It all happened so fast.
Within minutes of the 2020 NWSL College Draft, the Red Stars had worked through nearly every first-round selection and traded them all away. If you weren’t paying close attention, chances were you missed a trade.
Chicago started the day trading away their No. 4 and 5 first-round picks plus allocation money to Sky Blue for its No. 2 and 3 selections. A trade coach Rory Dames said was a priority for him.
They wouldn’t keep these picks long before trading the No. 2 pick to Portland for picks No. 15 and 16 plus allocation money.
Within minutes Chicago announced another trade, this time sending its No. 3 pick which they acquired from Sky Blue plus the No. 26 pick to Orlando in exchange for forward Rachel Hill, allocation money, the No. 19 overall pick and a 2021 first round-pick.
Long story short, allocation money was huge for the Red Stars, and Dames was playing the long game.
“I probably got two hours of sleep last night,” Dames said. “I would say the 40 minutes before the draft, and the first 20 minutes after the draft started was a bit chaotic. But then it settled in, and we were very surprised Julia and Cam fell that far.”
When the Red Stars finally made a selection, it was USC defender Julia Bingham with the 15th pick. They followed with the No. 16 pick selecting local product, Camryn Biegalski, a defender out of Wisconsin.
The Red Stars finished the draft selecting Virginia’s Zoe Morse with the 19th pick, Duke’s Ella Stevens with the 24th pick and Yale’s Aerial Chavarin with the 35th pick.
Dames was clear that the reason for trading away all of their first-round selections was that he didn’t think any players could crack the Red Stars starting 11. A more valuable way to use the picks he decided was to invest in a little insurance on his star players.
Dames couldn’t say exactly how the allocation money would be used or how much his team acquired.
“There’s at least one expansion team coming for sure if not two or three next year,” Dames said. “To be able to have that to protect your current players and your current roster is always a good thing.”
Coming off a 2019 NWSL Championship appearance, Dames feels the Red Stars are in a great position.
But there’s still the question of how they plan to replace Sam Kerr’s produciton.
Hill rounds out a group of three forwards, including Makenzy Doniak and Kealia Ohai that were brought in to take on that challenge. Last season they combined for a total seven goals, Kerr had 19.
“We targeted three forwards that were currently in the league that we wanted to bring in and Rachel was the third,” Dames said. “We wanted Makenzy [Doniak], we wanted Kealia [Ohai] and we wanted Rachel. Now we have them.”
