8 JUNE 12-18, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ing for a team. Denver NWSL president Jen Millet knows all about those passionate Colorado fans. She graduated from Cherry Creek High School and CU before going on to a career in sports that’s included stops at the Golden State Warriors and, most recently, Bay FC — an NWSL expansion team in the Bay Area. According to Millet, Denver is a vibrant market with a strong chance to be success- ful; she points to the record 13,000-plus season ticket deposits already made by fans as proof. “It’s clearly a place where people are behind women’s soccer, and the talent that the market is creating and cultivating is a real big signal for that as well,” she says. Those who have worked to cultivate Colo- rado’s soccer talent say the state’s concentra- tion of successful women’s soccer players is part luck, part geography and part culture. Jared Spires, CEO of Real Colorado Soccer, a club that’s been around since 1986 and now serves 5,000 players with both boy’s and girl’s programs, says that part of the job of youth soccer is to make sure generational talents like Wilson and Swanson — who both played for the club — love soccer more than any other sport. In turn, those success stories inspire more kids to play soccer. “Where the clubs come in is that grassroots effort, creating those little soccer programs for the three- and four-year-old kids to get them exposed to soccer,” says Jonni Thordsen, executive director of Skyline Soccer, which serves 3,000 kids just down the street from the proposed NWSL stadium site off South Broadway. “Clubs in Colorado are absolutely important to the future and the growth of soc- cer in general, especially with girls. Our club is almost 50/50 when it comes to boys and girls. So the excitement and desire is there.” According to Spires, Colorado’s geo- graphical location in the middle of the coun- try, along with the state’s talented athletes, makes it a competitive environment. “If you’re on the West Coast or the East Coast, you can drive an hour and play all these amazing clubs because the population is so big,” he says. “In Colorado, you have to fl y everywhere. The natural result of that is that we have a state association that brings everybody together. Even as young as U9, you’re playing in a state league and you’re playing against all the other players.” Athletes in metro Denver will regularly play teams from Fort Collins, Grand Junction and Colorado Springs through the Colorado Soccer Association, which has member clubs across the state. That connection means great players and teams don’t just beat up on the same players in the same city over and over again; they compete with more far-fl ung teams. “Iron sharpens iron and good teams make good teams better,” Spires says. The rivalry between Colorado Real and Colorado Rush, long two of the highest-level club teams in the state, helps with competi- tion, too, Spires suggests, because players learn how to play with fi re and buy-in on team culture from a young age. Nytes, who played for Real, says that growing up playing against Colorado Rush’s elite teams — and those across the state — made her the player she is today because of how competitive the teams were. The vast majority of the players on the CU women’s soccer team are locals like Nytes who grew up competing against each other and now fi nd success together, reaching the national championship tournament the last two years. Erik Bushey, who currently coaches the Rapids 2 developmental squad for the Major League Soccer team in Colorado, was the technical director at Colorado Rush for many years and has served as an assistant coach for U17 and U23 U.S. Women’s National Teams. Having been in Colorado for 24 years, Bushey can document how the culture contributes to the successful athletics pipeline. “There’s a balance between this outdoors component, this adventurous component. We have a myriad of different kinds of people,” Bushey says. “If you go to the mountain towns, if you go into Boulder, you go into the city, you’re going to have a different makeup. But I do generally believe that there is a hard-work- ing and blue-collar element to Colorado.” Players not only develop skills but a work ethic, Bushey points out, using Heaps as an example. He coached Heaps for many years before she skipped playing in college despite earning a full-ride athletic scholarship; she headed straight to the Paris Saint-Germain women’s team as a professional out of Colorado. “You’re going to see hard work,” he says of great athletes like Heaps. “You’re going to see tenacity. You’re going to see consis- tency: consistency in effort, consistency in performance. You’re going to see a real drive to be better, you’re going to see people who are willing to get out of their comfort zone, who are brave. …We are developing arguably the best players in the world in our country.” Experts like Bushey believe having a pro team in Denver will only help young athletes grow. Angeli, who played for the now-defunct Women’s Professional Soccer league before it disbanded in 2012, says that when she played in college from 2004 to 2009, there wasn’t as clear a path to profes- sional soccer as there is now. Players then would dream of a spot on the national team, which has limited roster spots, or try to play overseas. But until the NWSL played its fi rst season in 2013, there wasn’t a sense that domestic professional op- portunities were as viable. “Some of the kids that were in college didn’t even get through their full college experience without seeing a league rise up and fall,” Angeli recalls. “The longevity of this league has allowed players to pursue something.” Chasing a dream is impossible if there isn’t a place to direct the dream, says Russell Finch, girl’s academy director for Colorado Rush. “It was so much harder ten years ago, fi ve years ago,” he says. “Now the pathway to be a professional soccer player and have that dream, to get to make a living from some- thing that you love, is way more achievable.” In a literal sense, having an NWSL team in Denver increases roster spots so that more people can live their dream. But its also inspirational for young athletes to see professional role models succeeding. “It’s probably the most proven way for the next generation to arrive,” Spires says. “Profes- sionally, now that it’s becoming real, it gives kids the opportunity to see their heroes, to want to mimic their pathway. Now that reality got a little bigger and a little closer.” Ava Priest, who grew up in Boulder and now plays at CU, says that seeing Heaps and Alex Morgan play when she was grow- ing up is part of what makes her believe in her potential now. “They’ve been big role models and idols for me,” she says. “It gives you a path and shows you how you could do something, and it is attainable.” Mayor Mike Johnston is a major sup- porter of the incoming NWSL team. He has a banner of Mallory Swanson hanging on the wall of his offi ce, and says part of his motivation for bringing the team here is to inspire young people, especially girls like his daughter, who is an athlete herself. “She wants to have heroes in her own hometown who are people that are the ab- solute best in the world at their sport,” the mayor says. “There is a culture of excellence that comes with that, whether you are a soc- cer player or not. Maybe you play hockey, or maybe you are an entrepreneur starting your own small business, or maybe you love chess, but what you see are people who look like you, who’ve dedicated their life to being the best in the world and have succeeded. That is great for every kid to see.” For girls, having role models who are their same gender makes an impact, Bushey says. In the past, young female athletes with po- tential would be told they could be the girls’ Lionel Messi. Now Denver’s young athletes will have local role models who are female. “There’s one thing of viewing something on TV or through social media,” he says, “but to go out and experience it fi rsthand, you see the numbers come out in droves wherever the national team comes and plays.” Even for those who aren’t looking to go professional, seeing athletes persevere or playing sports as a kid has benefi ts. “One thing this sport does that I think is so un- derappreciated, is it helps kids fi nd their voice,” Spires says. Kids gain confi dence, social skills and supportive communities through sports. Nytes is an example of that, he says: She’s had ups and downs in her soccer career starting at Real, but is now well-spoken, ac- complished and skilled in more ways than just on the fi eld. She is “a kid who has gone through ad- versity but always had people to go through it with her where she wasn’t alone,” Spires explains. “Sport is invaluable for that.” Since the clubs know the vast majority of kids won’t go pro, Finch says they tend to focus on turning them into great people along with great athletes. “We’re always judging you by your The Ball’s in Her Court continued from page 7 continued on page 10 Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman, team owners Rob Cohen and Mellody Hobson and Colorado Governor Jared Polis kicked off the new professional women’s soccer team. Denver NWSL owner Rob Cohen (third from left) celebrates after breaking ground on the team’s training facility in Centennial on June 9. CATIE CHESHIRE CATIE CHESHIRE
