April 5, 2022 • 34 mins
Following the fateful encounter with her mother, Jessica McDonald runs away from home. Soon, her grades flounder, leaving her ineligible for Division I athletics at all. McDonald's road to Chapel Hill detours through a nearby junior college in Phoenix, where she improves her GPA — and rewrites the juco record books as the most decorated female athlete in Phoenix College history. Then, upon becoming Division I eligible in 2008, Anson Dorrance comes calling once more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I
Heart Radio previously on Payback. The whole family is like legendary,
and especially Jessica. So as soon as he said the
last name, I'm like, whatever, you need to come in
and you know what you want. There was some of
the schools obviously they would have given do scholarships for
jess you know, I mean at that time she was
(00:20):
just that dominant but ansome dolence. Is it thought time?
He's God, you know, and some Dareance was coming to
meet my mom. This is my dream school, and we're
in the car and she just punched me right in
my mouth. My recollections are mostly trying to find her.
I'm thinking, oh gosh, I know why the grandmother's involved.
Gifts don't have no reading this stuff, but we don't
(00:41):
choose apparently doing we get by the way, Mia Ham's here.
If you look through there, she might be standing. There's
I'm worker ants and Dorrance is showing me around the
(01:02):
University of North Carolina soccer facility that bears his name,
Doran's Field. We have one sum here because back in
the day, if here were the top seed, then you
would host opened in the stadium, has brand new offices,
team meeting areas and locker rooms for both the men's
and women's soccer programs, and more than four thousand seats
(01:23):
for spectators. But the crown Jewel is a small room
up the stairs at one end of the field in
a brown brick building called the mc caskill Soccer Center.
The closing room, as Dorance calls it, for prized recruits.
So that's our first national championship. That's our second, that's
our third, that's our fourth. The room isn't massive, maybet
(01:46):
long by fifteen ft wide, but its contents feel grand.
That's our fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, eleven, twelve. The
walls are painted deep blue with lighter Carolina blew ur guyle,
adding a stylish crown molding along the tops of each wall.
Shelves run the length of the walls, each filled with
(02:06):
the tar Heel Women's National Championship trophies standing shoulder to
shoulder fifteen sixteen, and then we finished second. So this
stretch was that's a pretty good stretch, right. We're hunting
for the trophies from two thousand eight and two thousand nine,
which is trickier than you might imagine, and that here
are the presidents, by the way, every time we win
(02:28):
a national championship, the presidents in vitus in so here
we are with Obama, the Bushes. There's another Bush. Yeah,
and I've got a couple in my office as well.
The players and coaches who have passed through u n
c S women's program are not just icons of the game.
In many ways, they're the very architects of an entire sport.
(02:51):
And here's Christine Lily mia Hamm, there's Kaylia Ohi, and
there's me again, and there's April Heinrich. She's also just
a very important figure our history. Dorance's teams have been
winning national titles since before women's soccer was even recognized
as a sport by the n C Double A and
was instead overseen by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for
(03:11):
Women or the ai a W. It's twenty two national championships,
but not two n C Double A championships, because that
first one was an ai W championship. Finally, along the
third wall of the room, nearly all the way in
the corner, after what feels like a gold plated eternity,
Dorrence finds the trophies were looking for, so yeah, so
(03:34):
there you go. Those are justice from the Charlotte Observer,
Raleigh News and Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I Heart Radio.
This is Payback. I'm Alexandreev and this is part four
Tough as Nails. I even remember the room we were in.
(04:03):
It was on the left off the main hallway, so
I know the room we were in, and I think
the principal was in the room with me. They're in
a little room off the main hallway at Cactus High School.
Just sat with her father and grandmother. It was two
thousand five and Anson Dorens made his recruiting pitch for
Just to come play at the University of North Carolina.
(04:23):
It was a pitch Dorens had carefully honed over time.
I think at first, when you start coaching, it's about
you know, the system, the four four two or whatever.
