NWSL players and allies create national showcase to highlight young Black talent

As the National Women’s Soccer League plays its championship match on Saturday, a group of Black players and their allies will be hosting an event to showcase young players with the potential to go on to college and pro careers.

More than 20 young players from across the country will attend the three-day event with coaches, scouts, agents and professional soccer players starting Saturday at Prairie View A&M, a historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas.

The Next Wave showcase is the result of a partnership between the Black Women’s Player Collective and Black Star, which seeks to drive soccer’s growth in Black communities. The BWPC is a non-profit founded in 2020 by Black players in the National Women’s Soccer League.

One of the collective’s missions is to advance opportunities for Black girls and women at all levels of the sport, said Imani Dorsey, who retired this season after eight years in the NWSL, where she played for Gotham FC and the Utah Royals. Just 12% of the players in the NWSL this year self-identified as Black.

“It’s definitely a step up for us as we continue to build out and increase our championship programming and the kind of impact we want to have,” Dorsey said. “It’s been really important for us from the beginning of trying to continue to create a pathway and opportunities for young girls, especially Black girls, to grow their representation and how much exposure they’re given in the soccer world.”

Such events are valuable for players now that the NWSL has eliminated the college draft. The Gainbridge Super League, which sits alongside NWSL at the top of the women’s soccer pyramid in the United States but just completed its first season, also operates without a draft.

This was the first year players navigated the process of trying to reach the pros without a draft. Sponsored by Allstate, the Next Wave showcase aims to get players who are still at the high school level into the pipeline so they aren’t starting from scratch.

The NWSL has addressed the larger issue of talent identification with the addition of player combines. The first two will take place in Florida in December: One combine will be for players ages 18 to 23, and the other will be for players ages 13 to 17. About 60 players will be invited to each, with players selected based on input from across the soccer ecosystem.

“Definitely, the plan is to continue to grow this,” said Patrick Rose, Black Star & Cultural Marketing director at For Soccer. “This is our inaugural event so we’re super excited to have the first one, but we really want this to be a kind of stepping stone to do more going forward, especially as the game continues to grow, as the women’s game grows. I think it’s an opportunity to build on this foundation and really have this be something that players, coaches and people looking for talent can look forward to over the next couple of years.”

The three-day showcase, which is at no cost for the invitees, won’t just be about soccer, but will also address college prep, career planning, nutrition and mental health — things that sometimes get overlooked in competitive sports.

The showcase in Texas coincides with the festivities surrounding the NWSL championship game between Gotham and the Washington Spirit on Saturday in San Jose, California.

“No matter what level you are at, it’s hard. You don’t know what to do all the time, and sometimes you just need support and guidance, and the more we can do to help that transition, whether it’s transition into soccer or life after soccer,” Dorsey said. “We know the experience for a Black woman is always going to be layered and complex and difficult, and sometimes it’s just helpful to have someone to talk it through.”

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