Courtney Rashelle Wetzel (born February 25, 1989) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. She played for the

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Profess ...

and

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

of the

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

, and the

Ottawa Fury Women Ottawa Fury Women was a Canadian women's soccer team based in Ottawa, Ontario. Founded in 2000, the team was a member of the United Soccer Leagues USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. The team competed i ...

and

Seattle Sounders Women Sound Football Club is an American women's soccer team in the Women's Premier Soccer League. Sound FC play its home games at Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila, Washington, six miles south of downtown Seattle. The team was founded in 2000 as Sea ...

in the W-League.

Early life

Wetzel was born in

Puyallup, Washington Puyallup ( or ) is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States, located about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Tacoma and 35 miles (56 km) south of Seattle. It had a population of 42,973 at the 2020 census. The city's name comes from th ...

and began playing soccer as a young girl. Starting at age eight, she played for club soccer team, FC Royals, a team she won five state championships with. She attended

Puyallup High School Puyallup High School is a high school in the Puyallup School District in Pierce County, Washington, commonly referred to as PHS. History Founded in 1890 as Central High School, the first nine students graduated from the school in 1893. In 1902, ...

where she played on the varsity soccer team for three years. She finished her high school career with 47 goals and 17 assists. As a senior, she was named to the all-state second team after scoring 19 goals. Wetzel also played for the Washington state and Region IV Olympic Development Program (ODP) teams. She won the 2004 national championship title with the Washington state ODP team and was a finalist in 2005.

Oregon State Beavers

Wetzel attended

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

from 2007 to 2010. She ended her collegiate career with 81 caps for the

Beavers Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

and seven goals. She also appeared in two games for the women's basketball team.

Playing career

Club

Wetzel played for the

in 2007 and

in the W-League in 2008 and played for the Fury for four seasons. She was named to the W-League Team of the Week in 2012 after scoring a goal and serving an assist during a shutout win against Hamilton. On April 5, 2013 she joined the

for the

2013 NWSL season The 2013 National Women's Soccer League season was the inaugural season of the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors, Women's Professional Socce ...

as a discovery player. She scored her first goal for the Thorns during a home match on June 7 against

FC Kansas City FC Kansas City was an American professional women's soccer club based in Kansas City, Missouri. The team was one of the eight founding clubs of the National Women's Soccer League in 2012, and began play in 2013. They were two-time NWSL champions ...

. Wetzel made 18 appearances for the Thorns during the 2013 season and helped the team win the league's championship title. On April 5, 2014, Wetzel was traded with

Kathryn Williamson Kathryn Emily Williamson (born August 1, 1989) is a former American soccer defender who played for the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Career College career Williamson was born in McKinney, Texas. She accepte ...

and Portland's first-round pick in the 2015 NWSL College Draft to the

for

Sarah Huffman Sarah Eileen Huffman (born March 5, 1984) is an American former professional women's association football, soccer player who last played for Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League, NWSL. Early life Huffman was born in Danbury, ...

and a player to be named later. April 7, 2014, Portland Thorns revealed that the player to be named later was Verónica Boquete. The draft pick became Jaelene Hinkle. She was waived by the Western New York Flash in September 2014.

International

Wezel was called up to the

United States women's national under-23 soccer team The United States U-23 women's national soccer team is a youth soccer team operated under the auspices of U.S. Soccer. Its primary role is the development of players in preparation for the full Women's National Team. The team competes in a va ...

in 2010.

References

External links

Portland Thorns player profile

Ottawa Fury player profile

Connect World Football profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wetzel, Courtney 1989 births Living people American women's soccer players Seattle Sounders Women players Portland Thorns FC players Soccer players from Washington (state) National Women's Soccer League players Sportspeople from Puyallup, Washington Oregon State Beavers women's basketball players Oregon State Beavers women's soccer players Women's association football midfielders Western New York Flash players Ottawa Fury (women) players USL W-League (1995–2015) players American expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate women's soccer players in Canada