It's about player development, But honestly, it's not what it is.
At the highest level of coaching. It's about getting as
close to as many people as possible. Dorrence began his
(04:45):
UNC coaching career in n with the Tar Hills men's
team Two years later, players on the women's club team
at u NC petition the school for their team to
be upgraded to the varsity level. Doran's argued on their behalf,
so the athletic director at the time and let him
or maybe just made him coach both teams, and the
biggest challenge in coaching the women was learning to lead
(05:08):
them effectively. They have to get a sense that you
respect and admire them for reasons beyond the game. A
male athlete has no issue with his respect coming entirely
from his capacity to dominate competition. A woman doesn't embrace
that as her north star. For nearly a decade, Doran's
coached both squads before committing to the women's game exclusively,
(05:31):
and the North Carolina tar Heels knock off the Ohio
State buck Eyes by a score of two to nothing.
But counting his wins with both the men's and women's teams,
Dorrance has found rarefied air among coaches at any level
of any sport. And coach Dorrance gets is one thousandth
victory as a head coach at the University of North Carolina.
(05:52):
He's got to be aware that the Gatorade is coming
and there it is there at Cactus High. Drance told
Jess that was the growing legacy she could be part of.
At the time, just finished high school, she had won
six state championships with Sereno Sports Programs and a regional championship.
She made a collection of all American teams and was
a member of multiple youth national teams. Darence was giving
(06:15):
Jess the best news of her life on what might
have been the worst day of it. Anson had highlight
tapes of you know, all the seasons, all the trophies.
He's pumping us up, but like, I have all these
mixed emotions going on. I'm nervous, so I'm excited, I'm
angry every emotion and this is my dream come true
meeting and my mood is like changing that. During my reporting,
(06:41):
I tried multiple times to interview Jess's mom, Tracy, but
we couldn't seem to connect with her. Sorry, l box
is full. I asked Lawrence if back in two thousand
five he had any idea of the drama that unfolded
behind the scenes of that recruiting trip. She described a
pretty formative moment for her when she was said to
meet you for the first time at her high school,
(07:03):
and you know, she had to change plans, she said,
and call her dad and her grandmother. And so I'm
curious if you remember those plans shifting at all, what
that meeting was like, I don't remember anything shifting. Um,
I thrive in chaos. So for me, if there was
anything that was disruptive, I'm going with a flow. So
(07:23):
she was pleasant. I mean, she didn't wear her struggles.
Did she have bruises at all or anything, not to
my recollection, But if she did, I wouldn't have associated
it with anything negative. So maybe if she did, for me,
it wasn't a like a social worker where you know
someone beating. You know, for me, it's like, oh yeah,
so you went in on that one and maybe hit
(07:43):
the goalkeeper punch in the face trying to go for
the ball. How cool is that? So my reaction would
be different than you know, someone else that afternoon, someone
else in that room did react differently. A man experienced
with life outside the law in the aftermath of a
fist fight. I can't remember how the words winning and stuff,
(08:04):
but I was asking it, which he hits you full
just as father, since myers, you don't need to be
getting hit. Not at this age period. I was say,
my mom and dam didn't hit me at this age.
I ain't gonna lie nobody to be hit, no my
keys at this age. He's like, why haven't you told
me like that. It's not like you've been consistently in
my life. You know, you're in and out of prison,
(08:25):
You're in and out of you know, South Phoenix, which
is like he said, it is a very dangerous place.
So I said, since it's bad between YouTube, just pack
your bags up and you just come stay with me.
So to split decisions this game for her to come
stay with me right then and there. Mama didn't like it,
(08:45):
but I ain't care. Just ran away from home that day,
clearing out her childhood bedroom with the help of her
estranged father. It began an odyssey of couch surfing, begging
friends for places to stay, and making do on her
own that lasted Jess the next two years. But so
often in Jess's life, success in sports has been directly
(09:09):
driven by adversity. She was battling off the field, and
that has rarely been truer than the day of that
recruiting visit. Because after clearing out her bedroom, Jess had
another competition that evening, and it's one that seemingly everyone
we spoke with an Arizona remembers, even nearly twenty years later.
