Handful from NW make NWSL opening day rosters

Maybe the league should be renamed the California Women’s Soccer League. Examining the opening day rosters (as published by TheEqualizer) by state, there was a significant abundance of players from the state compared to the rest, including the northwest foursome of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Of the 152 players available for selection this week, the Golden State features 36 players that either are either native to California or attended college in the state. The northwest foursome featured only 15 combined, though is a respectable figure considering the population of the four states is only 35 percent of California’s. Nine players represented Oregon and six were from Washington. Idaho and Montana have zero players slated to play in the NWSL.

Arizona native Kiersten Dallstream was the lone player from the INWsoccernews coverage region to make the opening day rosters, representing Washington State University. Dallstream played for WSU from 2006-09 and went on to play in WPS with the Sky Blue FC and Boston Breakers. This year the former US U23 international and third all-time goal scorer for the school returns to the state to play for the Seattle Reign. 

The only other states with double-digit representation were North Carolina and Florida. North Carolina’s 15 was heavily influenced by collegiate attendance as the state itself was only home to one player. Florida, at 14, was very similar with three native players and 13 collegians.

California, with 24, was the home state of three times as many players as any other state or Canadian province with Colorado, New York and Ontario each having eight native players in the league followed by New Jersey with seven.

Though some states were light in native representation, a few have had a good percentage of college players move on to the new pro league. Led by California’s 27, the list of collegiate representation continues with North Carolina (14), Florida (13), Virginia (8), Oregon (8), Indiana (7) and Pennsylvania (7).

Ontario led the list of Canadian provinces with players in the league with eight players originally hailing from the province, though all played college soccer south of the border.

At the other end of the spectrum, 17 states were not represented on the NWSL opening day rosters. Those states were Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

NWSL Leading State Representation – Opening Day Rosters

State	Hometown
California	24
Colorado	8
New York	8
Ontario	8
New Jersey	7
Georgia	5
Maryland	5
Missouri	5
Texas	5
Alabama	4
Connecticut	4
Massachusetts	4
Washington	4
British Columbia	4

State	College
California	27
North Carolina	14
Florida	13
Virginia	8
Oregon	8
Indiana	7
Pennsylvania	7
Colorado	4
Texas	4

State	Max
California	36
North Carolina	15
Florida	14
Indiana	9
Oregon	9
Pennsylvania	9
Virginia	9
Colorado	8
New Jersey	8
New York	8
Ontario	8
Texas	8
Illinois	7
Maryland	7
Georgia	6
Massachusetts	6
Missouri	6
Washington	6

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