Pitch to Pro
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United FC. This will be our platform to tell our story about the club and the special place that we call home, Northwest Arkansas. This is a journey. We want to bring you along for the ride. We'll share what's going on behind the curtain, help educate the community at large about soccer, Our league, and give updates on the progress of the club along the way.
Together, we'll explore and unpack our journey to professional soccer, the magic that is NWA, our community, and talk all things soccer from on the pitch to behind the scenes, telling the story of our club.
Pitch to Pro
Stoppage Time Special: The Fight Against Soccer Sexism
Soccer has a unique power to unite people across boundaries, but two significant challenges threaten this unity: the pressure adults put on young players and the barriers women face as fans. This special Stoppage Time edition of Pitch to Pro explores these crucial conversations through highlights from Part 1 of our conversation with Her Game Too.
When it comes to youth soccer, Jenn and Natasha share a critical insight: we're failing our youngest players by prioritizing winning over enjoyment. "Starting them young to fall in love with the game is where we're lacking," notes Jenn, highlighting how the pressure to perform steals joy from three-year-olds who should be discovering soccer through play. Parents and coaches often unwittingly sabotage children's relationship with sports by imposing adult expectations. The solution? Support their exploration, protect their enthusiasm, and help them find what they genuinely love about the game.
The episode also illuminates the powerful story behind Her Game Too, a movement fighting sexism in soccer culture. What began with a group of UK women tired of hearing "get back in the kitchen" at matches quickly went viral, revealing a widespread problem. Fascinatingly, the movement's expansion to America uncovered cultural differences in how sexism manifests – British women face explicit verbal harassment, while American women encounter surprised reactions to their knowledge and unwanted touching in sports bars. Despite the prominence of women's soccer in America, female fans still struggle for acceptance, challenging perceptions that the US had moved beyond these issues.
Through personal stories of bringing Her Game Too across the Atlantic, we witness how grassroots movements can create meaningful change when ordinary fans step into leadership roles they never imagined for themselves. Whether you're a parent, coach, or fan concerned about soccer's future, these conversations provide valuable perspective on making the beautiful game truly accessible to everyone. Subscribe, share your experiences, and join us in building a more inclusive soccer community.
Welcome to the Stoppage Time edition of the Pitch to Pro podcast. This is a highlight reel of some of the best moments from the show so far, and every other week we will be bringing you a special five to seven minute segment featuring the best stories, tales and moments of the podcast.
Speaker 2:Falling in love with the game, I think is the most important part.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 2:Starting them young to fall in love with the game that they follow through is, I think, where we're lacking, because we don't start kids or we're putting too much pressure on the kid when they're young instead of letting them fall in love with it. It's you got to win, like now you're a three-year-old, but you got to win you know kind of thing, and that's where so we're making them fall out of love with it instead of falling in love with that that's such a great point and it's something that I've always tried to be very conscious of, because I am a former player and I am a coach and can be.
Speaker 3:you know, I did grow up in an era where it was a lot of winning and a lot of pressure. So I'm glad that you said that, because I think I actually posted about this a couple of days ago. I think too often it's adults that are brewing a game for the kid 100%. It's not that they fell Parents on the side.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, parents or even coaches that are focused on the wrong things, or referees or whatever it is, but so often it's adults in that kid's life that ruin it. And it's any sport, it's not just soccer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But if you allow them to find the things that they love and support them. And fantastic, obviously, soccer, but you know, whatever it is, piano Right, how can I support you?
Speaker 2:Exactly Right, yep. Help them fall in love with it. Don't don't take it away from them.
Speaker 3:So who's so? Talk a little bit about how did her game to kind of as an initiative movement program start?
Speaker 2:uh, from from the beginning there so in the uk that there was six or seven of them. They got together and they realized the sexism over there. For them, like just to go to a game, uh is they're getting told, get back in the kitchen, you don't belong here, you know nothing, um, and all the other comments even worse than that, um. So a girl named kaz may, she, chatting with her other friends, realized this is a problem not just at her team, but all of the teams, and so she got together and decided let's do a video and release this video and see what happens, kind of thing. And so they created the video. They posted it the day of the FA Cup game because they knew most people are going to be on Twitter that day because you're watching the FA Cup, you're going to be involved social media wise, and it just skyrocketed, I think in an hour. It was trending, so definitely was a problem. And she had they had a social media page and it just blew up with people following it left and right and and I actually watched it on that day I remember sitting there watching this video, going, wow, you know, kind of like it grabbed your attention, because these are people who, if you look at their other social media.
Speaker 2:They're bubbly, happy people and they look so serious it makes it stand out. So that's where it started. And then I like I said I saw it. It was like we get that here in the States in a different way because we don't.
Speaker 2:I've been to so many soccer matches because I used to be a season ticket holder for the Chicago Fire, so I've been to multiple games. I don't hear that stuff Like I'm good with going. The comments I would hear is you actually know the game? Like in good with going? The comments I would hear is you actually know the game? Like in a surprising tone, like you don't say that to a guy when they say something, so why? So it's a different aspect. And then also going to the pub that's where I was having my issues. Going to watch a game at a bar or a pub, that's when the sexism would come in and not go back to the kitchen, but the touching or pretending to brush by kind of thing. And that's where I was like well, I need to talk to Kaz and figure out how to bring that here.
Speaker 3:How do.
Speaker 2:I do that Like what did you do there that I can replicate here? And so that's how it came to the States. I met with her obviously not physically, not with her. We FaceTimed with each other and it was like an hour and a half conversation of just going over everything. And she was surprised it actually happened here in the States. She really thought because of us having the women's soccer and they're blowing up and how good they are, that everybody followed women and loved watching the women play.
Speaker 3:It's interesting to see what people's perceptions are outside of the country or the market right.
Speaker 2:Exactly and I was like whoa, okay, if you're over here you know differently, but it was neat, like you said, it was great to hear that side of it. And then we started working on okay. So she's like all right, you want to bring in the States, I give you full authority to do it. So then the pressure was on me to make it happen. So we redid the video with Americans. Wow, because we didn't want to just redo her video reposted, right, um. So she's like can you find a bunch of american girls who have had issues and do the same video? Um, so we did. I reached out to a bunch of people trying to get videos and, uh, and that's kind of where it kicked off from. So so how?
Speaker 3:long after the UK group kind of did their video and launch, if you will, to when you reached out to Kaz and started that.
Speaker 2:They launched, I was probably five months, six months before I, because it was more of a, it was a partly me, because I wanted to ask them right away. And then I'm like I don't know, maybe it's not a problem here, maybe it's just me Like. So I started talking to my friends and kind of in my circle of people and going do you suffer anything? Do you have a problem? What would you think? And I was even asking, because I am a part of a club up in near Chicago and I was asking the people there what do you think if I brought this campaign here? What do you? What do you? Because I'm not much of a leader per se, so this was a huge leap for me. So it was like okay, what do I do here? And everyone's like you need to do it, do it. So it took me five months and that's when I reached out to Kaz.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for this stoppage time special of the Pitch to Pro podcast. If you've enjoyed the conversation, you can click watch the full episode here. Be sure to tune in next Thursday for a new episode of the Pitch to Pro podcast, the official podcast of Ozark United FC, Available on YouTube, Instagram and everywhere you get your podcasts.