We'll tell you more about that in a moment. Jesse's
(09:45):
time with the Sereno Soccer Club made her a top
national recruit that she cemented her local legend on the track.
Right around that same time, she met with Dlorance Jess
as old basketball coach Mark Ryan mentioned it to us
on the phone. Used to be a journalists and I
was covering the state track meet. I can remember She's
at the state record for the four d and her
(10:07):
first year ever running track. Dorrance has a story about it.
Jess has a story about it. Jess's father, Vince, has
a story about it, and like any good legend, the
details seem to have evolved over time. I had a
track meet that day. This is all the same day,
so me moving my stuff out like thanks happen with
my mom, aunts and Dorance track meet that day. From
(10:29):
what I can tell from my reporting, all of these
storytellers get at least some of the facts right. So
this is a kid that doesn't know anything except first gear.
It's one of Doran's favorite tales about Jess, delivered with
his distinctive flourish. She's walking through the halls of her
high school one day and the track coach has just
lost his four runners. She's never running the four hunders
(10:50):
in her life, and the track coach walks up to
her high school and says, hey, do you mind just,
you know, running the race, just so I don't have
to forfeit the spot. Sure, I mean, she's such a
nice girl. Sure, I'll jump in. She sets an Arizona
state record in She's never run it in our life.
So let's pause here for a moment. I didn't. True.
It's not possible to determine exactly which spring day Dorn's
(11:13):
visited Cactus High School, but we know from state and
local records that the week of May fourth that year,
Just competed in her school's regional tournament with a shot
at States on the line. In that last race, one
lap around the track, she beat the second place finisher
by three full seconds. The next week, just turned even
(11:36):
more heads at the state Track and Field Championships held
a nearby Mesa Community College. That's the event Jess's former
basketball coach, Mark Ryan remembered from this time as a
local sports reporter. By that state meet, Jess was alternating
between her grandmother's house and Vince's place in South Phoenix,
and Jess's father did something he had rarely done before
(11:58):
attend one of her competitions. Oh there that meat, I know,
she said, a record she ran aft according to state
high school athletic records. Thence watched his daughter run a
four hundred dash. They clocked fifty five point to six seconds. Oh, like,
(12:18):
I didn't even know she could run like that was
shocking for the state record it happened. That wasn't even
a goal of mine. At the Finnish lide. My coach
is just like you literally just at the Arizona state record,
and I was like, excuse me. I had no idea
I was even remotely close to something like that. I
was doing track and field in the first place, not seriously,
(12:39):
just to stay in shape. Four other sports really and
or something like that to happen. I mean, I am
proud of myself for the things that I have accomplished,
you know, along my my journey. It was yet another
sports accolade for Jess to go along with the two
state titles she would win at Cactus High in basketball,
and the various other honors she received playing the game
(13:01):
her mother once loved. At that point just told us
the biggest growth may well have come from the people
around her, particularly her father. He was helping me. You know,
he's she's my dad. Even though I knew how risky
of a lifestyle. I knew he lived. I needed a parent,
and my grandmother stepped in as well. So those two
(13:22):
definitely helped me throughout the rest of my high school career.
Since is the first to acknowledge he didn't exactly turn
into Father of the Year. When she stayed with him,
he was often out late, so he had her take
his navigator and drive herself to school in the mornings,
even though she didn't have a license. I can't get
(13:42):
up at that time. You're gonna have to drive. So
you know, she was driving driving life and that's it.
I can't go. You know, I was coming in too late,
and you know I had you know, last did had
bad habits, you know, but I had to get rid
of She made I say just drive com you know,
he was calling the rich key. This is like really
(14:06):
the first time my father was like really there for
me when I needed him most. I didn't wish her
to stay with me, but I was happy she stayed
with me. I was really proud of what she was
going through. I'm even more proud of Rent to day.
