Title IX, Soccer Bans, and the Growth of the Women’s Game
A look at the history of women’s soccer and how one youth academy is setting the pace
I remember sweating through the 1999 Women’s World Cup while watching on a small TV in my grandma’s guest bedroom. I sat on the edge of the bed through a scoreless draw, which ended with Brandi Chastain scoring the winning penalty kick and ripping her jersey off in celebration.
The game was largely credited as the start of the soccer craze among young girls in America, but the iconic moment would never have happened if it wasn’t for the passing of Title IX in 1972.
History of Women’s Soccer
When Title IX was passed, it granted thousands of school-aged women better access to sports. Women’s sports suddenly received financial support, and the popularity of women’s soccer benefited.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world failed to promote women’s soccer like the U.S. In 1921, the Football Association (FA) in England deemed the game “unsuitable for females” and banned women from using the men's fields. Other countries such as Scotland, Germany, Spain, and France did the same.
In 1971, the FA removed the ban and other countries did the same in the years to come. However, women were still discouraged from playing. In Germany for example, women were only allowed to play when it was warm outside. They also weren't allowed to wear studded cleats, had to use a smaller and lighter ball, and their games were limited to 70 minutes.
Brazil, the poster child for the beautiful game, also had its own women’s ban from 1941 to 1981 because the sport was too “violent” and “not suitable for the female body.”
Other notable countries that had women’s soccer bans include Belgium, Denmark, Nigeria, Norway, and the former Soviet Union. Even today, women around the world are still fighting for their right to play the game they love.
While bans and restrictions around the world limited the growth of women’s soccer, the US game exploded. The US Women’s National Team won the first official World Cup held in 1991. They have since won three more times (1999, 2015, 2019) as well as four Olympic gold medals (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012).
A Transition Period for the US Women’s National Team
Enter the 2023 Women’s World Cup. By this time, countries that did not support women’s soccer have had at least a generation or two go through their system. Countries now have their own professional women’s leagues, a few of which rival the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the US.
The US entered the tournament as one of the favorites, but lost in the round of 16—its worst World Cup finish ever. The US National Team entered the tournament in a transition period. Legends such as Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe were on the wrong side of 30 and didn’t have permanent places in the starting XI. The younger players in their first World Cup had lots to prove but didn’t have the experience to get it done. Frankly, the rest of the world has finally caught up to the U.S.
Don’t get me wrong, the U.S. is still among the world’s elite countries in women’s soccer. They just came off a Gold Cup win, even if it was a bit rocky to get there. A loss to Mexico was the first to their southern neighbors since 2010. The dominance the US once displayed every time they stepped onto the field is no longer there. The rest of the world has caught up and it starts at the youth levels.
This is the journey of one man’s commitment to help accelerate the women’s game in the US, one girl at a time.
The Portland Thorns Youth Academy
The Portland Thorns, a member of the NWSL, has a youth academy to train and prepare the best young soccer talent. I spoke with my friend, Gabe Tatz, who is now the Director of Soccer Operations for the Portland Thorns Academy and he couldn’t be more gung-ho about what the Academy is hoping to accomplish.
The Thorns Academy is pretty clear on its priorities:
Build a world-class soccer academy
Develop teams that win national championships
Prepare the next generation to go pro in the NWSL or overseas and play for their respective national teams
In the Academy’s short existence, they are already on their way to doing all three. Expectations are high. Just a few weeks ago the Thorns Academy announced they would be adding a team to compete in a semi-pro league, bolstering the level of play they will be competing against.
The Academy attracts the best talent in the Pacific Northwest. They even have players flying in from Alaska and Hawaii to play on the weekends.
This year alone, the Thorns Academy has 21 seniors who have signed with different colleges. Most youth academy and club teams don’t even carry 21 players on a roster. Last year the Academy was able to send 15 players to play in college. While it’s an amazing feat, Tatz talked about how the Academy is pushing for more. They eventually want one or two of their girls to sign pro contracts every year.
When speaking about the Academy's goals for the players, Tatz said:
“From an individual player standpoint, if you play here we expect you to play in college or get an international contract or get picked up by the [Portland] Thorns first team.”
Breaking Tradition
In the US people still view college as the traditional path to take. If you consider the statistics, it’s the safe route. When things inevitably don’t result in sporting glory, players will hopefully have a degree to fall back on.
In a lot of cases, going to college works perfectly fine in the women’s game right now. Most players in the NWSL and national team members have played in college and benefited from doing so.
But Tatz thinks the tides might be shifting to be more similar to the modern women’s development process in Europe. With recent rule changes, NWSL teams are now allowed to sign homegrown talent, meaning kids from the academies can now directly sign professional contracts. Tatz believes that to keep pace with the rest of the world, more and more teams and girls have to take the risk and sign pro contracts at a younger age.
In Europe, the women’s game now is starting to resemble that of the men’s game. The top academies provide the youth players with everything they need, including paying for their education. England has recently created their own type of ‘transfer fee’ for girls moving from one academy to the other since they can’t officially be signed to pro contracts until they are 18. In essence, it’s a way to reward the academies for investing in the girls early, even after they move to a new club. As long as European clubs are making moves like this, the talent level of the youth game will continue to grow and the US needs to follow suit to stay competitive.
