Kelsey Bing is an All-American goalkeeper for the Stanford field hockey team and a member of the US National Team. A three-time America East Goalkeeper of the Year, Bing will be graduating from Stanford this spring. She spoke with Just Women’s Sports about how she became a goalkeeper, what drew her to Stanford, and what comes next amidst the uncertainty surrounding coronavirus and the US National Team, which failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. 

When did you start playing hockey and why did you choose to be a goalkeeper?

I started playing in the seventh grade at the middle school I went to. It had a trimester sport system and you had to play a sport for every season, and the options for fall were field hockey, volleyball and cross country. Cross country didn’t sound all too fun to me and I didn’t really want to be inside. My mom told me field hockey is a lot like soccer, so I tried it out.

I was actually a field player through most of middle school. We had 30 girls on our team, and obviously you’re not going to get a lot of playing time if you have that many kids on the team, but there was a deal with our coach where if you suited up as goalie for half the game, then you didn’t have to come out for the other half. A couple friends and I were like, “I think we might get more playing time if we do it that way.” So we became goalies. But I didn’t really start getting serious about it until when I joined a club team at the end of eighth grade. And then that was when I was like, “Oh, this is actually fun. It’s not just something I’m doing just to get playing time.”

A lot of sports have goalkeepers. What makes field hockey’s unique?

I think it was actually a pretty easy transition from soccer because especially at the basic levels, being a goalkeeper in field hockey is kicking the ball with the inside of your foot. And then the next progression from that is lunging. I was also into fencing for a little while when I was younger, so I was used to the whole equipment getup. Lunging in fencing is also very compatible with field hockey. A lot of the mechanics and the nitty gritty details of being a goalkeeper in field hockey are very different than fencing, but at the time when I first started I was like, “Oh, this was super similar to these things that I’ve done before.”

Goalkeeping in field hockey is still kind of its own world, though. I have to show people pictures of all the equipment I wear, because when I try to describe it, it quickly devolves into a mess. I mean, my mom likes to joke that I look like a transformer when I’m wearing my kit.

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JOHN P. LOZANO/ISI PHOTOS
What do you think makes for a good field hockey goalkeeper? 

I think just being able to be athletic in pads is a huge part of the role. One of the things that helped me the most initially is that I was just willing to give it a go. I didn’t really have any positive field hockey goalkeeping role models to look up to. It was just, “What can I find on YouTube? Okay, I know what’s going on.”

You have to love the game and not be afraid that you’re going to mess up, especially in high school. And then once you get to the higher levels, like in college, goalkeeping becomes incredibly technical. You learn all the nuances and little details of the game, and you start to develop a personal style. I’m pretty analytical. I’m an engineer at Stanford, I major in mechanical engineering. So I’m pretty used to diving back into what I’m doing and digesting every little individual piece moving forward. It’s something that I feel is built inside of me, which I’ve always done for better or for worse. But I think to succeed, you have to be a student of the game. You need to know what’s happening at every position on the field.

How did you end up at Stanford and why did you choose to play there?

Academics has always been incredibly important to me. I love playing field hockey, but I also know my education is very important. A lot of it just boiled down to Stanford being one of the best academic institutions in the entire world. I felt fortunate that I even had the ability to go there. The athletic complexes are also just crazy. And then finally, I wanted to go into engineering. So that limited some of the schools in which I could look at specifically, but I don’t think it was a bad thing. Every day I’m so grateful that I was even afforded the chance to go to Stanford.

You were the starting goalkeeper your freshman year. How did you handle that pressure and how were you so successful at the position? 

Where I really got lucky was that a coach saw potential in me as a junior in high school and put me on the under 21 junior national team. It makes sense now, but at the time, I was like, “I’m just this goalie from Texas, what the heck?” But being on the under 21 team as a junior in high school, I had two years to play with some of the best freshmen, sophomores and juniors in college. So I had this ability to acclimate to the game a little bit earlier before most of my class, which was definitely nice.

Goalkeeping is pretty mental. You can psych yourself out in a million different ways. Like being a student at Stanford, there’s definitely duck syndrome, where you’re like, “Yeah, I’m just going to keep moving along. I don’t really know if I belong here, but I hope I do.” And so maybe I wasn’t the most comfortable freshman but I was afforded the chance to make mistakes and learn from them which was very generous of the coaches. I was able to build confidence because they trusted me.

You won the National-Scholar Athlete award for the 2019 season, which goes to the All-American who earns the highest GPA through the first semester of the year. Can you talk about what that meant to you?

I was pretty excited to win the award. It meant a lot to me because I think sometimes people get into their heads that, “If you’re an athlete, that’s the only thing you can do.” And so to see that somebody can be high achieving in both academics and athletics is important to me. It’s also nice because it’s somebody recognizing that yeah, I’m putting hard work in on the field but also in the classroom. Not that that needs to be noticed, but it always feels nice when somebody tells you like, “Hey, you’ve done a really good job here.” My parents think it’s the best thing in the world. They’re so excited about it. My mom’s like, “This is the best thing you’ve ever won.”

When did you start playing for team USA? 

I spent four years on that under 21 team, from my junior year of high school through my sophomore year of college. And then that October, Janneke Schopman, who was the coach at the time, called me in and asked if I would be able to take some of my junior year off to train for the Olympic qualifiers. And so that’s how I got moved up which was pretty cool. I took off winter quarter to train and play in the pro league, which is where the US and eight other countries play home and away games in every country, which, for me, was the coolest thing ever. I was so excited to get to travel and just get to see the hockey cultures of every place we were going to.

You’re graduating from Stanford this spring. What’s next for you?

For the time being, I’m just training as if we’re in the off season. I’m just running outside the front of my house and doing all these weird body weight workouts because I have to go outside to workout. All my neighbors, they’re like, “Oh, what are you training for?” They don’t really get it. In an ideal world, I would be able to find something where I could do both field hockey and an engineering job. Because as I’ve said, I do care a lot about my professional development. I would love to keep training with the national team. I hope that’s still in the books, but it’s so uncertain now.

My dream professionally would be to do something with autonomous vehicles or autonomous aircraft. My depth in mechanical engineering is in dynamics and controls, so it has a lot to do with autonomous systems. Right now, there’s just so much up in the air with USA Field Hockey because we’re in the midst of a location transition and everything. I’m hoping that once I have a little bit more information to work with, I could find something that was feasible, but maybe it’s going to be applying to grad school. Because I know a lot of the girls on the team are able to manage school and play.

Not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics was devastating. That was really just a low of my career in field hockey. I definitely feel like I have something there to prove like, “Hey, this isn’t the standard. The US field hockey team belongs in the Olympics.” I would love to be a part of that. And I think one of the things that draws me back to field hockey is that I feel I have so much more to learn and develop and grow and I can always come back to my professional career. In 30 years if I decide I want to become a field hockey player again, my body is not going to let me. My time to do it is now.

9,415.

On August 18th, 2019, Sky Blue FC hosted Reign FC in what will go down in history as the first of many home games at their new stadium, Red Bull Arena. A record-shattering crowd packed the stands on this summer afternoon, and their presence during pre-game made it feel like a win far before the first whistle was even blown.

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A team that spent 90% of their previous home games at a field that didn’t have showers, held only around 5000 people, and lacked any connection to public transportation, was finally playing in a stadium that could offer the world-class soccer experience that they very much deserved.

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The match was tight. A playoff-intensity vibe of 9000+ screaming fans carried throughout the entire duration of play. And in the 36th minute, all that raw emotion erupted when rookie Kenie Wright put a perfectly placed ball into the box for Elizabeth Eddy, who finished with a clever touch over the outstretched reach of opposing goalie, Casey Murphy.

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This goal was much more than just a number on a scoreboard. It was the start of a new era, a sign that the future of this team was changing for the better. And despite Reign FC’s quick response — a goal punched in by Jodie Taylor just 2 minutes later — in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter. The game ended in a 1–1 draw, but the fact that this game was even played is a win for the future of the sport.