She got what she wants, She get to do what
(14:27):
she wanted to do. I'm very proud of her. Eventually,
Vince about Jesse used car for her own. That made
it easier for her to get out of South Phoenix periodically.
Do you go stay a few days with her friends
or her grandmother Abby? If I want to find you know,
I went to a grandma. Y'all know what Jessica, you know,
(14:48):
and they give me the number. Everything just like that,
you know, was no problem. And you know, even if
Fince hadn't always gotten along with Big Abby during Jesse's
junior and senior years high school, their priorities were clearly
the same. I like bench he took care of her
when she was at my house. Is she going to
(15:09):
get because she had an own car? He did what
he want to do, did like which he had then
to do with Jessica. Right, He loved his daughter. He
took care of her, So I don't have been saying
against I don't have been against anybody. There's not me. Still,
(15:32):
the turmoil of couch surfing, particularly with Jess's extracurricular schedule,
was terrible for a kid in school. She was driving
all over Phoenix for school, then basketball practice opens, freaking
McDonald to the basket, then club soccer, then track meets,
(15:53):
then to wherever she was going to sleep that night.
I didn't know how to handle it mentally at that point.
You know, my grade started to decline after that had happened.
S A T score sucked. By that point, my g
p A wasn't up to far with my SAT scores
you would see was out of the window. Joran's took
(16:14):
the news almost as hard as Jes died. I tried
to get her in out of high school, and I
wasn't able to get her in. You know, someone that
is stripped of the tools in high school to try
to succeed at collegiate level is going to continue to
have to fight you tooth and nail to recover. Because
obviously what was critical is we had to get her
(16:34):
academics up to a level where we could admit her.
Jesse's dreams of UNC would have to wait, big time
college sports at all, We're off the table for the moment.
So Jess looked down the street at a scholarship opportunity
from a school where grades wouldn't keep her from playing,
a small community college that plays something like minor league soccer,
and the Bears are blowing it open here in the
(16:56):
first half. She had no idea how large an impact
it would have on her life. Shoot so stuff. When
it was she hall of fame, So it's two hall
(17:18):
of fame. Phoenix College is an eight thousand student community
college located just north of downtown. You want to see
them played. The Bears play under the National Junior College
Athletic Association, so not knowing that the women's soccer team
just won the n j c A A national championship,
(17:40):
or that the men's soccer team has won more than
a dozen county and regional titles might be forgivable. That's
the old gym, and they just redid it. College sports
rosters at this level can be full of players who
were down on their look or couldn't make the grade,
Those looking for a last chance at playing time or
a final path to the big time. All their security,
(18:01):
they wouldn't get into. Dave Cameron is the men's head
soccer coach. Hey, guys, we're doing a story about Jessica McDonald.
Is there any way we can get into the Handley Center?
You mean just for a few minutes or in fluent
from North Carolina, thank you. Sure. Cameron isn't one to
(18:22):
men's words, and it isn't often he sees an athlete
like Jess McDonald come through Phoenix College. She came here
because she had to and we were just fortunate enough
to have her heard for soccer. Phoenix College is a
two year school, and in his twenty years there, Cameron
has seen a handful of Bears athletes in various sports
move up to larger Division One programs and even eventually
(18:44):
go pro. So her stuff is right there. Oh yeah,
the entire trophy case. She almost has a wall to
herself until Jess came along. Phoenix Colledge's most famous athlete
alone was probably Nick Nolty, who only became famous once
(19:04):
he stopped playing college football. So for a Blue Chips
soccer recruit like Jess had been, the talent level for
the Bears women was a little inconsistent when she came
on campus. The women's team at the time wasn't competitive
enough for her, so she was moved up to the
men's team to challenge her. And that's kind of how
I met her. Her first practice, she scored a bicycle
(19:27):
kick and I even wonder on the men's team, so
that's kind of how we met. She just started training
with us because she needed more competition. Jess was on
scholarship at Phoenix College for both soccer and track. She
also played on the women's basketball team. Years later, during
a ceremony at the school in her honor, Morgan Lee,
the women's soccer coach at the time, admitted Jess hadn't
(19:48):
been on the recruiting board at all. I didn't know
anything about her because I was recruiting men's so the
women's side. Morgan Lee at the time, who was the
head coach, definitely knew who she was and was shocked
that even had an opportunity. So he was very fortunate
to have a player of that caliber at this level.
