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Interview: Anson Dorrance on Coaching Through Adversity

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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.

Caitlin Clark offered $5 million to compete in Ice Cube’s league

IOWA CITY, IOWA- MARCH 25: Guard Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates as time runs out in the second half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during their second round match-up in the 2024 NCAA Division 1 Women's Basketball Championship at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on March 25, 2024 in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

Caitlin Clark has been offered $5 million to play in Ice Cube's Big3 league, he confirmed on social media Wednesday after the offer leaked.

"We intended the offer to remain private while Caitlin Clark plays for the championship," Ice Cube wrote on social media. "But I won't deny what's now already out there: BIG3 made a historic offer to Caitlin Clark. Why wouldn't we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can achieve tremendous success in the BIG3."

While there has yet to be a women's player in the league, both Nancy Lieberman and Lisa Leslie have been part of the league as coaches and won championships.

"The skeptics laughed when we made Nancy Lieberman the first female coach of a men's pro team, and she won the championship in her first year," Ice Cube continued. "Then Lisa Leslie won it all in year two. With our offer, Caitlin Clark can make history and break down even more barriers for women athletes."

Ice Cube, whose name is O’Shea Jackson, says that the offer was made with the intention that Clark be able to compete in the WNBA “offseason.” Clark is largely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft in April. But it’s unclear how the scheduling of the two leagues would work. 

The 2024 Big3 season is set to tip off on June 15, with 10 games spanning through mid-August. The WNBA regular season, meanwhile, begins on May 14 and ends on Sept. 19.

On “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday, Jackson said that the league has yet to hear back from Clark. 

“We just need an answer, as soon as they are ready to give it to us,” he said. “It’s always 50-50 till we get a no. At the end of the day, it’s a generous offer.”

The offer – as well as the confusion on Jackson’s part about the timing of the WNBA season – caused some current WNBA players to react. 

"It's funny cause I be seeing his son at W games.. they don't talk?" wrote former No. 1 pick Rhyne Howard

"So no other women's basketball player has came to mind in the last 7 years?" wrote Lexie Brown, adding that she'd support if Ice Cube wanted to build a women's iteration of the league. She later discussed it on the Gils Arena Show, noting that his reasoning of wanting to “uplift and support WNBA players and women athletes” is a “cop out.”

Kalani Brown, meanwhile, told Clark to "take that money" and start a women's Big3.

WNBA salaries has been a talking point in recent months as more collegiate stars declare for the league. WNBA stars have often made more money playing abroad than they have in the WNBA. Clark is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft on April 15, with a rookie salary of $76,535 for lottery draft picks (Nos. 1-4) that rises to $97,582 by her fourth season. But she also has an NIL valuation of almost $3.5 million.

Diana Taurasi famously skipped the 2015 WNBA season at the request of her Russian club, who paid her more to sit out than she would have made in the W. Her contract with the club was reportedly near $1.5 million per year.

Jackson also seemed to suggest that his league could be an alternative to going abroad

“America’s women athletes should not be forced to spend their off seasons playing in often dismal and dubious foreign countries just to make ends meet,” he wrote. Although it’s unclear whether or not the rapper intends to make offers to additional WNBA players. 

While the league does hold prioritization rules in its CBA, those typically apply only to players playing in overseas leagues. It’s unclear whether or not that would prevent Clark’s participation in the Big3 league. WNBA players that don’t want to go overseas currently have the option of playing in Athletes Unlimited, which competes in the WNBA offseason.

USC’s Aaliyah Gayles Opens Up About Her Journey Back to Basketball

USC Basketball - Aaliyah Gayles

As part of our 1-v-1 video series, USC’s India Otto sat down to interview her teammate Aaliyah Gayles. Here are five things to know from our conversation with the redshirt freshman guard from Las Vegas.

#1 Aaliyah suffered from a near-death act of violence in 2022.

The incident taught her a lot about herself and the support around her. “[USC] Coach Lindsay [Gottlieb] was one of the first people to fly out there and come see me. That means a lot to me off the court.” 

#2 Her favorite USC memory is when she surprised her teammates after getting out of the hospital.

She left her walker at the door to show she was on the road to returning to the court. “That was my favorite memory because it was family. It was my first time being able to walk to you guys and see you practice.”

#3 There's a reason she wears #3.