Sky Blue’s new stadium is a monumental step in the right direction — one that should have come much earlier. However, things are finally trending upwards for this club. And when the 2020 NWSL season resumes, they will finally have a place to call home.

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It is no secret that the WNBA draft is top heavy. Due to the staying power of many of the league’s stars, new spots are hard to find, and they are typically filled with highly-touted first round prospects.

With 12 teams and 12 roster spots apiece, there are just 144 spaces open. Between injuries and other transactions, that number can grow a bit in any given year. In 2019, for example, 157 different players saw the court.

Only the best of the college game and international prospects are able to last.

In 2019, eight third round draft picks played a total of 1,537 minutes, or 1.9% of all player minutes for the season. For comparison, 11 first overall picks played a total of 7,552 minutes. That figure does not include Angel McCoughtry, Breanna Stewart, or Sue Bird, all former first overall selections whose injuries kept them off the court (or Maya Moore, who skipped the season to focus on freeing a prisoner she believes was wrongfully convicted).

Even among second round picks, there were only 37 active players in 2019, for just 17.7% of the league’s total minutes. To say the least, in the WNBA, draft steals are few and far between.

To honor those who beat the odds, I’ve gone back over the past five draft classes to find the best hidden gem from each.

First, some ground rules. A “steal” was defined as a draft pick in the later two rounds who vastly exceeded outside expectations, or, where necessary, a first round pick who has done the same. Extra credit was awarded to contributions to championship-caliber teams.

2015: NATASHA CLOUD

Two All-Stars have come out of the 2015 draft class, the first overall pick Jewell Lloyd and fourth pick Elizabeth Williams. The steal of the draft, however, was Natasha Cloud, taken 15th overall by the Washington Mystics.

Before trading for Elena Delle Donne, the Mystics had historically built through the draft. The longest tenured player, Emma Meesseman, was the 19th pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft. In this, Cloud fits right in. The 5-foot-9 guard was the first player from St. Joseph’s to make a regular season lineup for a WNBA team since Susan Moran in 2002.

During the Mystics 2019 title run, Cloud averaged nine points, 5.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds as the starting point guard. Against New York on June 7, she poured in a career-best 26 points. In the playoffs, she turned it up and improved both her field goal shooting and 3-point shooting by five points to 44.2% and 37.8%, respectively. She also upped her scoring to 13.1 points per game and assists to 6.1 per game during the championship run. Consistently, her playoff numbers exceed those from the regular season.

Five seasons and 150 games later, Cloud’s 6.2 win shares are tied for fourth in her class. In 2019, she set the Mystics single-season assist record with 194. She was also awarded the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award.

2016: TEMI FAGBENLE

It is difficult to imagine a draft being more top heavy than Breanna Stewart as the first overall pick. That was the situation in 2016, when Stewart and then two other UConn teammates were picked one after another.

While no one drafted outside of the top 10 has played four seasons, Temi Fagbenle has put together three consecutive strong seasons. The eleventh pick of the third round by the Minnesota Lynx, Fagbenle decided to take a year off from basketball to finish up her master’s degree at USC after coming over as a graduate transfer from Harvard.

“Then and now, I knew it was the best decision for me,” she said while fighting for a spot at the Lynx preseason camp. “Basketball has a shelf life and I thought if I can finish my education right now, just take a year off and that’s just a short period of time in the grand scheme of things. I got it done and continued to play basketball and that was great. I’m able to do this now, so hopefully I can make the most out of this situation.”

So far, Fagbenle has. As a 24 year old rookie, she not only made the roster, but won a championship in her first season. In total, she has played in 69 regular season games, averaging 9.3 minutes, 3.1 points and 1.9 rebounds while shooting 51.1% from the field.

2017: BRITTNEY SYKES

The 2017 draft in New York City was a tough one. Just 11 players from the draft were active two years later in 2019. Only one player drafted after the first round made it to year three, Indiana Fever’s Erica McCall, selected 17th overall from Stanford. No one has become an All-Star.

Still, Brittney Sykes surprised a lot of people. Not even invited to the draft, many thought that she would be the second player taken from Syracuse after Alexis Peterson. Instead, the Atlanta Dream took Sykes seventh overall, making her the highest drafted player from Syracuse ever. Soon after, she was the Rookie of the Month in July.

At 11.3 points per game in her career, she has been the leading scorer in her class, even ahead of Kelsey Plum, the NCAA all-time leading scorer taken first overall. She also shares the WNBA record for most points in a quarter — 22 — with Diana Taurasi, who set the initial record in 2006. Russell scored 22 in the third quarter against Phoenix on July 7, 2019.

In the off-season, Sykes came over to the Los Angeles Sparks, where she has a shot at the starting small forward position according to head coach Derek Fisher. For her career, she has started in 57 of 97 regular season games, including the final 24 games of the 2019 season, as well as all five postseason games with Atlanta in 2018.

2018: MERCEDES RUSSELL

Mercedes Russell was the tenth pick of the second round by the New York Liberty, and the 22nd overall selection. In 2019, Russell’s 1.3 defensive win shares were 22nd in the entire league. The path there was a little less than linear.

In just two regular season games with the Liberty in 2018, Russell averaged 2.5 points and 1.5 rebounds in 16.2 minutes. Then she was cut and signed by the Seattle Storm. During the 2018 championship season, she was a relative afterthought, averaging 4.6 minutes, 1.6 points and 1.4 rebounds off the bench.

That changed in 2019, when the injury bug bit the Storm hard. Russell appeared in all 34 regular season games and started 30. In 25.6 minutes per contest, Russell contributed 7.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while shooting 51.7% from the field. Those numbers put Russell in the top 50 in the entire league in player efficiency rating.

On June 14, she notched her first career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds at Washington and then on July 3 scored a career-high 19 against New York. Seattle lasted just two games in the 2019 playoffs, but Russell started both and averaged 11.5 points and 8.5 rebounds shooting 76.9% from the field.

The 6-foot-6 center from Tennessee had her NCAA title aspirations cut short, but soon after became a WNBA champion. In a class with three All-Stars, Russell was the biggest steal.

2019: NATISHA HIEDEMAN

There has been just one season during which to evaluate the 2019 class, but early signs point to Natisha Hiedeman as the steal of the draft. The sixth pick of the second round by the Minnesota Lynx, Hiedeman became the first Marquette women’s basketball player to earn an in-season contract in the WNBA. But it wasn’t with the Lynx.

The Lynx had already secured Napheesa Collier from UConn, who won Rookie of the Year and was named an All-Star, and Notre Dame’s Jessica Shepard by the time Hiedeman was selected. So the Lynx traded Hiedeman’s draft rights to the Connecticut Sun. With nine returning players from 2018, and Bria Holmes returning from pregnancy, spots were limited. The Sun’s own draft picks, Kristine Anigwe at nine and Bridget Carleton at 21, made the roster ahead of Hiedeman, who was the team’s last cut.

From there, Hiedeman signed with the Atlanta Dream as a EuroBasket replacement for Alex Bentley. By the time Bentley returned, Hiedeman had yet to make an appearance, and was once again waived to make space. Without a team once again, the Sun called her back after Layshia Clarendon suffered a season-ending ankle injury.

“I’d just been back and forth, back and forth,” Hiedeman said. “But, being cut actually helped me a lot because it just helped me accept failure and want to work harder to get to where I want to be.”

Debuting in the second quarter of a game against the Dream, Hiedeman scored 10 points before halftime to re-introduce herself to her team.

On the season, Hiedeman appeared in 20 regular season games, collecting 3.7 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game for a team that reached the WNBA Finals. Her player efficiency rating was fourth-highest in her draft class and 45th-best in the league, and the 1.9 win shares per 48 minutes is sixth in the class. 45th-best PER.

In seven games in the WNBA Playoffs, Hiedeman shot a combined 60% from the field, 66.7% from beyond the arc and 100% from the line. Twice in the playoffs she scored eight points in nine minutes, first against Los Angeles in the semifinals and later in the fourth game of the WNBA Finals.

