When I was growing up in Norman, Oklahoma, soccer was very, very new. The opportunities were limited back then. We didn’t have travel soccer until we were 14. Nowadays, they have it at 8.

I played all sports growing up, but I realized early on that I could do some things in soccer that I couldn’t do in other sports. Technically, I caught on to it pretty quickly. I loved it, and I never turned back.

My club team was the first that ever traveled outside Oklahoma to play tournaments. Five us went on to play Division I soccer in college.  

[Soccer is] a sport that’s accessible for all... It’s a game with freedom. 

The 1991 Women’s World Cup had just happened the season before I went to college. Mia Hamm had redshirted at the University of North Carolina because of the World Cup, so my freshman year at Duke University was her senior year. It was becoming more mainstream—people knew who the stars were.

The 1994 World Cup for the men really put soccer on the map. Now, we’re getting toward a second generation of interest. It helps that now that you can turn on the TV every single day and see a game. We didn’t have that growing up.  

The 1999 Women’s World Cup here in America was a turning point. Brandi Chastain’s goal during the shootout was an iconic moment. She was on magazine cover after magazine cover. That was a great moment for women’s soccer. It put women front and center.  

I was very blessed to get to go to the original Wembley Stadium in London to watch the Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United. It was something that I’ve never experienced in American athletics. The songs, the chants, the sense of community, the people rooting on their team. It’s in their blood. They breathe and eat it.

It’s a sport that’s accessible for all. You just need a ball and a couple of friends. You can play on the playground and in the streets. It’s a game with freedom. Besides some set pieces, the game flows. There are no timeouts. Creativity is allowed to flourish. I think everyone probably sees the game differently. And that’s fun in and of itself.

The main complaint I get is that it’s low scoring. You might have an opponent outshoot you 25 to 1, and you might have hit the posts or the crossbar several times during the game, and the outcome could be 1-1.

I always say I would love to be on the receiving side of an undeserved victory, but it doesn’t happen often. If you have that good day when you score a whole bunch of goals, fabulous, but sometimes it’s very difficult to score. I think the true fan understands 1-0 is a huge victory.

At TU... we take pride in serving others, and now those people are in turn supporting us.

I’m so excited for the men’s World Cup this year. I love it in the group stage where you have multiple games going on. It’s kind of like the first day of March Madness. There’s something very pure about it. People are competing because they want to win and represent their countries.

Now, the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League in the U.S.) is in a great place. Things with MLS (Major League Soccer, the top men’s professional league in the U.S.) are going in the right direction. I love watching our former TU players play, which has been really fun with:

  • Riley Melendez getting on the El Salvadorian national team
  • Nia Christopher and Jasmine Hamid playing with Fort Lauderdale in the USL W League
  • Phoebe Canoles playing for DC in the USL
  • Riley Rumbley playing in Italy
  • Maja Hansson and Demi Pierre playing in Sweden
  • Courtney Butlion playing in Turkey

At TU, since getting the beautiful facility that we have, every single season our fan base has grown. We do a lot of community service as a team. We take pride in serving others, and now those people are in turn supporting us. It’s been really wonderful. The (CAA) championship year (in 2023), there were more than 1,000 people per game. So we’re hoping to reproduce a championship stretch.

Towson is now a destination for a lot of the best players in Maryland to stay home. And we’ve convinced some very special ones to do just that.