And that two thousand six women's soccer season, Jess recorded
(20:10):
eighteen goals and tennis sists. She was named the Player
of the Year and a first team All American by
the associations that oversee women soccer at that level, but
they have been on a hot streak of late. It's
just a different team. On the basketball court, Jess received
various honors and was the top rebounder in the nation
among JUCO players with thirteen point six rebounds per game,
(20:30):
Phoenix walking it up, taking some time off that clock
shortly game, so to speak. At the time she was
done at Phoenix College, she was the most decorated women's
athlete in the school's history. With talent like that, any
coach would attempted to play Jess as much as possible.
And for a player who only has one gear, the
(20:51):
wear and tear of year round sports for years on
end was bound to add up Phoenix able to hold
on for the two point win down into Son. When
I was watching and played basketball, you could see her
LYMPI and the coach at the time we just player,
player player. I remember watching her play like why are
we playing her so many minutes? But she led him rebound,
(21:13):
she led him scoring, so we presented a different problem.
Despite growing knee pain on the basketball court, when Jess
wasn't practicing with her own teams, she could be found
practicing with Cameron's men's squad. With the men's team, everyone
appreciated her because she was talented. If she couldn't compete,
then she wouldn't be accepted. I don't think as much,
(21:33):
but a lot of her friends are from that team.
She has a the ability to relate to anybody. It's
a unique quality. Jess might have been the most talented
soccer player on campus, men or women, and thanks in
part to her help at practice, that men's team went
on to win their county championship. Shot the goal and
Phoenix ties it. The Bears get the goal, but more importantly,
(21:58):
just his time at Phoenix College, it's the very model
of something larger. It was an example of how community
colleges can provide lifelines to struggling students and acted springboards
for more significant opportunities. In Jess's heart, that still meant
to vision one soccer in the tar Heel State. Absolutely,
I needed to get to you and see I knew,
even at such a young age, I can just throw
(22:18):
it away. And one of the most incredible things that
I was able to have at Phoenix College was great mentorship.
They were like, this is what you literally have to
do if you want to make it to D one,
and I did it, and it was kind of like
hitting the restart button, you know. And if junior college
wasn't even an option for me, I probably wouldn't have
(22:40):
made it to D one. In general, I just didn't
see that realistically happening, and so I took advantage of it.
And that was because of the leadership that I had
on campus. As much as Jess never gave up on
u n C, Dren's never gave up on her. He
kept in touch with her regularly to check on school,
in Jess's home life, and to let her know that
(23:00):
a roster spot would be available for her as soon
as she qualified academically, though Dorn's did have one request.
At the Division one level, the n C Double A
grants players four seasons of eligibility, but the n C
Double A includes seasons played at the community college level,
like Jess was doing. We only played her in soccer
one year because we didn't want to lose eligibility at
(23:22):
the n C Double A. Dave Cameron again mainly because
Ants and Dorrence asked us. Ay, we howeverr not play
the second year, which is very hard for us to do.