2020: ALMOST CERTAIN TO SURPRISE

Teams had to trim their rosters this week to get under the salary cap. That meant a lot of rookie players were cut without ever getting a chance to train in front of their coaches. Once again, the WNBA is proving to be one of the toughest professional leagues to crack.
Still, as the players above show, there’s always hidden gems. And while it might take a few years to determine who will be the steal of this year’s draft, don’t be surprised if it’s someone you never saw coming.

Carson Pickett is a defender for the Orlando Pride of the NWSL and the Brisbane Roar of the W-League. A graduate of Florida State, she helped lead the Seminoles to their first ever NCAA Championship in 2014. Below, she spoke to Just Women’s Sports about her life and career as a professional athlete who was born without a left forearm and hand, how her mindset has changed over the years, and what Orlando needs to do to rebound from its disappointing past season. 

I’ve read articles that label you as disabled, but I have played with you and against you, and disabled feels off. What is the terminology you prefer? 

I would say limb different because that’s what I advocate for. It’s not just arms, it’s legs and other body parts. I don’t like saying I’m advocating for disabilities in general because that can mean so many different things, and I don’t want people to think I’m advocating for something that I’m not.

You were born limb different and that limited some of the sports you could play as a child. How did you begin playing soccer and what was that experience like as a kid? 

My parents were both great athletes. My dad played college soccer and had the opportunity to play professionally. My mom played college basketball. I definitely grew up in a family of athletes. Many people talk about how athletes often challenge themselves more and push themselves more. I think that was true for my parents in that they’ve always pushed themselves. So, when they had a child who might have needed to be pushed a little harder because they weren’t sure if she was going to sink or swim, their mentality was, “We’re going to challenge her.”

Growing up, I played a lot of sports. My parents never wanted me to feel different compared to everyone else. I think nowadays, with so much social media, a lot of families want their kids to be surrounded by people who are different from them so that they can learn from them. It’s two ways of thinking and neither of them is right or wrong, or better or worse. For us, my parents chose to go with the idea that I’m not any different than anyone else, and I can do anything that anyone with two hands can do.

At a certain point, I realized that I liked team sports better than individual sports — I liked the camaraderie. I honestly chose soccer because my friend group was the strongest in that sport. And when you’re younger, that’s most important. I’m also super close with both of my parents, so being able to train with my dad was fun for me. I think training with him is what drew me closer to soccer — it bonded the two of us.

Did people treat you differently on the field then? And do you think it affects your play at all? 

When I was 12, I got called for an illegal throw-in and that mortified me. It wasn’t a club game and it’s not that serious at 12, but a referee said that it was an illegal throw-in. Ever since then, I’ve been mortified to pick up a ball and throw it in. Sydney Leroux has been begging me to do it. She says, “It could be such a big breakthrough. If they let you do it, then you’ve just done a throw-in. If they don’t, we will go to the ref and it will become a massive issue because you can still do it.” I’ve been waiting to do it, but I’m so nervous. I know that it could be a big breakthrough and even push people with limb differences to do things out of their comfort zone.

In terms of if I think it affects me: honestly, no. Even during certain drills in practice, I never think: “Oh, here we go. You have to be physical, so I’m going to struggle.” Naturally, we all have weaknesses. It’s not that my weakness is my arm, but pushing people off the ball when they’re going towards my left side is obviously a lot harder. I can’t wrap my hand around and hold people off as much. It’s something that I’m aware of, but it’s definitely not a weakness or a struggle that I’m nervous about.

For college, did you know you wanted to stay in Florida? 

No, actually. When I went on trips to different universities and colleges, I really fell in love with the University of Texas. I loved the team there and the coach was awesome. I never thought about it as being too far from home. But when I visited Florida State, I fell in love with the feeling of being on campus. That’s what I tell so many young girls now: “It’s hard to explain which college is right for you. Sometimes you just step on campus and feel at home.”

My family definitely had an influence on my final decision, though. My grandparents and parents have always supported me and they come to every one of my games. I’m an only child, so it was easier for them to see me at FSU. I knew that I didn’t want them to have to get on a plane to visit or only see me play twice a year. I wanted them there all the time.

How do you think your mindset has changed over the years in terms of how you process all of the attention your limb difference receives? 

In college, I remember when reporters would come to the ACC tournaments. Everyone wanted to be reported on because it showed that you were a good player. But I remember that every single time that a reporter would talk to me or interview me, it always had to do with my arm. I would complain to my parents all the time, saying, “I just want to be known as a good soccer player. I don’t want to be known as someone with one arm who’s also a soccer player.” The reporters weren’t doing anything wrong — they just didn’t realize that I wanted to be more than the Florida State player who has one arm.

Fast forward to the pros, and the picture of me and the two-year old fan comes out. Seeing how many people I could reach completely changed my mindset. When I was in college, I just wanted to be a soccer player. I remember being on campus in the summer, in the dead heat in Florida, and wearing a hoodie the first couple of weeks. I would make excuses to not show my arm. Those times were tough for me because I had to make a decision of do I want to stand out? Are people going to stare? Does it matter to me?

Now, I’m more mature and I realize that when people stare at me it may be because they’ve never seen something like it before. Now, I want them to ask me what happened because then I can educate more people about limb difference. It’s not that I want to stand out, but I want to help people who are like me. And I know I’m also reaching people who have both of their hands, but who may be struggling with other problems. Everyone has their own story, everyone is different, everyone has gone through struggles and has weaknesses. It’s how you use that story and those weaknesses and the struggle to best help people in the world. Now that I’m able to reach so many diverse groups, it’s really become more of a blessing.

Have you had to make adjustments in terms of workouts or lifting? 

I didn’t lift much in high school. It wasn’t until college that I learned lifting could actually help you. Since I had never lifted before, I would go into the gym with my strength coach at Florida State and he would say, “Show me a way you can squat” and I would just figure it out. I think him pushing me to get in there and figure out a way to lift was really helpful. He could have just excused me from lifting, but I think being put in uncomfortable situations and being pushed to figure it out was best for me.

You’re in your fifth NWSL season and your third year playing year-round. How has your experience been playing year-round with half of the year being in Australia? 

After my rookie year in Seattle, I decided I wanted to go home and train and be with my family. Being with my family was amazing, but I realized that it’s really hard to make yourself work out every single day, no matter how mentally strong you think you are. Especially, when you are training for a season that is four months away. It’s tough. Luckily, my agent asked me if I was interested in playing overseas and, after that first off-season, I was ready to go.

I wanted to go to Australia to be pushed out of my comfort zone and meet new people in a new environment. Obviously, I was nervous because I was going to another country and I did not know a single person. Usually, in soccer, you always know somebody. It was scary at first, but I could tell that I was growing as a person. Physically, there are times when I come back, after such a long NWSL season, and my body hurts. But I choose to do that and I know that sometimes it’s going to hurt. I am mentally happier training and playing on a team than being by myself. Obviously, it’s tough playing year-round, but I couldn’t do anything else at this point. I love it.

Do you have any plans for after you end your soccer career?

I have a few different things I want to do. Some days, I want to go get my master’s degree and maybe be a college coach. Other days I want to be an athletic advisor who helps freshmen with the transition to college. On top of that, my parents have pushed me to go into public speaking. I’m developing my story now. I have everything written down, but I just have to find the right words. I need to figure out what my storyline would be and what the point of my presentation would be. I’m working through that now and trying to talk to a lot of public speakers who have done this before.

There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the season, but regardless, I have to ask, how does Orlando break what’s become a kind of curse? What’s going on? 

Oh, man. I know. I just think last year, and the year before wasn’t good enough. We struggled with cohesiveness — with players in and out due to the World Cup and medical reasons — but it was no excuse, it just wasn’t clicking. And that’s not blaming any certain people. I just think that because we struggled early in the year and dug ourselves a hole, our mentality faltered later in the season, when it should have been every time we stepped on the field, “we’re winning this game and not losing again.” I’m not saying that we went out there and were like, “Oh, well, we’re going to lose today. Who cares?” It was never like that. We worked our butts off, even in training. We worked probably even harder, but it just wasn’t clicking.