The State of Youth Soccer in America
US soccer at the youth level has changed a lot over the last 15 years and it will continue to see transformation.
The Elite Club National League (ECNL) is the top league to play in for girls. The Thorns Academy plays in this league, which is divided into different conferences. The best teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs and compete for the national championship.
The Thorns Academy plays in the Northwest Conference and plays teams from Washington, Idaho, and Utah. The ECNL season starts in December and the national finals are held in July. In the off-season, high school-aged girls will play for their high schools while the younger girls will continue to practice and play in their local state league.
Tatz said the travel can be tough for younger girls, but with the new NCAA conference alignments, it’s good practice to learn how to play after traveling long distances. He gave the example of the University of Oregon joining the Big Ten and how Oregon athletes will be traveling across the country every week.
The Academy teams typically train three times a week—Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Fridays are usually either a rest or travel day and games are played on Saturdays and Sundays. Mondays are usually set aside for recovery.
Currently, the girls have to pay a fee to be on the team and cover some of their own travel expenses. The Academy does its best to subsidize the costs as much as possible. They take care of all the travel coordination so the girls and parents don’t have to. Last year, the Academy spent half a million dollars on travel alone, which is why Tatz spends a chunk of his time fundraising.
Building a World-Class Soccer Academy
It is truly a labor of love for Tatz. He still holds a full-time job and says his role at the Academy is sometimes another full-time job in and of itself. “It’s always been about the kids,” he says. “All the credit goes to our staff and players to make this happen.”
There’s not a lot of money to go around, so finding a way to build a sustainable program that is economically viable is a challenge. “It’s just the current reality of women’s sports in this country,” he said.
“We are extremely grateful for the investment from the Thorns FC first team, who have invested so much into this Academy and are leading the charge for women’s youth sports in the NWSL.”
Unlike in Europe, there aren’t many business models or financial incentives for growing and developing youth talent in the academies. Despite the challenges, the prospect of growing something special is what makes it all worth it for Tatz.
Rewind to just a few years ago when things were just getting started. He remembers having to do a lot of educating across the state to get girls to join the program. It ruffled a few feathers of some of the local clubs when they would lose their best players.
“Our continued hope is that all clubs in Oregon are thrilled when their players have the honor of joining the Academy. We [Portland Thorns Academy] should be the standard bearer of how youth women’s soccer should work because we are affiliated with a pro team with a proven pathway to the next level.”
Finding talent has now become easier. The talent usually seeks the Thorns Academy out instead of the other way around. But it is still a partial pay-to-play model, which can be a burden for families.
Soccer in the US is often criticized as a ‘rich kid’ sport. Zlatan Ibrahimović, a former European star who spent time in the MLS, said the American model shuts out good players. Former US Women’s National Team members, such as Hope Solo, have also said the same.
In England, it’s the opposite. Often referred to as a working-class sport, cost rarely prevents a player from playing. It’s the norm for some of the top women’s academies in Europe to cost next to nothing with the girls being housed on campus to maximize the time they can dedicate to the game. The Thorns Academy is doing its best to not make cost a barrier, similar to the Europeans.
The Thorns Academy recently found a girl who hasn’t been blessed economically, but that’s what helps drive her success. She doesn’t have to be asked to put in the work because she knows this is her ticket out of her current situation.
Player Development
When it comes to selecting players for its teams, the Thorns Academy wants to ensure its brand remains a symbol for elite play. If they wanted to, the Academy could field two or more teams at every age group. But they have decided to limit each age group to only one team to ensure they are only suiting up the best talent they can find.
For the players that do make a roster spot, the Academy does everything they can to help them get to the next level. They invest in analytics tools to help the coaches and girls understand where their shots are coming from and how the team should be positioned. From heat maps to statistics, they have the tools necessary to help the girls succeed.
They also have a college coordinator helping the girls prepare for the recruiting circuit. The Academy puts together profiles of all their players when they go to tournaments and ensures college coaches have the information necessary.
They record all the games and show the girls how to edit and cut game film, how to share it on Instagram and YouTube, and how to set up profiles on recruiting platforms.
On the academic side, they put on classes to inform the girls of the GPA they need to maintain to get into their target schools, how to write college entrance essays, and which classes to take.
As Tatz put it, “It’s not like when we played. We have every resource to give these kids and if they use it they’ll get where they want to go.”
With all the investment to build a world-class youth academy, Tatz and the rest of the staff have been rewarded with a number four ranking in the US. Tatz says rankings at the youth levels are never an exact science. He even admitted that he felt the ranking was probably a little too high, but countered that they are definitely in the top 25. It’s very clear from talking to him that he won’t be satisfied until they are number one.
Developing the Women’s Game Early
As women’s clubs around the world ramp up their youth development, it will be imperative for the US to do the same. Tatz thinks it won’t be too long before the NWSL mandates all its pro teams have their own academies, which will go a long way in improving the development of the game at an early age.
One Technical Director of an American club visited the PSG Youth Academy in Paris. He concluded that there were clear technical gaps between the French players and American players due to the consistent emphasis on the fundamentals of the game through constant practice. He felt that the gap would only get bigger if left uncorrected in the way US players practiced.
Tatz knows what it takes to keep up with the rest of the world and is up for the challenge. He hopes to help build the Portland Thorns Academy into the premier destination for girls youth soccer and he’s just getting started.