Our right back on how she got into football and why she was following The Arsenal years ago.
Our right back on how she got into football and why she was following The Arsenal years ago.
**What do you remember from your very early days being coached? What were the most valuable lessons you learned?**
I think when you're really young, coaching is trying to organise chaos but still knowing that it's going to be chaos! I started playing when I was about four or five, so I don't even really remember the coaches, but I do remember the ball, the grass and all the kids around me. We were all just trying to get a toe-poke here and there, and that was soccer back then.
My soccer coach from ages 5-11 had a daughter my age, so we’d both play together in the boys’ team. If you were up for playing with the boys, all the coaches were all down. I still keep in touch with the coaches I had when I was a slightly older kid and it’s lovely to have those relationships to grow into adulthood. I’m also still friends with a lot of people I played club football with back in the day. I don’t know how many lessons I hold onto but it’s great to know that I still have that connection to my past.
The youth system in the U.S. is everchanging. I feel like when I grew up, it was so different to how it is now. For us, the pathway was to find a local club team during your childhood and then when you were about 12 or 13, if you wanted to reach the next level, you really had to be on an Elite Clubs National League side. Those were the bigger teams in the area and that helped you get exposure.
The ECNL tournaments are a huge part of the recruitment process for college when it comes to earning scholarships. Making that step up from my local team to FC Virginia at ECNL level was massive and then an ECNL tournament showcase eventually got me to the University of North Carolina.
I know the system is very different here with professional clubs having youth teams and I think they did try the academy approach in the U.S. too, but it didn’t really work out. I think it's just because it required a lot of players to give up a lot of other things and solely focus on soccer. I played multiple sports for a very long time up until high school and a lot of people aren’t willing to give that up, especially when they’re young.
**Who were your early influences? What players did you look up to when you started and why?**
My family was not a soccer family at all. My parents never played and they didn’t have any connection to it, so it’s pure luck that I liked it and stuck with it. The very first team I remember watching was Barcelona in the Suarez, Messi and Neymar era. That team made me fall in love with football. I’d record all of their matches on my DVR while I was at school and then I’d come home to watch them.
It was pretty hard to follow soccer when I was a kid, especially internationally, but when I got to college, my coach used to encourage us to watch as many games as we could, especially the Premier League. Football isn’t everything for people in the States like it is over here so watching the Premier League was a great way to get into the sport. I loved it. At college, I also became friends with Lotte and Less so I’d watch the Arsenal games at the weekend. Unbeknownst to me, I’d be playing in them one day!
**Can you pinpoint a stage in your career, or an age group, where you made the biggest leap?**
I want to say the first summer I started training with NC Courage. We had a cool relationship where a few of the UNC girls would train with the Courage in the summer. At that point, their team was Crystal (Dunn), Debinha, Sam (Mewis) - they were just stacked. They were winning everything domestically and then playing against the likes of Man City and Lyon in tournaments. When I started training with them, I immediately loved the environment and could feel myself getting better every day which was so exciting. I could see myself playing at that level one day.
It's been an adjustment moving from the NWSL, where each game is an absolute battle and even if it’s the top team versus the bottom, you don't know who is going to win. Our match against West Ham felt like an NWSL game in terms of its unpredictability and back-and-forth chaos.
I feel like all the teams in the WSL are tactically sound, so you have to not just be technically proficient, but tactically so in order to break down teams. That has been really helpful for me to build on, especially going into international football, where it's a very similar style of football.
**What did you learn at school that helped in your career?**
It was really hard when I first started college because my last year of high school was all online, as I was missing so much school because of national team camps. I went to the University of North Carolina on a soccer scholarship a year early, so it was a complete shock academically, particularly now all my classes were in person. But I was able to get everything under wraps soon enough and start performing well in soccer and in class, too. Everything worked out in the end but the entire year was a learning curve in terms of figuring out how to balance everything.
**What do you wish you had known earlier in your career?**
I really wish I’d recognised the importance of mental well-being and not just physical health when I was first starting out. It’s easy to forget that aspect sometimes when you’re in a sport and there’s a natural focus on how to strengthen and prepare your body. But it’s vital to remember that you’re simultaneously growing in life as you’re growing as a footballer.
**What training qualifications do you have now or would like to have in future? What coaching experience do you have?**
I’ve done UNC training camps and individual coaching when I was really young – like middle school/high school age. But I’ve never got any training qualifications or pursued coaching properly. I don’t have any aspirations to get into it right now because when my football career finishes, I really like the idea of pursuing something completely different. I don’t know what that might be yet but I have a few ideas. I know that about myself: I like being good at different things. You never know, I might end up heading back to soccer in some form but I’d like to explore my options.
**Who in the current squad would make the best manager in future and why?**
Honestly, I think a lot of the girls could! Being on a team like Arsenal and then having so many teammates here who are captains for their national teams, there’s a lot of experience in the building. If you take Renée as an example, she’s been in every situation and she’s also a mum. She can relate so much to everyone and I see a lot of similarities in our player group.
**What can football learn from other sports?**
Football is already implementing roles like set-piece coaches similar to coaches in American football for special teams. This really shows the weight of small margins in every match and also perhaps removes some of the pressure and expectation on the head coach and assistant coach. It isn’t really feasible for one person to be the best at every aspect of the game, so choosing the right coach for each discipline just makes sense!