If I was a coach, I'd be like, I want
to play her, and you know, I want to win,
but we put her in basketball, so when affect her
eligibility and soccer. In less than two years at Phoenix College,
(23:43):
Jess graduated with honors and an associative arts degree. A
spot on u n c's roster was waiting, Just as
Dorrence had said it would be, Jess finally had Chapel
Hill in her sights. That was like one of the
artist times of my life, from junior year all the
way through my soft where you're in junior college, just
four years of me just trying to figure out who
(24:04):
are you, Jess? You know, just like at myself a mayor,
Who the heck are you? What are you doing? What
do you want to do? And I'm a jock at heart.
I always have been in sports, has always been my life.
And graduate with honors and I was able to transferred
the University of North Carolina. It's not easy being here either.
I mean it's not like you're handed anything. I mean
you have to work for everything. Can't run again. We
(24:28):
can't pick them up, we can't provide him a food card,
we can't provide them housing we can pay for their
school and books and give them hope. That's pretty much
all we can do. Justice success still makes him emotional.
We're here because we get to witness miracles like that.
I considered a miracle when anyone coming from where she
came from having nothing, I mean nothing is she was homeless.
(24:50):
I don't know how many times. And uh when she
told me what was going on, I was crying, like,
which was she dealt with? I was just in tears.
I'm like, how how do you deal with that? We're
an outlet to help people like Jessica McDonald. We'll be
(25:14):
back after the break. Jess arrived at u n C
early in the two thousand eight soccer season. Not all
of her Phoenix College credits transferred over, making her sophomore
in Chapel Hill, but that was still in line with
the three years of soccer eligibility she had remaining. Building
(25:38):
on her grandmother's early influence, just chose African American Studies
as her major. It was my first time I ever
learning about true black history. I feel like that you
learn in school growing up. MLK Malcolm x Rosa Parks.
We get nothing else, Okay, Slavery happened knowing slaves built
my school. I had no idea what slaves built UNC
until I went there, and it was just such a
(25:59):
beautiful thing to be able to learn a little more
in depth about my history here in the United States.
Jess joined the tar Heels seven games into their two
thousand eight season. Jess was joining a team that felt
a fire in them, coming off of a rare loss
(26:21):
the year before in the quarterfinals of the n C
Double A tournament to Notre Dame, and once she finally
got her shot, she made the most of it. Despite
missing the first quarter of the season, Jess would finish
that year with five goals, catching up statistically to the
rest of the team. By season's end, she led the
squad and assists. Soon, the Tar Heels were once again
(26:43):
on a collision course with Notre Dame in the n
C Double A championship game. I remember drawing a foul
about twenty yards out from the goal and Casey Gara
just took this quick free kick and ended up scoring,
and I was like, Yes, things just kind of went
upboard from that point on. North Carolina won that game
two to one. Jess was celebrating a national championship at
(27:08):
her dream school. It seemed so far from where she
had started. You know, here is this young woman who
had some really great challenges in her life before she
got to u n C. Cindy Parlo Cone was an
assistant coach on that two thousand eight u n C team.
(27:28):
You first heard from her in part one of this season.
As a member of that historic US women's national team
during her college days, when she was known as Cindy Parlow,
she won national titles as a tar heel player. Then,
after rising all the way up to play for the
women's national team, she came back to u n C
(27:50):
to begin her coaching career. Perhaps more than anyone in
all of women's soccer today, Carlo Cone represents the intermingling
of elite, amateur, professional, and international women's soccer in the
United States. That two thousand eight season was the first
time Parlocone cross paths with Jess, but it certainly wouldn't
be the last. She was obviously a great player, but
(28:14):
then to see her get there and be one of
the players that reaches out to others to lift others up,
when you know that she's one that has been struggling.
I didn't have the full story at the time, which
makes it even a better story now. Players from that
EURA told us that fitting in with the culture Dorance
fostered on the team it was almost as important as
(28:35):
understanding their assignments on the field. Anson he just creates
this culture where you have to be a good person
or you're not gonna last. He Leah Watt is a
forward for the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women's
Soccer League. She played at u n C a few
years after Jess. We got to know Jess well in
the pro game. We had to read books and we
(28:55):
had values that you had to live by, and when
you get to a with someone that went to u
n C, you just have this connection. And it is
definitely one of the reasons Jess and I have been
so close and have loved playing together. As a tactician,
Dorance has long employed a specific style of play, and
by the start of the two thousand nine season just
(29:17):
fit in perfectly. And you see we have a substitution
pattern because we try to press for ninety minutes, and
to press for ninety minutes, you've got to be extraordinarily fit.