Whatever the reason was, we have a second year coach and a chance to make it right this year. Everyone seems to have the right attitude about it. This year, hopefully, is the year. We have a lot of veterans coming back, a lot of people who played at a really high level, so I’m hoping that this is the year that Orlando is not at the bottom of the table and that we can even make the playoffs and things like that. Right now it’s hard to say just because we’ve haven’t trained together as a team. But neither has anyone else. It’s really hard to say how we’re going to look, but I’m hoping we’re going to look great and we’re going to be making the playoffs this year.

Anson Dorrance is one of the most decorated coaches in the history of sports. Under his direction, the University of North Carolina has won 21 of the 31 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championships. Dorrance has been named the NCAA coach of the year seven times, and as coach of the USWNT, he won the first Women’s World Cup in 1991. Below, he spoke with Just Women’s Sports about coaching during a pandemic, why his experience with the national team prepared him for this, and his ongoing efforts to facilitate competitiveness in women’s sports. 

You’ve coached for a long time. Have you ever experienced anything like what is currently happening due to COVID-19? Is there any parallel you can draw or is this completely unprecedented? 

Actually, there is a parallel. This experience is similar to the way we had to develop our 1991 World Cup team back in the mid ’80s when I was hired to coach the US women’s national team. We had never won a game in an international competition. Five years later, we were world champions. What people don’t understand about that World Cup is how it was done. It was done through the teeth of the Scandinavian teams and the Italians who had a much larger investment in their women’s soccer program than we had ever had, and obviously a lot more experience.

If you look at teams in the 1991 World Cup — the Norwegians, the Swedes, and to some extent the Danes and the Italians — their rosters were filled with players who had accumulated caps, and they had large investments from their countries. Since we didn’t have any money from our soccer federation and the girls weren’t playing on any professional teams, it was hard for us to get together to train. Instead, we had to train on our own, just like players are having to train on their own now. I had to pick players to play on the national team who were self-disciplined enough that they could train themselves and come into camp fit. They also had to buy into the way we were going to try to win.

I do not have the life or death pandemic experience under my belt, but I have had experience with having players train on their own. I’m using that to talk to our college kids now. I’m saying: come back as a better player, come back fitter, come back with a more powerful strike from playing against a wall, come back a better 1V1 player from playing your brother, sister, mom, dad or your dog. We meet with the team every Monday at 2:30pm on a Zoom call. We excite everyone about getting better and better. We’re not kicking back, relaxing, eating Bon-Bons. No, we’re trying to get better.

How did you develop a coaching strategy for that 1991 World Cup given the limited investment and lack of opportunities to play together? Was it difficult to get players to play cohesively as a team with such limited training time? 

Since we didn’t have a lot of training camps and since the players weren’t coming from sophisticated teams, we decided the way we were going to win was by out-dueling every team in the world. By out-dueling, I mean that our philosophy was built on a platform of 1V1. Wherever our girls lived, they could always find at least one quality partner to train with. A lot of girls just trained with the boys they were dating.

The most famous story was Carin Jennings. She was dating Jim Gabarra. Jim was the captain of the US Futsal National Team, so he was one hell of a male player. Carin’s training platform of playing 1V1 against him every day was extraordinary for her because there’s no better example of getting to your potential in women’s soccer than playing with and against boys.

During the first camp I ever ran, I said, “Everyone come in fit. If you’re not fit, I’m sending you home.” The girls got there on a Sunday. Monday morning was our first training session and we had a fitness test. One of the girls failed, so I had her gather up all of her equipment that was there at the practice. She jumped in a van with one of the managers. The manager drove her back to the hotel where she packed her stuff and then he drove her to the airport and he sent her home.

That was wonderful, but the second thing that was wonderful was that we didn’t tell the players whether the test was going to be a fitness test or a 1V1 tournament. As a result, if they wanted to do well in the competitive cauldron, they had to prepare for both.

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DORRANCE WITH HIS TEAM IN 1994 (DAVID MADISON/GETTY IMAGES)
Depending on where they live, some players may not want to risk going outside and potentially contracting the virus and bringing it to their families. Do you have concerns about that and any other limitations affecting the individual athletes? 

Well, yes. It’s hard to find a field to train on because even our university fields are closed. Our governor in North Carolina is liberal, which means he believes in the stay-at-home orders. The Republican governors believe in opening up the economy. The specific state players are in dictates whether or not they can gather in groups to train or not.

There are training pockets for players. Some girls hang out together, some still live on campus together. I want my players to go after it and to keep working hard while trying to stay safe by following the dictates of the governors. Regardless of their state’s limitations, players can always find a 1V1 partner. It can be their dad or their mom. If both of them suck, play them both — play 1V2. Almost every player has a brother or a sister who they can train against.

How much of that training are you dictating for them? Are you guys putting together training packets or are you just encouraging them to do it on their own?

We have what we call the Champion’s Almanac, which is something we put together a long time ago that outlines different workouts every day. It’s a combination of strength training, aerobic fitness training and ball mastery development.

We also encourage 1V1 platforms which can be hard because girls hate to compete against each other 1V1. They have no issue playing their boyfriend or their mom or their brother, but making them play against a friend or a teammate 1V1 is horrible. Who knows whether this is a genetic quality or a social quality where the girls are trained not to have this sort of direct confrontation. But we encourage it.

This is something you’ve been vocal about throughout your career, that we need to encourage more aggressiveness and competition in women’s soccer. Mia Hamm said you made it ok for her to want to be the best when she arrived at UNC. Can you talk more about why you think this hesitation still exists and what its impact is on women’s sports? 

I talk about this in my camps all the time. I talk about how easy it is for men to have direct confrontation. Why? Because we understand hierarchy. We understand the fight to be the alpha. We’re accustomed to competing. If there’s a man shooting hoops on a basketball court and another man shows up, within minutes one guy turns to the other and says, “Hey, do you want to play?” I know what that means. It means let’s find out who the alpha is. Girls don’t do that.

Girls play turn-taking games like HORSE where first, I shoot and you don’t interfere with me, and then you shoot and I don’t interfere with you. Girls don’t have any trouble with that because all of the games they grew up playing were non-confrontational games. You go back to my generation. What did my generation of girls play? They played Jacks. Jacks is a game where basically I don’t interfere with you and you don’t interfere with me but we’re still, in a way, competing with each other.

We have to eradicate this dislike for direct confrontation if we want to lead women’s soccer playing culture. Our girls need to embrace 1V1 and not be afraid of it. I made sure that these ideas were part of the national team culture when I coached and now I try to implement them in the Tar Heel culture.

That’s the way the US won the first Women’s World Cup. We did it by being fitter than everyone else. We did it by playing extraordinary 1V1 soccer and we did it by pressing for 90 minutes. Not the classic modern press where you drop back to a line of confrontation half way between the 18 and the tangent on the center circle. No, no, no. We pressed if the ball was near their corner flag. We were all over them. We didn’t back off for one second. Those are the elements that delivered that World Championship to us.

Sarah Thomas is boxer from Bethpage, New York, fighting out of Academy of Boxing in Huntington, New York. She began her combat career as a kickboxer, with an undefeated record. During her amateur career, she won the Ringmasters (formally Golden Gloves) tournament. Her professional boxing debut was delayed due to COVID-19. As a sports science graduate student who also trains younger boxers, she’s managed to keep busy in the meantime, even as much of her day-to-day has shifted online. Below, she spoke with Just Women’s Sports about how she discovered boxing, the importance of mental health, and what it’s like competing in a male-dominated sport.

What originally led you to boxing as a sport? 

I’ve always been more aggressive in sports. I actually played lacrosse in high school, but I would get kicked out of every game. I didn’t really actually know how to play lacrosse, to be honest, but I was just athletic, so my friends were like, “Yeah, join.” I just got in trouble every single game, because I was just charging directly at people. I was just the worst lacrosse player ever. And then I liked the idea that boxing was an individual sport. In an individual sport like boxing, I couldn’t blame anyone else. I liked that a lot.

