What do Mana Shim, Hanna Terry, and Courtney Niemiec have in common?
Aside from playing for the Portland Thorns FC, all three players were first acquired by the team after participating in an open tryout.
Shim, a midfielder, knows better than anyone how valuable an open tryout can be.
Before her first season with the Thorns, Shim watched as team after team passed on her during the NWSL College Draft. Any other player might have given up on her dream of going pro, but not the resilient Shim.
Instead of trying to find a team that might need a player of her skill set, however, Shim targeted the team with the deepest roster in the NWSL.
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"I made a commitment to myself that I would continue to pursue my soccer career if I could make the best team in the league," Shim told the Oregonian in March of last year. "I don’t like to make the safe decisions.”
Shim went on to start 17 matches for the Thorns that season, scoring 5 goals and notching 2 assists. She even started in midfield for the club's championship victory over the Western New York Flash.
When it comes to unlikely success stories, though, Shim is by no means alone.
Defender Courtney Niemiec, who also went undrafted, signed with the Thorns in April 2014. The Philadelphia, PA native, who started in each of her first 10 matches for the club, impressed the Thorns coaching staff in an open tryout before the season.
"I went to the open tryout and then I got invited to preseason," Niemiec told the Oregonian. "I was just given an opportunity so I worked hard towards it. I knew that’s all I needed was an opportunity."
Unlike some of her collegiate peers, though, Niemiec knew just what it would take for her to make it at the NWSL level.
"It is...probably ten steps higher than what I had in college," she told CBS Philly last June. "It’s just a lot harder, it’s a lot more physical and it just takes a lot out of you. Even practices do. Practices are mostly just like game speed, they’re quick, they’re physical, it’s just like playing in a game every day.”
Like her teammates Shim and Niemiec, forward Hanna Terry also caught the eye of the Thorns coaches during an open tryout.
"Hanna has all the ingredients to become an impact player in the league: speed, skill, finishing ability and work ethic," Thorns head coach Paul Riley said after Terry signed a professional contract last July. "She is an investment for the future and a player that could help us in the ‘business’ part of the season.”
This year, Riley and his coaching staff are once again looking for players who can help the team, whether that be now or in the future.
The team will be holding open tryouts from February 18-19 at Hofstra University in Long Island, NY, with a second set of tryouts kicking off at Providence Park on Wednesday, March 4.
Each tryout will last two days and is open to players 18 years of age and older.
Like Shim, Niemiec, and Terry, do you have what it takes to play for the Thorns?
Find out for yourself by registering for tryouts online.
