the programs to build for the future. A big goal for the club is to build a third sheet of ice so more kids can have more access and reduce competition for ice time. That has been one of the biggest challenges that the Dickinson hockey community has had to face for the past few years.

“I know a lot of people don’t think it’s a top priority for us but the hockey community here in Dickinson is very strong and very big. More ice time is going to be big for us,” Kuntz said. “We want kids to keep coming out and playing. It’s challenging because they only have a half-ice for their practice. So there’s a lot of challenges but we’re ready to tackle them and just kind of adapt and overcome as we can.”

Jacob Cheris

Jacob Cheris covers a variety of high school and college sports. A graduate of Penn State University’s class of 2023, with a degree in broadcast journalism, he covered Penn State Men’s Hockey for three years. Jacob also covers Big Ten Hockey for College Hockey News.





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Challenger division coming to Plymouth Youth Baseball

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December 23, 2025

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Dec. 23, 2025, 4:04 a.m. ET



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