I didn’t actually start until I was 20 though, and I’m 30 now. I first competed in kickboxing, but then my coach left. He told me he was in the FBI and that he was getting re-stationed. I didn’t even know he was in the FBI. So after he disappeared, I went to another gym, and I was dabbling with MMA for a little, but I realized I liked the boxing aspect the most out of all of it, so I decided to just stick with boxing. I like kickboxing, but I don’t actually like getting kicked. With boxing, I can focus on one thing, and I like practicing the same thing over and over, which I feel like a lot of people don’t like. I like the idea of, “I’m going to do the same thing a thousand times so I get good at it.”

How did you first realize you had a talent for combat sports? 

I took kickboxing just to try it out and as a workout. I went to the gym, took one class, and was like “All right, I really want to fight.” The coach wouldn’t train me because he had never trained a girl, like all those movies, and then finally he decided he would.

20 seems late. At what age do women usually start their professional careers?

Usually it seems that women start later in life. Really, you can turn professional whenever you feel ready, but the licensing to become a pro varies by state. So you just have to be able to pass the medicals and everything, and then you have to find a promoter who wants you. You have to find someone who likes you, and as a woman, you just have to be marketable. I have noticed that with women’s combat sports, what you look like goes a long way, as sad as that is. It’s like you either have to look good or just be so good that you’re almost some freak.

I wanted to ask you, what is it like being a female in what many would consider to be a male-dominated sport? 

I feel like it was harder in the beginning of all of it, and now there’s a lot more girls than there were before. I feel like every year continuously gets easier and there’s more acceptance. At first, it was really hard for me to find fights. I couldn’t just turn professional without having enough experience. But then the people who were amateur, they were few and far between, and they wouldn’t compete against me. I couldn’t gain experience to get better because I couldn’t really get matched up, so it was hard in the beginning with that.

With boxing, actually, in the ’90s it was really popular for women. That was during the time of Laila Ali. And even before then, it was popular for a little while, and then it fell off. It resurged again recently because it was allowed to be in the 2012 Olympics.

How would you describe the popularity of the sport now?

I think Ronda Rousey, even though she’s MMA, really helped make women’s combat sports more popular. And then also Claressa Shields won the Olympic gold in 2012 when women were allowed in the Olympics, and she won it in 2016. I think she brought the popularity back, and there’s been a few other girls who have made women’s boxing popular again. Now women are actually getting paid. I was actually going to have my professional debut on May 8th, but that didn’t happen because of COVID.

Do you have Olympic aspirations?

I had thought about it at one point, but the weight class I was competing at wasn’t in the Olympics. I sort of just wanted to go pro because I had kickboxed for a while, and when I made the decision to just focus on boxing, I had enough combat sport experience where I wanted to just be a professional rather than spend a lot of time as an amateur. And once you’re professional, you can’t compete in the Olympics.

Can you talk a little bit about how you manage to stay in shape, stay healthy and stay motivated while participating in such a punishing sport?

There used to be times when I would do three-a-days, which is so stupid, but I thought that more was better. I actually train less now, and I feel stronger now than I did, which is weird. I think I was over-trained for a long, long time. So now that I’m older and I train less and eat whatever I want, I actually feel stronger. I actually eat pretty clean, but I don’t count with macros and I don’t count calories or any of that. I honestly just eat whenever I feel like I want to. So if my body is like, “All right, I’m hungry,” I’ll eat. And I don’t do it according to a science or anything, I just try to stay healthy.

I’m sure there’s going to be a point where I feel like I’m getting weaker than I was, and I guess that’s when I’ll know that I’m on the downswing, but I feel like I’m still getting stronger, so for now I’m good. And I notice that with women in fight sports, it seems like a lot of them are older. There’s some girls that are still pros that are in their forties. It’s kind of crazy. I think it’s one of those sports where you can be older as a female.

How important is mental health to you in boxing? 

I’ve had anxiety and OCD since I was really little. The first time I ever noticed that I had OCD, I was eight. It’s a really weird thing to understand. I don’t know how to describe it, but basically it’s like an extreme form of anxiety where you feel like you have to do certain rituals to overcome bad things. Your brain tries to cope with the anxiety through some sort of action, and then you can also have thoughts and the thoughts can keep you up. It’s basically anxiety on steroids, and yeah, I’ve dealt with that since I was little. I always felt from a young age the only time I wouldn’t really notice a symptom of that would be when I was playing sports. So when I played soccer I would never notice that, because I’d be so in the moment that I wouldn’t be able to worry about anything else besides that moment, and boxing’s very much like that. Your head really can’t be anywhere else, because you’re so worried about defending yourself and throwing punches that you’re not thinking about whether you paid your credit card bill or something that gives you anxiety. It’s helped a lot. Honestly, it’s like my version of a drug. If I hadn’t found sports, I don’t really know where I would be. It helps me tremendously in coping with my anxiety. And I’m very open to talk about all of that, because anytime I say, “I have anxiety,” almost everyone that I say it to is like, “Me too.”

I imagine a lot of athletes view sports in a similar way. I have to ask, have you ever had any terrible injuries from boxing?

So in kickboxing, I actually broke my foot, but I didn’t know I broke my foot until after because of the adrenaline. I thought I broke my toe, and then after my fights I saw that my bone was sticking through my skin. I had to have surgery, because that kind of break doesn’t just heal on its own. And then I’ve broken my nose, but it wasn’t from getting hit. A girl accidentally headbutted me. That was not fun. And then besides that, surprisingly, not really.

I’ll have minor things, like maybe my wrist will hurt for a week and I’ll just rest it, or my knees would hurt for a week from running a lot, but then I just rest them. Nothing serious. I’m sure if I got an MRI of my entire body it wouldn’t be pretty though. I have disc issues too. I feel like that is from ten years of combat sports, but I don’t know. Nothing that gives me a lot of pain or anything.

Speaking more generally, how do you recover from a typical fight? 

I stopped doing this, but what I used to do is I would cut too much weight, and then I would compete, and then after the competition I would eat everything in sight and just drink lots of Gatorade and lay in my bed for two days and that was it. I mean, I’ve never really had any crazy recovery, but I actually changed weight classes because one time, two fights ago, I cut too much weight and I had to get IV fluid after, and then that’s when I finally was like, “All right, I’m getting older. My body’s not going to allow me to continuously drop this weight, so I’m just going to move up in weight and feel better and not have to worry about weight cutting anymore.”

Do you have any favorite memories or fights from your career that stand out?

I won Golden Gloves, which was fun. I think that was my favorite. I actually got no sleep the night before, and I had just broken up with this guy I was dating, and it was a really crappy time in my life. But I was just like, “Screw this, I’m winning.” And I won the whole tournament, and did it on no sleep. I felt like it was all in my brain mentally because I wasn’t even able to train the way I wanted to, but I just convinced myself that I was going to win, and it gave me confidence.

Looking ahead, what do you see for yourself in terms of moving forward in your professional career? Do you see yourself competing for a long time?

Honestly, I can’t really pick an end date, but I feel like I would just do it until I felt like my body wasn’t right. If I ever took like a head injury, I would leave too. I’ve never been knocked out or anything, and I think that’s something that would stop me. Because I don’t want to have brain damage.

David Copeland-Smith is a professional soccer trainer and the founder of Beast Mode Soccer. He has worked with the likes of Alex Morgan, Rachel Daly, Ali Riley, and countless elite prospects over the years. Below, he talks to Just Women’s Sports about the NWSL’s return, Alex Morgan’s post-pregnancy regimen, and the USWNT’s equal pay case.

What is your opinion on the NWSL’s plan to hold a month-long tournament in Utah in June? 

I am really hoping the tournament goes ahead. The league has a prime opportunity right now to get eyes on the product. There are barely any sports on TV. This could be an opportunity for players to brand themselves and get brand deals. If the league can pull this off and do it right, people will watch. And maybe only 20% of those people will continue watching when everything is back to normal, but that’s 20% that we didn’t have before.

