Players coming and going, a big change to the coaching staff, and a busy draft night mark the offseason for the Spirit.
As is the case most seasons, the Spirit had a busy offseason. They let a few players and the head coach go, they had a decent amount of free agency turnover, there were 2 surprise trades on draft night, 6 new draftees came on board, and finally a new head coach (and assistant/interim head coach) were named.
Coaching Changes
The final game of the season was likely a bad portent for 2023 head coach Mark Parsons. After receiving a third yellow card the previous week, he was forced to watch the game from a suite due to accumulation. The team then lost that last game, keeping them out of the playoffs for the second straight year. Only two days later, the team announced that they had parted ways with Parsons, marking the end of his second stint with the club (he had previous been an assistant coach and head coach from 2013-2015).
The Spirit remained without a head coach until the new year. Finally, on January 9, 2024 (just three days before the college draft), the Spirit named FC Barcelona Femení head coach Jonatan Giráldez. Due to his contract with Barcelona, however, it was also announced that he would not be joining the Spirit until after Barcelona’s current season, meaning he would not be in DC until mid-summer (the date is still to be announced).
Due to the late arrival of Giráldez, the Spirit announced on January 23rd that a colleague of his from Spain, Adrián González, would be arriving early in the preseason to handle the head coaching duties in the interim. González had to cut short his tenure as head coach of RCD Espanyol and arrived to take the helm after the team’s first preseason trip to California.
Waived Players
Shortly after the season ended, the Spirit announced that it had release three players, midfielders Nicole Douglas and Inès Jaurena and defender Maddie Elwell. All three players were placed on the waiver wire.
Free Agents
The Spirit entered the offseason with four unrestricted free agents (Nicole Barnhart, Amber Brooks, Bayley Feist, and Tori Huster) and two restricted (Marissa Sheva and Camryn Biegalski). Unrestricted free agents can sign with any team while restricted agents have to give their current club the chance to match any offers and retain them. Of these six players, the Spirit signed only goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart to a further year. Feist signed with the Kansas City Current, Huster announced her retirement on December 31st, and Biegalski signed with the Chicago Red Stars. Both Sheva and Brooks were on preseason rosters (Portland Thorns and Chicago Red Stars respectively) but as of yet have not signed a contract that has been announced.
Acquired Free Agents
The Spirit did acquire two free agents in the offseason. Chicago Red Stars/US Women’s National Team defender Casey Krueger signed a three year contract that was announced on January 10th. She will bring much needed experience to the backline and the team, especially after trades and the draft (see below) left the team quite a bit younger and less experienced. Midfielder Brittany Ratcliffe came over from the North Carolina Courage also on a three year contract. Her signing was announced the next day on the 11th.
Expansion Draft
The league is welcoming two new teams, Bay FC and Utah Royals, and so it went through an expansion draft in the Fall. However, the Spirit managed to make trades ahead of time to avoid having to leave players unprotected in the draft. The Spirit sent 2 second round draft picks in the 2024 college draft to Utah while sending midfielder/defender Dorian Bailey to Bay FC.
2024 College Draft and Trades
January 12, 2024 ended up being quite a busy day for the Spirit. Before the draft began, it was announced that the Spirit had traded away their iron woman center back, Sam Staab, to the Chicago Red Stars for the third pick in the draft. As the draft progressed through the first round, it was announced that the Spirit had made a second trade. This time they had traded their number 10, midfielder Ashley Sanchez, to the North Carolina Courage for the fifth pick and $250,000 in allocation money.
This meant that the Spirit had four first round picks as they also held the seventh pick as their natural pick and the thirteenth pick from Seattle in a trade made during the previous year’s draft. The Spirit chose Croix Bethune, a midfielder from the University of Georgia with the third pick, Hal Hershfelt (midfielder from Clemson) with the fifth, Kate Wiesner (defender, Penn State) with the seventh, and finally midfielder Makenna Morris (DC area native also from Clemson) with the thirteenth.
The Spirit also had two later round draft picks after they had previously traded both of their second round picks for expansion protection. Their third round pick (35th overall) was University of Arkansas forward Anna Podojil and their fourth round (49th overall) was Courtney Brown, a midfielder from the University of Utah.
All the comings and goings should make for an interesting 2024 season, especially as the new coaches from Spain work to install a more possession-based style of play. We’ll just have to wait and see if the moves were the right ones.
Post by Kelley Piper