Ashley Sanchez is a forward for the Washington Spirit. Drafted 4th overall in the 2020 NWSL Draft, she was recently called up to the USWNT for their October training up. She sat down with JWS to talk about her decision to leave UCLA early, her experience with the national team, and a rookie season like no other.

A few weeks ago, you were called into the USWNT October camp. Can you talk a bit about what that experience was like? 

I would say it was a little bit of a different experience than any other camp I’ve been to. We weren’t really allowed to leave our rooms or the hotel. And unlike the Challenge Cup, we weren’t able to order any delivery, except on two off-days when they sanitized all of the food coming in.

We also got tested three times a day. During the first couple of days, we were all quarantining in our rooms until we got two or three negative test results back. We couldn’t leave the hotel at all and we were pretty much only able to walk around the two floors that we had to ourselves. So, all in all, it was a little strange.

But really, I was just happy to even have this opportunity to participate at a camp during these weird times. And even though it was a bit intense, I learned a lot.

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Aside from very strict safety protocols, were there any other surprises that stood out?

Definitely the intensity and competitiveness. Every training, you had to be on your game and just compete. Everything was just so fast-paced. It took me a day or two to adjust to the speed of everything because you’re just like, “Holy crap, what is going on?” And then eventually you kind of get used to it and get in your own flow.

Overall, how would you judge your performance?

I thought I did well. My coaches talked to Vlatko [Andonovski] and they discussed how I did, but from my perspective, I think I did well. Coming out of this, there are always areas to improve on. So with this experience, I now know what I need to do and I’m going to work on that and just continue working to get better.

This was your second call-up to the senior roster, right? How did this camp compare to your first?

So technically it’s my second call-up, but my first one I was like 16. Back then I was just so young. This was the first camp where I felt mature enough to compete and play at a high enough level to stick with everyone.

I would say I learned a bit more this time around because I felt like I was actually able to do what they were asking. Whereas when I was younger, I was little. I knew I couldn’t really hang and it wasn’t much of a learning experience from a hands-on perspective. It was more like, “Okay, every training you just have to try to do your best.” Whereas now I’m like, “Okay, I can do this. I belong here.”

Onto some more technical stuff, how was Vlatko’s coaching style? Did anything stand out to you from a coaching perspective? 

He’s incredibly smart. He knows the game really well. There are these moments when we’re training where he’s pretty quiet, which can feel pretty intense. But then he’ll step in, stop play, and tell you exactly what you could be doing better. So in a lot of ways, he’s very observational and just analyzing every little detail as we’re playing.

And in terms of next steps, where do you see yourself in regards to this USWNT program? 

I have no idea. Obviously, I hope to be continuously called in. I’m just going to keep working on what Vlatko told me to work on, and hopefully I just keep getting invited to camps.

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This year has been pretty crazy on a bunch of different levels, especially for you. In January you were drafted 4th overall after leaving UCLA early. Can you talk about that decision to leave school and enter the NWSL?

I had a really good experience at UCLA, but I felt like it was time for me to take that next step. It just seemed like the right move to try and improve my game even more and put myself in an uncomfortable situation. At that time, I just felt like that was the best thing for me. And now looking back, I do not regret that decision whatsoever.

Your rookie season started with the NWSL Challenge Cup. What was this first taste of the pro life like for you? 

Honestly, it was just weird. Thankfully, our team was able to bond throughout that entire experience. We have a really young group of players, so I’m glad we were able to build such strong relationships.

But it just felt like the longest month of my life. It was just so strange. On one hand, I’m glad it happened, because if I were at school, I wouldn’t have been able to play at all. So, I’m just grateful for the opportunity to play, but it was definitely just the weirdest situation I’ve ever been through.

Thinking back to that Cup, I don’t really remember what my mind was thinking at the time. It was just like, “I guess this is the new normal.” It felt like I blacked out throughout the whole thing.

Despite it being weird, you were able to grind it out and win the Future Legend Award for the tournament. What was that like, and did it feel like validation giving your decision to go pro early?

I definitely wanted to come in and make my mark, but I wasn’t looking for any type of award or anything. I came into this year and was like, “Okay, I need to get better.” I just wanted to improve as much as I could and adapt to this playing style in fast games, as quickly as possible.

I knew going into Utah that we only had a couple of games, so I had to really take advantage of this situation of being able to play. But obviously, winning that award was great. So, I’m definitely happy about that!

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A few weeks later, you got right back into the swing of things for the NWSL Fall Series. The Washington Spirit had a pretty great run, and you ended up placing third. How was everyone’s mindset compared to during the Challenge Cup?

After the Challenge Cup, we weren’t even sure if there were going to be more games. But then once the Fall Series was announced, our competitive mindset turned back on.

We had a couple of starters that were injured for these games. I think that put a little bit more pressure on me. I was like, “I need to come out even more, and try to be somewhat of a bigger presence on the field because we were missing our two captains, Andi [Sullivan] and Tori [Huster].”

But I think the girls really stepped up. We had a strong game plan going in, and everyone chipped in. Our bench was incredibly strong and the girls that came in each game did a great job. I think third place was a great step forward for us.

So after a unique and successful rookie season, what are your goals moving forward as we look toward 2021?

My goals for next year are to get called into national team camp regularly and to also have more of an impact for the Spirit. Going into next season, I definitely want to focus on scoring more goals and creating more goals for my teammates.

Lastly, any plans during this offseason?

I’m just enjoying my time back home. In California, there isn’t much that you can do during this quarantine, and because everything is closed right now, I will probably head back to DC at some point to train with some of my coaches and my teammates who are still there. But right now, I’m just going to rest up and focus on my training so that I can be ready for next season.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.