NWSL moneyball? North Carolina Courage lean on veteran cohort as league turns to teens

Meredith Speck, among others, showing value of patience.

Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports (used with permission of North Carolina Courage)

Moneyball, as a concept, has been around for so long and been stretched in so many directions at this point, that it may have lost fundamental meaning. Still, the germ of the idea, identified by Michael Lewis many years ago, was an approach by a sports team where a team would try to find a market inefficiency and use it to improve the team. Makes sense, right?

Perhaps the North Carolina Courage have found a version of this in 2023. While the team is pretty young, and overall, a group that hasn’t played together for very long, there’s a cohort of players who have remained on the team through good times and bad: goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland, defenders Kaleigh Kurtz and Ryan Williams, and midfielders Denise O’Sullivan and Meredith Speck.

Those five have been on the team since 2019, the last time the Courage won the NWSL Championship (Rowland was traded to Kansas City in 2021, but was traded back roughly six months later), and they remain on a rebuilding Courage side in 2023. Of the quintet, O’Sullivan has been the only regular starter throughout her tenure in North Carolina — Rowland has gotten game action over the years but has mostly served as a backup, while Kurtz, Williams and Speck got spot duty in their initial years.

Speck, the longest tenured player on the squad, dating back to the Courage’s last year as the Western New York Flash in 2016, has been a consistent starter in 2023 under head coach Sean Nahas. The New York native turned 30 earlier this year, and for a depth player to last so long on an NWSL roster is itself unusual, as is her breakthrough as a regular so far this season. For now, Speck is well on her way to setting career highs in terms of starts and minutes played in a season.

When asked about the veteran’s contributions, Nahas complimented Speck’s entire tenure with the club.

“I have the utmost respect for Mary,’ Nahas said Thursday during the Courage’s pregame availability. “She's a player when she first came, she didn't play, rarely traveled [with the squad]. But she's always been the consummate pro, unbelievable teammate, respectful, professional. And I think her evolution the last year and a half has been tremendous. I think she's very disciplined. She understands the game. Her motor’s off the charts. And it's one of those things where it's hard to not put her on the field. She trains the same way she plays, and I give the kid a lot of credit, because in today's world so many times players when they're not playing they may say, ‘I need to go find someone where I'm gonna play.’

“She's earned her stripes. We have about four other players on our roster, and I give those players a ton of credit, I think they need to be looked at in terms of a model of development and think they need to be applauded, because far too often, the easy route is to leave when they've taken the hard route and it's paying off for them. So yeah, Mary has been tremendous for us,” he said.

It’s a differential strategy to be sure, what with the growing tide of teenagers entering the NWSL. Alyssa Thompson was selected No. 1 in the 2023 NWSL Draft before graduating from high school, and was named NWSL Rookie of the Month for her exploits so far this season at Angel City FC. Jaedyn Shaw, signed midseason last year by San Diego Wave FC, has arguably had as big an impact and recently turned 18 herself. Wave FC and Washington Spirit have signed 15-year-olds this year, in Melanie Barcenas and Chloe Ricketts, respectively, each of whom has already gotten on the field in NWSL. And the original teen signing, Portland Thorns midfielder Olivia Moultrie, appears to have reached the point where she’s no longer learning at the feet of stars and getting mop-up duty, she’s taken a step forward this season and looks like a starter on a top team, as a 17-year-old.

That trend is likely going to put more pressure on veteran depth players moving forward, with teams opting to give the youngsters roster spots and for those who need more development before getting regular minutes, but with North Carolina’s veteran holdover cohort finally becoming regulars — O’Sullivan has maintained her starter’s role, Kurtz and Williams are among six Courage players to have played every minute this regular season so far, Speck is starting each game for the first time in her career, and Rowland will likely start when Casey Murphy goes to the World Cup with the U.S. Women’s National Team this summer — the opposite approach appears to be paying off for the club, as they are on a four-game unbeaten streak at present in league play.

Speck, ever the team player, reflected on the current rebuild of the Courage and told me earlier this spring that she was more than happy with staying on the team.

“Yeah, I think it's funny,” she began after a training session in late-March. “There's been a lot of evolution and I almost feel like right now, the vibes of the team are similar to the vibes that I felt when I was on the 2016 Flash, which is really one of my favorite teams that I've played on. And so I think you've seen the team grow together. And now I think you're kind of seeing like that evolution come full circle. And now we have like a new group of players that we're trying to like, build and mold and you know, hopefully special things can happen. And I think we have a group that can do really incredible things.”

Nahas acknowledged the cohort of players who have been with the team the past several years have been through thick and thin, the highs of winning trophies regularly and the lows of previous head coach Paul Riley mired in scandal, fired in disgrace and the squad of the successful years dismantled largely piece by piece.

But now that she’s gotten her chance, Speck is focused on building a good culture in North Carolina. Culture may be a term as overused in sports as moneyball, but in the Courage’s case, a good culture is essential.

“It's funny, I don't really have any personal goals,” Speck said when asked. “I haven't really thought about it. I think, you know, I've been on this team for so long. It means so much to me. So I think going into every season and now definitely — I think I'm the second-oldest person — is I want people to enjoy playing here and want people to look forward to coming to training. I think you get the best out of people when they're comfortable and enjoying the environment. So for me it's a lot of fostering an environment for people where they're happy to be here and they tell people, ‘Yeah, you should come to the Courage.’ I think that's super important and the better everyone is, the better the team is going to be.”