They have to execute it right, though. Communism looks great on paper but we’ve never executed it right. Maybe it’s the marketing side of me coming out, but I see this as an opportunity for players who may never have this opportunity again. We’ll see what happens. I’m buzzing for it, though.

Who’s your pick to win it all? 

Houston always does well the first six games of the season, so they could win it.

You work with Alex Morgan, who just gave birth. Is there a return-to-play protocol after having a child? And, more generally, how do you design your training around women? 

For me, especially, all of our training is designed for the specific player. Alex has just given birth to Charlie, who already looks like a legend. For Alex, a lot of it will depend on listening to her doctors and her physical therapist. From my point of view, Alex has her fitness on lock so the focus would be on getting her sharp. The Olympics were meant to be the focus, but now there’s no rush. I said to her when she became pregnant, “Take your time. You’ve given soccer enough, it can wait for you as long as it needs to wait.”

That’s hard for athletes to hear, though. Especially someone who’s as hungry as she is. I’m excited for her because I genuinely think she could come back better — I think she’s going to be sharper. And now that she has a kid, I’d imagine it gives her extra momentum.

You also train a lot of other players on the US women’s national team. What is your reaction to the equal pay lawsuit they have filed against US Soccer?  

First of all, I think it should have been handled a long time ago. Unfortunately, ego gets in the way and it becomes a winning and losing game instead of people just doing the right thing. When you look at the stats and the money involved — they should be paid what they earned. That’s all that they want. These women have just won two World Cups in a row. If we can’t put them on a pedestal and give them what they’ve earned, then what kind of message is that sending? It’s ridiculous from my point of view because I see all of the work that goes into winning — all of the heartache of getting cut and then working your way back onto the team.

It is tough because there seems to be so much bad blood on both sides, especially on social media. US Soccer has made a lot of mistakes, but no one ever praises them when they do something well either. I still think they could have handled this better. Hopefully they’ll handle it better from this point on.

US Soccer has argued that the players’ legal claims are invalid given the collective bargaining agreement both sides signed in 2017. What’s your take on that point in particular? 

Contract renegotiations happen everyday. The CBA was signed but surely —  and this is how I run my company — if someone is doing really well, you want to renegotiate because you want to keep them happy. So, yes, the CBA was signed, but contract renegotiations happen all the time — change happens all the time. They just need to get this out of the way and pay them. It’s not difficult.

Again, it comes down to equality — if this was the men’s team who won two World Cups in a row, would this be an issue? Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe US Soccer would take the initiative and say, “Right, you’ve won another World Cup, let’s renegotiate.”

What’s your take on the World Cup bonuses and whether US Soccer and FIFA simply have their hands tied because of the discrepancies between the men’s and women’s tournaments? 

Yes, the men’s World Cup makes more money than the women’s, but it has been around for however many more years. Right now, women’s soccer and women’s sports are sleeping giants. You can see it with the last World Cup. France did nothing to promote the World Cup in the slightest, yet every stadium was sold out. If you can’t see the future in that, then I don’t know what to tell you.

But again, FIFA needs to look at themselves in the mirror. They always talk the good game, but there’s a difference between investing and throwing money at something. When you invest in something, you actually want it to grow.

A lot of the lawsuit stems from the players’ club contracts and a lack of financial stability for NWSL players. How do we fix that? 

I think it all comes down to marketing. You can fix the club contracts if you’re bringing in 20,000 people every game — if you’re making money. In a place like Houston, they need 7,500 people in the stands just to break even. Are they getting that? No.

What we’re failing to do is make the fans care. From my vantage point, I think the way to market our teams is to look at what LAFC did with the men. Before the team was even a team, they started having events street to street in LA. They started throwing jives at the LA Galaxy and, while it was slightly cringe, it made the fans care — it created that rivalry. Until we figure out what makes us, as fans, care about a team, we won’t be filling any stadiums. And until we fill stadiums and make money, we won’t be fixing any contracts.

You’re from England originally. How did you get into women’s soccer?

When I first came to America, I was in Florida and some of the first teams I worked with were girls teams. Then, when I moved to California, I was hired for a high school girls team. It’s been a natural progression, honestly. Also, I have this underdog syndrome. I love batting for the underdog. And women’s sports, unfortunately, is the underdog. It’s something where I’m very humbled to be a part of these players’ journeys, but I’ll also go to bat for them any day of the week. So, it was a natural progression for me and now it’s something I’m very passionate about.

You train athletes across the board. What is that like and how do you approach training a more amateur player versus an elite player? 

It’s been a long journey. When I came to America, I had a bag of clothes and the MLS was paying me $120 a week to coach in Florida. I started to do private training in Florida. When I moved out to California, I decided that I wanted to focus on training individuals, not teams. I didn’t have any money, though, so I got a job coaching high school soccer at Harvard-Westlake. I was there from 2005 to 2010.

To answer your question, it’s very much a normality for me to train both amateur and elite players. The first player who we did really well with was Ali Riley. I trained her in preparation for her to play on the New Zealand under-20 team. She did really well playing for them and continued to do well in college and professionally. She was my first player who did everything I asked her to do training-wise and got results for it. I don’t take credit for anything, really, because I’m not doing anything — I’m not doing the work. I just show them what to do.

I look at all of my players, and they’re all like Ali. Whether they’re 14 years old or 8 years old, all I ask is that they have a good attitude. We use the word “elite,” but I think it’s overused. When I refer to someone as “elite,” I’m referring to a mindset. It is funny, though, because in the off-season I’ll have Alex Morgan in the morning and then a 10-year-old in the afternoon. Regardless, the process is still very much the same. There are no secrets to it. Just analyze your game, plan it out, work hard, and repeat.

With private coaching, are you able to pick out who’s got the it factor and who doesn’t? Is there a thread or a commonality between your players? 

It’s the attitude. Are they relentless? Honestly, the players who are a little obsessed with the game are the ones who are going to go far. Even when I train in a team setting, I am able to pick out the three players who are going to go on to play at the next level. I’m not right all of the time, but you can just tell.

Sometimes, the top players under 15 will drop off by the time they turn 17. I’m pretty mean to people about that because it’s always the same story — as soon as the kids are committed to a school they stop working as hard. There have been a few who have had to decommit to schools because they’ve stopped. But besides that, I’d say I have a good eye.

England has a very different youth scene. A lot of players go professional immediately and get individualized training. What are your thoughts on the American system in comparison? 

It might be an unpopular opinion, but I believe that college needs to switch to a nine-month-long season. That way you would have time to develop players and you would be able to see what coaches can really do. And, if you have a roster of 30, you might actually play every person. You would also be preparing players for the professional league with the longer season. Obviously, the coaches have to be open to it, and I don’t know whether they are right now on the women’s side because it would mean a lot more work.

As a culture, and especially in sports, we put a heavy premium on hard work. Do you ever worry about overtraining players? 

First, those elite players all have fitness coaches who give them plans to follow so they can avoid injuries. Second, I always tell players that if you listen to your body, you will never burn out. It takes discipline, though. Periodization is fantastic if done the correct way, too. Where we find a lot of push back is from performance and fitness specialists because they don’t include our stuff in the periodization. I don’t like to clash with them because I respect what they do hugely, but I do ask for it to be reciprocal. And, players need to take a little bit of ownership over the training as well. But ultimately, listening to the players and being flexible is crucial.

You’ve turned your training and coaching into an online business. How has that transition been? 

It’s been good. I have an app now called My Soccer Training. It has taken a long time to build, but it is exactly where I want it to be. The whole idea is to be able to have a private soccer trainer in your pocket for less than $20 a month. We wanted to make something that was different. All of the other apps have drills, but ours follows an analyze, review, organize, execute, and repeat process. We basically use it as our own platform and we put new sessions on the app all the time. All apps are difficult to build, so respect to every other app out there, but mine’s better. Now we have Instagram as a platform, Twitter as a platform and My Soccer Training as a platform. Personally, I despise social media, but I love social media.

