Washington State’s Trinity Rodman becomes youngest NWSL Draft pick in history

PULLMAN, Wash. – For the second-straight season Washington State soccer had one of their players selected with the second overall pick as Trinity Rodman went No. 2 to the Washington Spirit in the 2021 NWSL Draft on Wednesday.

Along with Rodman, the Cougs saw three other players selected as seniors Brianna Alger went No. 25 to Chicago and Makamae Gomera-Stevenswent No. 27 to Houston.

The seniors have opted to stay at WSU and compete in the spring and fall seasons for the Cougs while Rodman will immediately report to the Spirit for training camp.

Rodman becomes the first underclassman in program history to be selected in the NWSL draft and joins last season’s No. 2 overall pick and all-time great, Morgan Weaver, as the highest draft pick in WSU women’s athletics history. At age 19, she becomes the youngest player in the history of the NWSL to be selected in the draft.

Rodman spent the fall training but with the cancelation of the 2020 fall season by the Pac-12 Conference the star freshman never played a competitive game for the Cougs. Rodman was the No. 1 recruit in the country in 2020 and is a member of the US National Team program. She joins Coug graduate and the No. 17 pick in the 2020 draft, Avery Collins, in Washington. Collins signed a two-year extension with the Spirit in December after the completion of her rookie season. Rodman’s Basketball Hall of Fame father, Dennis, was the No. 27 overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft to the Detroit Pistons.

After transitioning to left back for the first time in her soccer career, Alger proved to be one of the most dangerous facilitators in the country in her junior season which put her on every team’s NWSL draft board. With her talent, Chicago snapped the Colorado native up in the third round. As a junior, Alger was the iron woman of the Cougs’ run to the College Cup as she started all 24 while playing 2,098 minutes, the most of any field player. With her magic left foot, she was named Third Team United Soccer Coaches All-Pacific Region as well as Third Team All-Pac-12. She garnered national recognition after finishing the year as just the third Cougar in program history to record double-digit assists posting 10, the most of any defender in the Pac-12 and 50th in the country at 0.42 per game.

Turning heads in the Cougs’ College Cup run in 2019 and at the National Team training camp in December of 2019, Gomera-Stevens put herself in position to be selected by 2020 Challenge Cup champion Houston Dash. The dynamic midfielder finished her junior season with five goals and five assists. She made the most of her scoring opportunities with four game-winning strikes including two in the postseason against No. 14 Memphis and against West Virginia to send the Cougs to the Elite Eight. In her three seasons, the native Hawaiian has notched nine goals and eight assists while leading the Cougs to the second round of the NCAA tournament in all three years.

Players will report to camp on Feb. 1, 2021, with the first competition coming in mid-April when the NWSL Challenge Cup returns after the historic inaugural edition in 2020.