#3 was her grandpa’s favorite number and a golden number in her life. Plus, AG3 has a nice ring to it. 

#4 She has a list of basketball GOAT’s:

Candace Parker, Magic Johnson, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and Cason Wallace.

#5 There have been many celebrity appearances at USC’s games over the years, especially this season.

Aaliyah’s favorites include Will Ferrell, Kehlani, and Saweetie. And she hopes Lil Durk will come to watch a game soon.

Watch the full conversation on the Just Women’s Sports YouTube channel.

Gotham, USWNT forward Midge Purce out with ACL tear

(Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports)

Midge Purce announced on Wednesday that she has torn her ACL. 

The Gotham FC and USWNT forward went down with the injury on Sunday during Gotham’s 1-0 win after tweaking it earlier in the game. Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amorós did not have any immediate updates following the match, with further evaluation revealing the tear. 

“It’s a reality I’m still struggling with and has left me with not too much to say,” Purce wrote in a statement on social media. “I’m heartbroken to no longer be available for my season with Gotham FC or for Olympic selection with the USWNT – know I’m rooting for you both all year long. 

“Though you may not see it, I’ll be doing everything I can to get back on the field.”

Purce is just the latest women's soccer star to tear her ACL, and joins USWNT teammate Mia Fishel in having torn her ACL in the last couple of months. Other notable players include Catarina Macario and Christen Press, with Macario only just returning to the USWNT lineup after tearing hers in 2022. 

International stars such as Alexia Putellas, Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema and Leah Williamson have also suffered ACL tears. 

Purce’s injury caused Amorós to call out the international schedule, which has been a growing point of concern as more players fall victim to injuries and the playing schedule becomes more packed. Kansas City’s Debinha suffered a hamstring injury in the team’s opening game, while both Lynn Williams and Rose Lavelle have yet to play for Gotham due to injuries picked up during the W Gold Cup. 

“We lost Midge during the game which for me is a bittersweet flavor,” Amorós told reporters after Sunday’s game. “By the way, it’s another player that came from the Gold Cup. Last week, it was Debinha. We are paying the consequences of a tournament that shouldn’t have happened.”

“We’re talking about protecting the players, [who shouldn’t] go to play an international competition after one week of preseason,” Amorós continued. “We’ve seen the consequences now. We’ve got Rose, Lynn, last week it was Debinha in Kansas [City] and now we have Midge. From my experience, the clubs are going to keep paying for that competition."

In her statement, Purce said that “so many friends, teammates and even players I’ve only ever competed against” reached out to offer support. 

“I am so blessed,” she wrote. “Your messages have meant so much to me throughout this process, you have consoled what, for a moment, felt inconsolable. Thank you for reminding me that our football world is not only full with incredibly talent but also, incredible kindness.”

Lauren Jackson included on Australia Olympics roster

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 01: Lauren Jackson of Australia celebrates with team mates after playing her final Opals game during the 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 3rd place match between Canada and Australia at Sydney Superdome, on October 01, 2022, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

Lauren Jackson has come out of retirement once again to compete for a spot on Australia’s Olympic roster. 

Jackson was included on the 26-player roster named by coach Sandy Brondello on Tuesday that will take part in training camps, tours and games in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics. The roster will eventually be whittled down to just 12 players selected from the 26 named on Tuesday.

Jackson helped Australia qualify for the Olympics with a win over Germany in February. After that, she announced her retirement, revealing that she struggled to spend so much time away from her two young children. 

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported that Jackson and the basketball federation had come to an agreement in which they would help cover costs for her children to travel with the team for training camps and the Olympics. 

She’s largely expected to make the Opals’ Olympic roster. 

"It's always an exciting time to announce an Olympic squad and I congratulate all the athletes," Opals coach Sandy Brondello said. "They all know what it means to play for Australia and they all want the opportunity to represent their country at an Olympics. Our squad is full of exceptional talent and they will make the decision to pick a final 12 very difficult."

At the 2022 FIBA World Cup, Jackson helped Australia win a bronze medal with 30 points against Canada. She had previously retired in 2016 due to knee injuries, but slowly made a return in a domestic Australian league the last few years.

Jackson has won four Olympic medals, including three consecutive silver medals starting with Sydney in 2000 when she was a teenager. 

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