Ten Years
10 years. Wow, that sounds like a long time. It's kind of surreal. Yet at the same time, the grinding feels like it’s lasted forever, ha. So much has changed within the soccer space in 10 years and yet so much has stayed the same.
10 years ago, I was a new mom to two kids, one of which was my first and only daughter. I was a teacher, struggling with an identity issue. I missed soccer. I missed who I was when the game was a part of my world. 10 years ago, when you googled Female Footballers only pictures of sexy soccer playing women would come up from many questionable sites. 10 years ago, mental health was not a term that was discussed outside of the doctors office. Definitely not a term discussed in schools and sports. 10 years ago, I knew nothing about social media, marketing, how to run a business, the intricacies of the NWSL or current players. 10 years ago, I didn’t have the confidence myself to call out what I feel is wrong with the soccer system in our country.
Fast forward to March 14th 2024. Today I am a mom of three kids, grinding to make Female Footballers a viable and thriving Non Profit organization with over 30 staff members. Now soccer is a part of my life everyday as a parent to soccer playing children, a CEO and a player again in a women’s indoor soccer league on Sunday nights. Now when you google Female Footballers, our organization comes up and I am proud to say that the first page of results has nothing to do with how female footballers look, but rather who are the best in the world. Now, you often hear the term mental health and how it relates to children in school and sports. Now, I have taught myself a lot about social media, marketing, how to run a business and am well versed on players from all leagues around the world. And now, I can say that I am confident in myself. I have always been one of the girls I created this organization for. But the longer I do this, the more I see the version of myself that I always wanted me to be.
Many of the changes above are good. But we still see some things that remain the same. 10 years ago AND today, we get push back from clubs because they don’t value the mental side of the sport. We still struggle to be taken seriously as women and are undervalued in the soccer space. Mental Health still has a stigma that affects many people we work with.
In the 10 years here at Female Footballers, we’ve also changed and stayed the same in many ways. When I started FF, I reached out to a former Cal Bear, Stephanie Wieger. She joined me and we held our first clinic. After a short time, she introduced me to Jackie Verba who also joined our cause and the three of us ran FF for about 6 years. The struggle was all three of us had other jobs, and kept having babies. So we weren’t consistent in our focus. We held clinics that were amazing and then we would have to wait months before we could hold another one. It often felt like one large step was taken and then two small steps were taken back during this time. Although our time and commitment wavered, I am happy to say that both women have stayed with us, and are still involved with FF. They are a large reason we are who we are today. Shortly before the pandemic, I had decided to make a real go of Female Footballers. 2020 was going to be the year! Well, we all know what happened. But just like in the midst of all adversity, moments of growth occurred. We gave a talk for America Scores and things shifted. Haley Lukas, a recent Bear grad, joined our cause as well as my former teammate Rachael Thomas. Together the three of us began to build what I call the second wave of FF. We created curriculum, content, and thanks to both of them, a real business for the first time. 2020 is the real rebirth of Female Footballers. So a true anniversary tribute will come in 2030.
But today we look back at the intentions set 10 years ago. I wanted to create something that made an impact. Something I truly wished I had when I was young. A space for female soccer players to feel seen, heard and understood. Today, those intentions still exist. My one year old daughter is now about to turn 11 and I still feel that we need to work tirelessly to provide support for her generation to benefit within a system that isn’t set up for player success and mental well being, but rather the success of the business entities.
When thinking about the next 10 years, the corner of my mouth curls up a bit. I am excited for where we are. What once felt like a seed underground fighting to be seen, I now feel like we’ve broken past the surface, above ground and are about to begin to sprout. We are still very young in this process. We are still learning and will experience growing pains. But we are making progress. Just like we tell our players, it's about the process. It's about progress not perfection. It's about small improvements.
Our goals for Female Footballers are big. We want to work with thousands of girls. We want to impact the soccer system, where social emotional skills become a normal part of coach and parent education. We want all players to have self awareness and self regulation skills. We want our players to feel seen, heard and valued within the sport. We want to grow our mentor network to hundreds of women who have a passion to stay in the game and give back to the sport that has given them so much. So take this blog and this ten year mark as just a check in. We are just checking in to see how far we come and remind ourselves and you all of how far we plan to go.
If you’ve been on this journey with us for some time or are a new follower, please know that your support means everything. We are so grateful for your listens, shares, likes, and especially for taking a chance on something small, something grassroots, and something important. We appreciate you. Cheers to the next 10 years!
Kassie Gray