U24 Club Impact Rankings

Ranking club teams based on the impact of their U24 additions.

July 14, 2023 by Edward Stephens in Recap with 0 comments

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With the close of an exciting WFDF Under-24 World Championship tournament, much of the attention in the US shifts to the USAU club season, which technically began in June but really begins to pick up steam in the second half of July. There is a bridge between the marquee international event and the North American season ahead though: namely, the players involved. Many of the young competitors from Team USA and Team Canada – and at least one from another national team (that we know of) – will be exchanging their broken-in national kits for fresh club ones from now until the end of fall.

And that got us wondering: which USAU clubs are poised to receive the biggest boost from the U24 players coming back into the fold? Since we are suckers for silly rankings, this question naturally prompted us to rank them. It was no easy task, especially since the methodology requires that we mix all three divisions together. The factors in consideration were: 1.) Number of players; 2.) Quality of players; 3.) Relative strength of the team without including the U24 players; and, of course, 4.) The gut feeling of a single ignorant Ultiworld writer.

Of note: only players currently listed as having official roster spots – i.e. not practice players or ‘developmental’ players or ‘friends’ – are being considered.

Imperceptible Boost Club

42. San Francisco Fury – Rachel Chang
41. Toronto Union – Brianna Prentice
40. Denver Small Batch – Emma Williamson
39. Washington DC Scandal – Kira Flores
38. Portland Schwa – Ezra Weybright

Starting from the back end, we have the players who, if they were to decide to pick up a knapsack and traipse around Europe through the end of the year, probably wouldn’t cause too much of a stir one way or the other. Rachel Chang, for instance, has enormous potential and will be solid and valuable when they play this season. But they represents an investment in the future: Fury’s chances of winning a title aren’t affected in the least this year. The same appears to be true for the others in this grouping – maybe a little less so for Weybright, who has flashed game-changing potential at the college level and could bring some of it to Schwa’s 2023 campaign.