Do you consider yourself an influencer? 

No. I don’t ever want to hear that word. I am not an influencer. We get a lot of people who reach out to do collabs and I always have to say, “Listen, I’m not an influencer. I’m a soccer trainer who’s really good at what he does.” I’m not on here trying to sell whatever it is they’re selling. I’m not on here doing roly polys through hoops of fire with every shot going into the top corner of a skills net because that’s trash. I’m just someone who’s done quite well for himself, but I also feel like I’ve only done 5% of what I’m capable of. If I could just get over my procrastination.

Editor’s note: this is part of an ongoing series of photo essays by photographer Jesse Louie. You can read his introductory note here.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since the US women’s national team went on their historic run to secure their 4th World Cup Championship. This group of tea-sipping trailblazers captivated an entire nation, match after match, with their sheer brilliance on and off the field.

And so, when they returned home in the days after accomplishing their ultimate goal, it was only fitting to welcome them back in a lavish and luxurious style.

Royalty deserves a proper ceremony, and New York City was ready to celebrate with their queens.

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A sea of confetti cascaded down from the sky, blanketing Broadway like a snowy blizzard in the middle of summer. Tens of thousands of people sandwiched between sidewalks and barricades packed the streets for hours, just to be in the presence of greatness.

As the floats made their way down the Canyon Of Heroes parade route — the same route reserved for soldiers, politicians, astronauts, and local sports franchises — fans of all ages waved their flags, stomped their feet, and blared out chants of “USA!” and “Equal Pay!”

This team’s ability to unite and inspire people to keep fighting is the very reason why so many people showed up on that Wednesday morning. I was one of them. And as I stood on the corner enjoying every second of it, it was apparent that this parade wasn’t celebrating a specific ‘moment,’ but a united and ongoing national movement.

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Kylie Ohlmiller is a professional lacrosse player. A Long Island Native, Ohlmiller was a 4x All-American, 2x Tewaaraton Finalist, and 2x America East Conference Offensive Player of the Year at Stony Brook. She is the NCAA record holder for both single-season and career points and assists. She now plays for the NY Fight of the WPLL. Below, Ohlmiller talked to Just Women’s Sports about what led her to Stony Brook, how she developed her behind-the-back prowess, and how her eye-black became a signature style. 

Before you played at Stony Brook, it was not a dominant lacrosse school. How did you decide to go there to play? 

It’s interesting to look back because Stony Brook now has such a dominant program. They are always on the cusp of the Final Four and they are always in the top-10. The team was nowhere close to being a national contender at the D1 level when I committed. Joe Spallina [Stony Brook head coach] had come over from Adelphi a couple of years prior, where he won a ton of Division II National Championships, and was trying to build a program based on Long Island values with a blue collar mentality. Long Island is such a hotbed for lacrosse, but at the time, young players didn’t have a hometown team they could grow up idolizing. Spallina wanted to create that.

When he was recruiting me at Stony Brook and explaining his vision to me — what we could do and the potential of the team — it was so contagious. I remember him saying that he wanted to transform the team from one that no one knows about to the number one program at the Division I level — which we ended up doing by my senior year. His vision early on was to make the team a national contender every single year and he wanted me to lead that charge. He painted all of my dreams out in front of me, even when I was just a 15 year-old girl. How do you say no to that? Now that I can look back on it, that’s what made me buy-in, and I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to grow with this program.

Was staying in Long Island for college a priority for you?

I’ve always been a homegrown type of person. I love Long Island — I love everything that we’re about. Outside of Coach Spallina’s vision of Stony Brook becoming the Long Island lacrosse team, I wasn’t necessarily getting looks from other major Division I schools that were powerhouses at the time. My Long Island mentality played a big role in my decision because I wanted to prove others wrong. I realized that I wanted to play on a team where the coach believed in what I could do on and off the lacrosse field, in the community and for women’s sports. So I bought into Stony Brook, and my Long Island mentality fueled the fire.

What was your most memorable game or experience during your time at Stony Brook?

Two moments really stick out in my head. The first was during my freshman year. We were unranked and we were going down to play Florida. They were in the top-5 at the time. Odds were definitely stacked against us, but we ended up coming out and winning on their home turf. That was when people first started paying attention to us. It put our team on the map. Flash forward to my junior year, in 2017, we made the Elite 8 for the first time in program history. It was something that we struggled to do in the years before despite winning against top-10 schools during the regular season. That time around, though, we beat Northwestern on our home turf on Mother’s Day, and we were so fired up. It was proof that the years of hard work, sweat and tears could pay off — that the belief was there for a reason. That was a really special day.

In college, you were a 4x All-American, a 2x Tewaarton Finalist, and you broke multiple NCAA records. Did you imagine, as that 15 year-old girl buying into the Stony Brook vision, that you would be that successful?

I really never saw any of that happening for me. It was a byproduct of fully investing myself in the vision and the dream of it all. Obviously, none of those things would have happened without the teammates that I had on the field. I wouldn’t have the assist record without my teammates finishing the plays.

I had the opportunity to play with unreal players, my sister included. One of the accolades that stands out to me, though, is the Tewaaraton Finalist nomination because that was a first for both the Stony Brook program and for the America East Conference. It was special to be able to represent my school and our conference at that level — to be able to say, “Stony Brook is here. We might be a mid-major school but we’re here.”

You are known as the queen of behind-the-back shots. Can you speak to your playing style and where you learned it?

My playing style definitely evolved as I was growing up. My sister and I liked to have fun with it. We would always have sticks in our hands at the beach with our families, in the backyard, in the front yard, when we were riding bikes down the street. We were always trying different things and the more we did them, the more comfortable we became.

That’s something that I try to instill in the next generation now. You’re supposed to have fun with the game, so think outside the box when you’re practicing and try new things. Ultimately, if you can throw a pass between your legs or around the back, then you’re going to be able to throw a regular pass in a game. Not only that, but there are going to be opportunities to use those trick passes in real games, too. So many players — women and men — use tricks in college games now and coaches are starting to encourage that type of finesse. If you have that tool in your toolbox, why not use it?

Was it a no-brainer for your younger sister to also play at Stony Brook? How many years did you two overlap?

We played together for my last two years. She was verbally committed to another school before I went to Stony Brook. During my freshman year, since we were so close to home, she came to all of the games. She would come and hang out at the dorms with me and my friends. She got an inside look at how much I loved the program and how much success we could have there. She ended up de-committing to the other school and committing to Stony Brook. It was great. I got to have two years without her and then two years with her. Now, she gets three years without me since she’s headed back for a fifth year next season.

Having your little sister out there to celebrate with you and go through hardships with you is really special. And knowing that Mom and Dad are up in the stands watching two daughters is a good feeling. Some of my best moments out on the field were spent with her and she’s a kick ass All-American player too, so that definitely helps.

The Ohlmiller name is definitely known at Stony Brook and beyond now. Can we talk a little bit about your eye-black? What made you start doing that and how do you feel about it blowing up and becoming your trademark?

I always liked wearing eye-black in high school and I would play around with different styles. One day, I did eye-black triangles under my cheeks, and my friend commented that it looked like Batman. So I thought, what if I turned the triangles on their sides and tried to make them look even more like the Batman wings? I look back at pictures from high school and it’s a version of the style I wear now. As I went to college, I tweaked it into my own style and now it has become something that I’m known for. It has become my brand logo, a Halloween costume, a t-shirt design — it’s wild. I never could have imagined this but I’m grateful.

For me, the eye-black is a way to express myself on the field, which can be hard especially in women’s sports where a lot of people try to look pretty out there. I love seeing younger girls mimicking the style today — it makes me cry every time.

After Stony Brook, you were drafted first in the WPLL’s inaugural season. What was that experience like?

Unbelievable. It was amazing to be a part of the inaugural season and all of the hype surrounding it. The best part is that you end up playing both with and against some of the people you were rivals with in college. They used to be on the other side wearing opposing uniforms and now they’re your teammates. You make friendships that you never thought could have happened. And it’s amazing to be surrounded by all time greats of the sport — people that I had watched growing up are now marking me.

