NWSL Rookie of the Year

Last updated

2025 winner Lilly Reale Lilly Reale Gotham FC Bay FC 6.21.2025-071.jpg
2025 winner Lilly Reale

The NWSL Rookie of the Year award is presented annually to the best rookie in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).

Contents

Erika Tymrak (2013), an alumna of the Florida Gators, won the first Rookie of the Year award in the NWSL's inaugural season. The most recent winner is Lilly Reale (2025).

As of 2025, the NWSL's individual end-of-year awards are voted upon in two rounds: in the first round, players (50%), owners/general managers/coaches (25%), and media (25%) vote to determine the nominees; in the second round, players (40%), owners/general managers/coaches (25%), media (25%), and fans (10%) vote among the nominees to determine the winner. [1]

Winners

SeasonPlayerPos.NationalityClubSchoolDraftedOther finalistsRef.
2013 Erika Tymrak MF Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States FC Kansas City Florida Gators 11th Adrianna Franch, Sydney Leroux [2]
2014 Julie Johnston D/MF Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States Chicago Red Stars Santa Clara Broncos 3rd Crystal Dunn, Kealia Ohai [3]
2015 Danielle Colaprico MF Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States Chicago Red Stars Virginia Cavaliers 9th Sofia Huerta, Sam Mewis [4]
2016 Rocky Rodríguez MF Flag of Costa Rica.svg  Costa Rica Sky Blue FC [a] Penn State Nittany Lions 2nd Rachel Daly, Emily Sonnett [5]
2017 Ashley Hatch F Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States North Carolina Courage BYU Cougars 2nd Meggie Dougherty Howard, Mallory Pugh [6]
2018 Imani Dorsey F/MF Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States Sky Blue FC [a] Duke Blue Devils 5th Savannah McCaskill, Andi Sullivan [7]
2019 Bethany Balcer F Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States Reign FC Spring Arbor Cougars Undrafted Jordan DiBiasi, Sam Staab [8]
2020 2020 regular season cancelled due COVID-19 pandemic [9]
2021 Trinity Rodman F Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States Washington Spirit Washington State Cougars 2nd Emily Fox, Victoria Pickett [10]
2022 Naomi Girma D Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States San Diego Wave FC Stanford Cardinal 1st Sam Coffey, Diana Ordóñez [11]
2023 Jenna Nighswonger D Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States NJ/NY Gotham FC [a] Florida State Seminoles 4th Messiah Bright, Alyssa Thompson [12]
2024 Croix Bethune MF Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States Washington Spirit Georgia Bulldogs 3rd Claire Hutton, Ally Sentnor [13]
2025 Lilly Reale DF Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States Gotham FC UCLA Bruins N/A Maddie Dahlien, Riley Tiernan [14]

Wins by team

ClubWins
Gotham FC [a] 4
Chicago Red Stars 2
Washington Spirit 2
FC Kansas City 1
North Carolina Courage 1
San Diego Wave FC 1

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gotham FC was previously known as Sky Blue FC and NJ/NY Gotham FC.

References

  1. ↑ "NWSL Announces 2025 NWSL Award Finalists, Opens Fan Voting Round". National Women's Soccer League. November 10, 2025. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  2. ↑ Kassouf, Jeff (August 21, 2013). "Erika Tymrak named NWSL Rookie of the Year". The Equalizer. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  3. ↑ Lauletta, Dan (August 22, 2014). "Johnston wins NWSL Rookie of the Year". The Equalizer. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Red Stars' Colaprico named NWSL Rookie of Year". The Equalizer. September 14, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
    "Chicago's Colaprico Voted 2015 NWSL Rookie of the Year". Chicago Red Stars. September 14, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  5. ↑ "'Rocky' Rodriguez named NWSL Rookie of the Year". The Equalizer. October 3, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  6. ↑ "Ashley Hatch named 2017 NWSL Rookie of the Year". The Equalizer. October 17, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  7. ↑ Kriger, Rachael (September 26, 2018). "Paul Riley, Imani Dorsey best coach, rookie respectively". The Equalizer. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  8. ↑ VanDyke, Josh (October 30, 2019). "Bethany Balcer wins NWSL Rookie of the Year award" . Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  9. ↑ "2020 Champions Cup Presented by P&G and Secret Roster Rules" (PDF). NWSL. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  10. ↑ Hruby, Emma (November 19, 2021). "Spirit's Trinity Rodman Wins NWSL Rookie of the Year". Just Women's Sports . Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  11. ↑ Lauletta, Dan (October 27, 2022). "Naomi Girma named 2022 NWSL Rookie of the Year". The Equalizer. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  12. ↑ Tonelli, Jenna (November 9, 2023). "'Nothing is going to be what you expect:' Jenna Nighswonger on winning Rookie of the Year". The Equalizer. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  13. ↑ "NWSL Reveals 2024 Individual Awards Finalists". Just Women's Sports . November 14, 2024. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
    Linehan, Meg; Rueter, Jeff (November 19, 2024). "Spirit's Croix Bethune named NWSL Rookie of the Year after standout season". The Athletic . Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  14. ↑ Henderson, Cydney (November 19, 2025). "2025 NWSL Awards live updates: Full list of winners, highlights". USA Today . Retrieved November 19, 2025.
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