US women’s soccer seeks to overcome past lack of diversity

“I have very supportive parents who explained to me, ‘Okay, we’re still welcome in this sport.’ This is your game,” said Dan. That support was key to her success.

Women’s soccer in the United States has long had a diversity problem. The pay model for sports means it’s expensive, especially at higher levels. Club teams and traveling teams can cost thousands of dollars in some cases. Almost from the start, players without financial resources are left behind, including many in marginalized communities.

Even America’s soccer president, Cindy Parlow Cohn, has lamented that soccer in America is seen as “a rich, white kid’s sport.”

Dunn said only five of the 23-man roster of the US team that won the 2019 World Cup were of color, compared to France’s 12.

As the team prepares for this summer’s World Cup, the latest US roster includes 10 women of color, including young stars Trinity Rodman, Naomi Gilma and Mallory (Pew) Swanson. The United States will face New Zealand twice next week as the teams gear up for a tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Sophia Smith, who won US Soccer’s Women’s Player of the Year Award last year for scoring a team-high 11 goals for the US national team, said: “And I think young girls can look at the screens and come to the games and see a lot of people who look different. That’s great.”

The increase in representation helped diversify the team with fewer than 12 black players total in its entire history prior to 2012.

The pool of sufficiently talented players for each of America’s highest levels (national teams and the National Women’s Soccer League) is already small. The exclusive nature of youth football makes it even smaller.

Due to the high cost of the fee-based system, Dunn said, “it puts a lot of marginalized minority communities on edge.” “And I can’t say I would be sitting here and continuing this sport if it weren’t for my parents who could pay him three, four or five grand a year.”

Parlow Cohn said at last year’s Youth Sports Panel that the United States Federation is studying access to the game.

“A lot of it comes down to how our sport is viewed, marketing. How can we change the idea that it’s a sport that’s done?” she said. “And as the United States, the world’s most diverse nation, how can we shift that focus to ensure that all children feel welcome in gaming?”

Ed Foster-Simeon, CEO of the National Football Foundation, is one of those who are making football more accessible to previously unengaged communities.

Since 2008, the foundation’s Soccer for Success program has worked with more than 400,000 children, 90% of whom are from communities of color. The program is expected to serve over 100,000 children this year.

According to the foundation, more than 121,000 girls from underserved communities have benefited from its program over the past three years. This is part of the United For Girls initiative launched after the 2019 World Cup. Additionally, the foundation employed her 5,475 coaches who identified as female or non-binary during that period.

The Foundation’s goal is not to develop elite talent, but to bring games to more children, especially those in low-resource communities.

Foster Simeon says that in recent years, “an increasingly clear path” for talented young people has emerged. “But I think our biggest challenge even today is that we’re still scratching the surface in terms of participation. We’re not reaching enough kids.”

In fact, much of our work with girls is at the grassroots level.

Shannon Box, who was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame last year, played for the national team from 2003-2015. She serves on her football board of directors for Bridge City in Portland.

She remembers the moment she realized she was the only person of color on the national team.

“For me, it was a big weight that I was happy to have. They can do this,” she said. not.”

Former professional Shauna Gordon, who played for Sky Blue (now Gotham FC) in the National Women’s Soccer League, founded a non-profit Football for Her in Southern California that coaches young players on and off the pitch, regardless of socioeconomic status. started. Her Football For Her takes a holistic approach, addressing nutrition and mental health in addition to her playing skills.

“Playing with hard players is a challenge because they each have their own unique talents. And for me, it helps me find my why.

There is evidence that these efforts may be working. Ten years ago, only 24% of her division 1 women’s soccer players were non-white. That number increased to 34% last season.

But many believe that stopgap measures are not the answer. They want to rethink the billing model.

The pay-to-play model is “totally specific to the problem we have. How are we going to reconcile that?” said Kate Markgraf, general manager of women’s US division. He said: “I think we’ve finally reached the point where we want to be, not as football in the United States, but as a society. Our eyes are open in ways that have never been before.”

Dan hopes. When she first joined the national team, there were far fewer women of color participating in the sport, and even fewer playing at the highest level.

Celebrating progress is important, she said.

Joe Reedy, AP Sports Writer in Los Angeles, contributed to this report.

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