(July 28, 2008) -- Denise Reddy is keenly aware of the challenges facing Sky Blue Soccer when the club adds a Women’s Professional Soccer entry to its stable of offerings next spring, which already includes a W-League team as well as youth camps and schools.

“The hardest thing, people will tell you,” Reddy said, “is that soccer in the United States is a participation sport, not a spectator sport.  It’s not going to be, okay, we’re here, come watch us.”

Reddy is a Sky Blue original, having worked as an assistant coach during the team’s inaugural season in 2006, and currently serving as head coach of the W-League club.  Ian Sawyers will coach the team in WPS next spring with Reddy as his top assistant.

The company was founded in 2006 with Thomas Hofstetter as the chief investor and an eye on being a piece of what turned into WPS.  From Day One, Reddy says the focus has been on finding success in the W-League while figuring out how to best make the transition to WPS.

“First we had to apply to make sure we could be a W-League team,” she said.  “But from the start we had a business plan in affect that we could back up through grass roots efforts when it does go pro.”

Sawyers came on board earlier this year with a wealth of experience from having been the founding coach of the WUSA’s San Jose CyberRays, who won that league’s first championship.

“I think it’s great to have somebody with so much experience in a professional league environment,” Reddy said.  “I know that I’m going to learn so much from him.”

Sawyers occasionally attends training sessions while in town, but the coaching relationship will not take form until the time comes for the New Jersey / New York WPS side to begin stocking its roster.

“I am sure that Ian does have a type of player that he looks at,” Reddy said.  “We haven’t really worked together in training.  I’m sure having been a founding coach in WUSA that he has an idea what he’s looking for.”

Reddy herself was nearly part of the launch of the WUSA.  She made it as far as the combine, but when the draft came and went without her name being called, Reddy decided to forego any additional efforts and returned to a playing career she had already begun in Sweden.

“Of course my intention was to be drafted,” she said when asked if she had any regrets about not having played professionally in the states.  “I could have gone to team tryouts, but once it got to that point where I wasn’t drafted, I went back (to Sweden).

Following a career that spanned more than a decade, Reddy gave serious consideration to staying in Sweden to take a coaching job, but the opportunity with Sky Blue and the promise she made to her family about coming back were the deciding factors in returning to New Jersey.

“I always wanted to be a coach,” she said.

Next spring Reddy’s soccer career will come full circle when she paces the sidelines as a WPS assistant coach at Yurcak Stadium on the campus of Rutgers University.  An intense defender, Reddy is one of the Scarlet Knights’ all-time greats.

Before she begins coaching in WPS, Reddy will be in Tampa, Fla. from Sept. 4-7 to coach at the W-League Combine which will serve as an important measuring stick for aspiring WPS players not currently in the National Team pool.  She cautions though, that while combines are useful they rarely tell the whole story.

“I’m not putting down the combine in any way,” she said, “but that can definitely be a stressful environment to perform in.  Like for instance if you’re great in the middle, and you’re the type of player that makes everyone around you good, you’re not likely to stand out in a combine.  You won’t be familiar with the players around you and there won’t really be much of a system in place.”

So every time Reddy runs her squad out for a W-League match, she is acting as part coach, part scout.

“What I see as an advantage is that with the players playing now in the W-League, you can watch them in an environment they’re comfortable with,” she said.

The plan to bring Sky Blue into the WPS fold is now two years in the making.  That should make Reddy and the rest of the staff quite comfortable as the team-building process continues.

Dan Lauletta is a freelance writer and can be reached at thirtymtp@aol.com. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Women’s Professional Soccer or womensprosoccer.com.