When San Diego Wave FC step onto the pitch for the 2025 NWSL regular season, they’ll be two years removed from their 2023 NWSL Shield win and their last playoff appearance. It’s hardly the longest drought ever for a sports team, but for the four-year-old franchise that set a winning standard in 2022, it’s new territory. The club now finds itself taking its first steps in a rebuild after a busy offseason.
It’s not something the franchise is shying away from with general manager and former NWSL player Camille Ashton Levin telling CBS Sports during preseason, “It’s no secret,” but there are multiple circumstances that the club has had to juggle since her own midseason arrival to San Diego.
“Ultimately want to be in a place where we’re competing for championships. Not on one-off years, but year after year, and have something that’s sustainable,” she said.
Misdseason shakeups
The spiral toward a rebuild began midseason in 2024, a surprising dismissal of former head coach Casey Stoney by former club president Jill Ellis. The move came after a seven-game winless streak by the Wave where they struggled to produce any meaningful attacking football and struggled in front of goal, sitting in ninth place at the time of her departure.
The move, made in part to salvage the mediocre season, had the opposite effect as player demeanor dropped, struggles in attack remained, and they crashed out of playoff contention. Later, U.S. women’s national team forward Alex Morgan retired midseason with a dual announcement of her pregnancy in September, and in October, the Levine Leichtman Family Office completed the acquisition of the club from its previous owner, Ron Burkle.
Ashton joined the club during the midst of the summer turnover, which also included allegations from former club employees of a toxic work culture. In July, Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit against a former Wave employee who had accused Ellis of creating a toxic work environment. An investigation (via a third-party firm) occurred earlier in the year and found the Wave to have not violated NWSL policies. Ellis has since called the allegations “false.”
Additionally, several former employees have since filed a lawsuit against the Wave and NWSL, though Ellis is not named as a defendant. The lawsuit contains allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, racial discrimination, and wrongful termination. The former club president eventually left her position for a newly created women’s soccer role with FIFA in December.
Offseason acquisitions
With so many different circumstances of constant change, Ashton and the club had few options but to lean into the rebuild for the Wave. The turnover continued in the winter, and Ashton and the club worked with Naomi Girma to settle a now historic transfer fee with Chelsea FC and eventually negotiated a trade for Jaedyn Shaw to North Carolina after the player requested the move in the spring of 2024. The Wave also needed to figure out their head coach position after three different managers in one season.
After Stoney’s dismissal, Paul Buckle was an intern who left after the summer, and former U.S. men’s national team player Landon Donovan was eventually named as interim through the remainder of the year. During his introductory press conference, he said that the door was “open” for conversations for the permanent head coach role, but as the Wave’s season wiped out, Ashton knew the club had to move on into a larger hunt for a manager.
“Coming into that sort of situation, it was really important that we did not rush the head coach decision, that we went through a very thorough process that was going to take time,” she said.
They landed on Jonas Eidevall in a bit of happenstance as he was not an available option when San Diego’s search started. His departure from Arsenal changed things, and after lengthy interview processes and conversations, the Wave felt he was the candidate to lead the team in their time of transition.
“We had a lot of conversation … about how we see an environment and the things that are important, and what, what the non-negotiables are, and how we take care of people, how we look to develop the individual and then make sure we’re getting the most out of the team. We went through all of these things together and spoke about just what was important to the club, and then he spoke about what’s important to him, and there was just alignment across [all] those things,” Ashton explained.
San Diego’s rebuilding was well in effect when they announced Eidevall as head coach in January. They signed the first player in the post-draft era in the NWSL when they welcomed University of Texas forward Trinity Byars in November. Shortly after the winter departures of Shaw and Girma, the Wave announced the signing of defender Trinity Armstong from the University of North Carolina.
The Wave also signed Nigerian internationals Favour Emmanuel and Chiamaka Okwuchukwu. In February, Canadian international and NWSL veteran Adrianna Leon joined the club from Aston Villa, adding to the club’s long offseason journey of roster building.
“You’ve got to understand the individual player and understand what’s important to them, because every player is different, and every player is in a different part of their career or place and has different ambitions or things that resonate with them more or less. So it’s honestly really important to get an understanding of those things in every individual player,” Ashton said of the recruiting and rebuilding process.
“And then, look within ourselves and understand, ‘is this actually the best place for this individual too?’ It’s great if, as a club, you really want a player, but it has to be a fit both ways, if that makes sense. I think that’s how you’re ultimately going to get the most out of the player and the best out of the player as well.
Being able to showcase, obviously, all the great things about San Diego and about the club, but also make sure that we really understand what’s important to the player. The other thing, we want to bring players to this organization that that want to win, that want to compete. That’s that’s also really important in the players that we’re recruiting to come here.”
Players writing a new chapter
Ashton acknowledged the challenges of a younger roster but expressed confidence in the emergence of new leaders within the squad. “When there’s change, you always have emerging leaders,” she said, pointing to the team’s mix of remaining veterans and young players as a source of optimism. However, relying on unproven leaders to guide a team through a rebuild is a gamble, and the Wave’s ability to foster a cohesive team culture will be critical to their success.
Goalkeeper Kalien Sheridan is one such example of leadership that the group will rely upon. She’s a former NWSL goalkeeper of the year and an Olympic gold medalist with Canada.
“I think at the end of last season, there [were] definitely some fear factors in there that we all felt and were nervous about,” Sheridan explained.
“I think coming in with a like, fresh perspective, and not forgetting about the past, because that’s not helpful either. I think you have to remember where you came from in order to continue to grow and not allow backtracking. But I think coming with an open mind and just being ready to learn and work and have a goal forward, instead of kind of working back [or] kind of working on redoing something, is not helpful. We need to just go forward and again, remember what we’ve done, but we have to move forward. And we have an incredible group of players right now that I’m really stoked to work with. There’s so much talent in the room. We just need to control it and structure it now. So, it’s going to be about how we do that,” she said.
Despite all the complexities around the Wave’s trajectory toward a rebuild just three years after their expansion into the league, the veteran goalkeeper believes that their roster has the talent to compete and that players in their sophomore season in NWSL will be the next wave of leaders on the team.
“I think [defender] Kennedy Wesley is an incredible talent, and she hasn’t been given the opportunities that she deserves, or given the spotlight that she needs to grow and flourish. Within six to eight months of actually being able to play and train with her, the growth that I’ve seen is remarkable, and I’m just really excited to continue to see to watch her journey. I don’t need to be a part of it the whole time, but I really feel lucky that I am,” Sheridan said.
Look ahead
The club’s decision to prioritize youth and long-term growth over immediate results could either position them as a future powerhouse or leave them struggling to compete in a rapidly evolving league. With the 2025 season on the horizon, attention will be on San Diego to see if their offseason gambles pay off—or if it leaves them adrift in a sea of unfulfilled potential.
For now, the Wave’s future remains a question mark. As the club navigates this pivotal moment, the pressure to deliver will only intensify. The stakes are high, and the margin for error is slim. Will the Wave’s rebuild propel them to new heights, or will it leave them searching for answers in yet another offseason? Only time will tell.
