(Sept. 4, 2008) -- More than 125 W-League players are gathering in Tampa, Fla. this weekend for a four-day combine that will determine the long-term soccer fate for many of its attendees. For some the high-pressure exam will serve as a springboard to successful WPS careers. Others will leave only with stories about how they nearly made it but fell just short. None of them are likely to ever forget it.
“It’s a bunch of emotions. There are some nerves, but there is also excitement,” said Jill Loyden, 23, who was the starting goalkeeper for Jersey Sky Blue in 2008. “As it’s getting closer, we’re all getting a little more nervous.”
Loyden is part of a small group of Sky Blue players that have trained together in the early morning hours since the club’s W-League season ended without a trip to the playoffs. W-League Head Coach Denise Reddy—who will assist Ian Sawyers when the club jumps to WPS in 2009—has been kind enough to rise with the aspiring professionals and run the training sessions before her regular work day begins.
(Robyn McNeil)
Jersey Sky Blue goalkeeper Jill Loyden is one of over 125 W-League players hoping to catch the eyes of WPS coaches this weekend.
“We all really appreciate Denise coming out before she has to go to work,” said Domenique Esposito, a 23-year-old forward.
“She’s been through it and knows what it’s like,” added 24-year-old forward Daniela Molina.
In 2000, Reddy participated in the WUSA combine, after which she was not drafted. Rather than try to find a backdoor route into the league, Reddy returned to her club team in Sweden. Now she is imparting her wisdom on the next generation of women’s soccer pros.
Michelle French, a midfielder with the Seattle Sounders, is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the younger Sky Blue players. French is 31 and played all three WUSA seasons, the first with the Washington Freedom and the latter two with the San Jose CyberRays. When the WUSA began, she was one of only five players not on the 1999 Women’s World Cup roster to be allocated to a team without having to go through the combine and draft process. Her experience will be different this time around.
“It’s definitely more nerves having to go participate in a combine,” admitted French, an all-conference performer in her four complete W-League seasons since the demise of the WUSA. “If I can do well there, that would be awesome.”
Unlike some players who have tailored their soccer lives around a chance to play in a pro league, French just recently decided to make another go at it. She said the biggest decision was making a commitment to move away since there is no WPS team in the Pacific Northwest.
“I’d still be (playing) anyway,” she said adding that if things don’t work out with the league she would like to be back in Seattle in 2009. She also coaches kids in the area.
Without the benefit of a small group like the one in New Jersey, French has been training with boys’ teams for the last month.
The Sky Blue players are excited about the possibility of playing alongside each other in Tampa. Such partnerships could help avoid one of the major pitfalls of the combine experience—failure to perform at optimum level due to a lack of familiarity and practice time with teammates.
“It’s harder for a forward because if you don’t have anything to work with it’s hard to show them what you can do,” said Molina. “I have been told they will probably pair us together with our W-League teammates and I’m excited to play with them.”
Taking a different tact, Esposito said, “You have to be ready to take it upon yourself to be that leader that brings the team together.”
All of the players interviewed spoke of a combination of excitement and nervousness with judgment day approaching, but the most nerve-wracking time might come immediately after returning home from Tampa.
When Reddy went to the WUSA Combine she left knowing the draft had come and gone without her name being called. WPS teams will not hold a general draft until the second week of October with a second draft to be held in mid-January.
“It’s a huge opportunity,” Molina said. “I just want to go down and play in front of the coaches. I’m not thinking about anything past that.”
Loyden is taking a different, yet just as simple, approach. “I guess I’ll have a pretty good indication of how it went,” she said.
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.