We spoke with Dorance on multiple occasions for this podcast.
This time it was over the phone. We would start
Jess because she was certainly one of our best players,
and after about thirty minutes in the first half, we
(29:38):
would supper. Dorrance's scheme is notorious for its defensive pressure.
While three defenders hold a high line, three forwards disrupted plays.
It's been described as like a pass Russian football before
checking in hockey. Meant to press an opponent in their
space and not give them time to settle. And I
have a lot of stories of other players that we
would sell about this one play. She would get so
(30:01):
upset and say I'm not even tired, and my response
to her was exactly In other words, you didn't do
a bloody thing the whole time you are in there,
which is why we're taking you out. Jess exerted extraordinary
effort in Dorance's scheme, which led to peer out of
cortisone shots for her nagging me pain, but her attitude
never wavered. Momly would supper out. Just would be breathing
(30:22):
so hard it sounded like she was going to have
a heart attack or an aneurysm, and she would high
five me my coaching staff in the entire bench. This
just doesn't happen in our game. Jess and her grandmother
Abby made a habit out of talking before most games,
(30:43):
certainly the big ones. I just told her that never
go up, stay strong, and you guys say, focus on
your steph. Nobody else you know, and ain't gottadn't do it,
nobody else you know, you can do it, do it,
don't worry about the team. Anybody support him, but don't
(31:04):
let him abody take your joy away. The two thousand
nine tar Heels blew through the regular season, then toppled
Notre Dame again in the n C Double A semifinals.
All that remains was the championship match in the top ranked,
undefeated Stanford. For that clash of Titans, Abby wanted to
(31:25):
be in the stands, and before that final, Abby would
give her signature pep talk in person. She clearly remembers
the pregame conversation she had with her granddaughter and what
she said were the perils of an undefeated team getting overconfident. Grandma,
who you say, don't win the game, as we're gonna
win the game, step and lost the game. Ain't nobody
(31:46):
gonna beat us? Be dea you hear me and welcome
to College Station Texas. Signed about in just the third
minute of the game, just made an impact. That girl
chased someone down. Kevin mcdone remembers exactly how it happened.
She chick came all the way from the other side
of the field, chased her down, stole the ball, got foul.
(32:08):
Fellow Tar Heel striker Casey A. Gara lined up her
free kick on Stanford's side of midfield. She crossed the
ball deep into Stanford's penalty box, where Jess split two
defenders and met the ball with her right foot on
a dead sprint. The garret play the tar Heels Jessica McDonald,
(32:28):
what's up? Jesse's gold was the only one of the match.
The Tar Heels held on one to nothing, but their
second straight national title final change seconds the mess girl
in the third minute the Jesse's There's some players I'm
(32:54):
paid to coach. There's some players that coach for free.
And that's a player I would pay to coach. Hands
and durance. Again, I didn't have to do anything for Jess.
She came in fully formed, she came in tough as nails,
and yet somehow she just ended up so positive that
(33:14):
two thousand nine Championship would be her final game for
the Tar Heels, but that signature toughness would have to
last Jess far beyond her time at U n C,
and on part five of Payback, I end up getting
drafted and within minutes here I am thinking my pro
career is done. When she came to me, I was
looking at her, going, Holy cow, we've got an uphill
(33:36):
battle here in her head. She want to play in
the World Cup. If I was going to bet on it,
I wouldn't bet on it. I was going to tell
her that it's not uncommon to come back, but it's
uncommon to come back as good or better than your world.