You are sponsored by New Balance, which owns Brine Lacrosse. What does it mean for you to have a sponsorship like that and what opportunities has it opened up? 

When I graduated from Stony Brook, I had a lot of incredible opportunities and this was one of them. I signed with New Balance right after graduation. They opened up so many doors for me in the lacrosse world. I have had the chance to design my own lacrosse stick and my own pocket — things that I didn’t even know were possible. They’ve provided me with an opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes with lacrosse equipment and they’ve taught me how important it is to sell your brand. They’ve also been incredibly supportive in allowing me to be authentic to myself as an athlete as I’m creating my own KO17 Lacrosse brand on social media. That support is definitely something that I look for in brand deals. We were able to put together a KO17 logo that’s actually on the KO Brine stick, which is pretty cool.

Can you talk a little bit more about the KO17 Lacrosse brand? What’s the backstory? 

I was a business minor in college and that’s where I started to develop the idea of what later became my KO17 brand. After college, KO17 Lacrosse started with just a basic plan of providing a structured system of training to lacrosse players on Long Island. To this day, I still do weekly group sessions and training with Long Islanders. But as my brand has grown, I have been able to travel the country, bringing lacrosse and my brand to people on both coasts. Last year was my first full summer tour. I hit close to 30 different cities over the year with my clinics and camps.

You also recently launched the KO17 app. First off, congratulations. Can you tell us about your vision for the app and what it does? 

Thank you, it is huge for us. I have loved being able to travel the country, meeting girls from different locations and learning that we all have the same passion for the sport of lacrosse. With my app, I wanted to provide a platform where I could work with these girls on a more regular basis and help develop them into the players that they want to be, regardless of location. I’m more than excited that the KO17 Lacrosse App is now allowing me to do so! Especially in a time where virtual training is the new norm. Every week, I upload new drills for shooting, dodging and offensive work, and my subscribers have the ability to submit film of their skills for live feedback from me.

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and sports. How have you stayed positive about the future of lacrosse? How are you staying in shape during a time when workouts are limited?

As a professional athlete, my day-to-day sights are set on the next time I get to play and that is continuously being pushed back right now. That vision is still there, though. We are training as if we are playing tomorrow. In a year from now, I’m hoping that I will be training for the 2021 World Cup. I’m hoping that I’ll be on the brink of another packed summer with KO17 clinics all over the world. Over the next couple of years, I want to expand to Australia and get back over to Japan and Europe. I want to travel and see what lacrosse is like in different places. Ultimately, I hope to meet as many young girls as possible and show them that they can be professional women’s lacrosse players, too.

Lacrosse is aiming to be included in the 2028 Olympics. Is your goal to continue playing until that becomes a reality?

Absolutely. I think all of us players want that. If my body lets me, that would be amazing. I think, no matter what, our ultimate goal is to get the sport to the Olympics. We’re going to do everything that we can in order to accomplish that. Whether we are in the stands or on the field, we’re going to be proud of the sport and of all the different countries representing lacrosse. It’s amazing to see that opportunity right there on the horizon.

Chris Plonsky is the Chief of Staff and Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director at the University of Texas. She previously served as the Women’s AD at Texas, and has worked in college athletics for over 40 years. Below, she spoke with Just Women’s Sports about how UT is working to come back, the importance of reviving college football, and what comes next. 

What is Texas’ plan for reopening? And how has the university handled going virtual? 

We’re hoping to bring back some of our athletes by July 1st. That is the plan, but it could change. We’ve been in online learning for a while now, like most campuses, and it has been a difficult adjustment. Texas is not one of those campuses that had a massive online course offering beforehand. We’re a real big, touchy-feely campus. I hate to say that, but we really are. The humanities and the personal presentation part of teaching here has been at the heart of our institution forever. I think it’s why our education is so good.

Kids are now digital natives so they’ve really managed it well. From a sports perspective, it’s been devastating mentally because it was so sudden. I think kids are more resilient than us old people, but our coaches, they’re almost stir-crazy. We have a coaches’ Zoom meeting once a week and they’re so pent up right now. They want to be able to do more. We hope there’s a way that some sort of normalcy can be approached. But it’s certainly going to be in waves because as we know, even with little baby openings, we’re not ready yet, and we won’t be for a while.

The state is starting to reopen. What are some of the sanitation measures that have been put in place? 

Starting on Monday, there were 30 essential football-related staff employees who were permitted to go back to work. At the front of our North End Zone, we have a screening station, and employees had to pre-submit a questionnaire. Do you have any symptoms? Have you been in contact? There’s temperature-taking, boom, right there done by two sports medicine personnel. You get a wristband if you pass muster, and then you go to your socially distanced area. You have to wear a mask. And it’s very likely when we have student athletes back, they’re going to probably have to wear a mask to work out.

So much of the national conversation revolves around whether football can come back. Could you explain why that sport is so important to the bigger picture? 

The economic driver for those of us in the Power Five conferences is football, and the donations, ticket purchases and television that are tied to football. Right now, we’re slashing budgets just like the other schools you read about. We haven’t spent much at all. We’ve turned off the spigots, except what we need to keep our kids on scholarship and people on payroll and services through remote means.

But we literally have to have that sustaining economic engine of football in some form. Even if it’s football with limited fans, or football on television only — can you imagine the TV ratings? We saw that the WNBA and the NFL virtual draft ratings were some of the highest ever. So we’re hoping and crossing our fingers.

If you sat in our coaches’ Zoom meeting with us Wednesday morning, you would have seen every coach from golf to volleyball to softball to baseball just saying, “We understand it. You guys have to prepare first to see if the football staff and students can return in graduated ways, at whatever time frame the leadership of local agencies, health agencies, and our conference set.” Because if we can keep people healthy, socially distanced with hygiene and sanitation practices in place, and if we can keep the football team healthy in whatever six week period they say they need to train before a season starts, then we will have a blueprint for the other sports. That’s sort of the Texas plan right now, if you will.

So if some type of adjusted football season happens, let’s say no fans, but broadcast money is there, do you guys think that’s enough to support the rest of the programs for the year?

It would be enough if we have some football, but it’s certainly going to be adjusted. Our non-conference schedules are likely to be continually adjusted as we lead towards September. Sports whose competitive seasons are in the spring but do a lot in the fall might have to sacrifice a squeeze in the fall in order to have their spring season. We’re already having schools call us to say they can’t travel to Austin in the fall. As we go forward, there might be a surprise a day.

We can regionalize. We’re lucky, because we’re in Texas, so most of our conference opponents are nearby. The beauty of conferences is you might keep your regular season schedule. It just might need to be compressed to save money. But being in a geographically proximate, busable location, as Texas is, could be really helpful in this COVID environment.

This is where you really find out about your culture and your fabric. You’ve got to plan for every extreme. We’re going to prepare for all possibilities, but we need to stay positive.

How would you describe the overall outlook of your group given the uncertainty surrounding the situation? 

I think there’s a fighter’s spirit in all of us that are involved in athletics. We’ve all learned to deal with adversity, because that’s what sports are about. We love to learn. We love to compete. And when you lose, you learn from losses and you recover to try to get ready for the next win. You know there’s going to be another opportunity. So trying to get this done and achieve in some fashion is where we’re going to start. And then we’ll face whatever comes to us and we’ll be ready for that.

At the heart of all of this is who we’re serving. We desperately want to give our student athletes, both men and women, the opportunity to represent our school and to compete. And to do anything less than that, it would be heart-wrenching for us and them.

At some point our national health experts are going to get their arms around this and they already are making incredible progress. The question is when and how. The tough part of this will be keeping ourselves self-sustaining. If certain avenues of revenue do not appear, the next natural thing will occur. And that I think is very applicable to what all athletic departments are going through right now. It’s collaborative, it’s transparent, it’s good communication, but it’s also very hopeful. And I think what we can count on is that we’ve got really creative, incredibly intense competitive minds here that care about young people.