Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports
Draft Day 2024 in the National Women’s Soccer League will be remembered as a day the Washington Spirit embarked on a rebuilding project.
Time will tell what they do with the allocation money acquired throughout the day, but in a span of less than four hours the club jettisoned two key members of its 2021 NWSL Championship side. The return for center back Sam Staab and midfielder Ashley Sanchez was a pile of allocation money and a pair of first-round picks. The addition of the the No. 3 and No. 5 picks gave the Spirit four total selections in the opening round.
Collecting first-round picks is a strategy that has worked in the past. Staab was the No. 4 pick in 2019 when the Spirit also took Jordan Baggett (nee DiBiasi, No. 3), Tegan McGrady (No. 7), and Dorian Bailey (No. 8). They added Sanchez with the No. 4 pick in 2020 and then Trinity Rodman and Tara McKeown at No. 2 and 8, respectively in 2021. Washington won the NWSL Championship later that year.
More famously, the Western New York…