It absolutely does seem plausible that pregnancy could help the
healing process. I'm Alexandrea. Payback is a production of The
(33:57):
Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News, An Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I
Heart Radio. It's produced by Cotta Stevens, Casey Toth, Julia Wall,
and Davin Cockburn. The executive producer for iHeart Radio is
Shawn ty Tone. For lots more on this story and
to support journalism like this, visit Charlotte observer dot com
slash payback or news observer dot com slash payback. And
(34:22):
for more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I
Heart Radio previously on Payback. The whole family is like legendary,
and especially Jessica. So as soon as he said the
last name, I'm like, whatever, you need to come in
and you know what you want. There was some of
the schools obviously they would have given do scholarships for
jess you know, I mean at that time she was
(00:20):
just that dominant but ansome dolence. Is it thought time?
He's God, you know, and some Dareance was coming to
meet my mom. This is my dream school, and we're
in the car and she just punched me right in
my mouth. My recollections are mostly trying to find her.
I'm thinking, oh gosh, I know why the grandmother's involved.
Gifts don't have no reading this stuff, but we don't
(00:41):
choose apparently doing we get by the way, Mia Ham's here.
If you look through there, she might be standing. There's
I'm worker ants and Dorrance is showing me around the
(01:02):
University of North Carolina soccer facility that bears his name,
Doran's Field. We have one sum here because back in
the day, if here were the top seed, then you
would host opened in the stadium, has brand new offices,
team meeting areas and locker rooms for both the men's
and women's soccer programs, and more than four thousand seats
(01:23):
for spectators. But the crown Jewel is a small room
up the stairs at one end of the field in
a brown brick building called the mc caskill Soccer Center.
The closing room, as Dorance calls it, for prized recruits.
So that's our first national championship. That's our second, that's
our third, that's our fourth. The room isn't massive, maybet
(01:46):
long by fifteen ft wide, but its contents feel grand.
That's our fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, eleven, twelve. The
walls are painted deep blue with lighter Carolina blew ur guyle,
adding a stylish crown molding along the tops of each wall.
Shelves run the length of the walls, each filled with
(02:06):
the tar Heel Women's National Championship trophies standing shoulder to
shoulder fifteen sixteen, and then we finished second. So this
stretch was that's a pretty good stretch, right. We're hunting
for the trophies from two thousand eight and two thousand nine,
which is trickier than you might imagine, and that here
are the presidents, by the way, every time we win
(02:28):
a national championship, the presidents in vitus in so here
we are with Obama, the Bushes. There's another Bush. Yeah,
and I've got a couple in my office as well.
The players and coaches who have passed through u n
c S women's program are not just icons of the game.
In many ways, they're the very architects of an entire sport.
(02:51):
And here's Christine Lily mia Hamm, there's Kaylia Ohi, and
there's me again, and there's April Heinrich. She's also just
a very important figure our history. Dorance's teams have been
winning national titles since before women's soccer was even recognized
as a sport by the n C Double A and
was instead overseen by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for
(03:11):
Women or the ai a W. It's twenty two national championships,
but not two n C Double A championships, because that
first one was an ai W championship. Finally, along the
third wall of the room, nearly all the way in
the corner, after what feels like a gold plated eternity,
Dorrence finds the trophies were looking for, so yeah, so
(03:34):
there you go. Those are justice from the Charlotte Observer,
Raleigh News and Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I Heart Radio.
This is Payback. I'm Alexandreev and this is part four
Tough as Nails. I even remember the room we were in.
(04:03):
It was on the left off the main hallway, so
I know the room we were in, and I think
the principal was in the room with me. They're in
a little room off the main hallway at Cactus High School.
Just sat with her father and grandmother. It was two
thousand five and Anson Dorens made his recruiting pitch for
Just to come play at the University of North Carolina.
(04:23):
It was a pitch Dorens had carefully honed over time.
I think at first, when you start coaching, it's about
you know, the system, the four four two or whatever.
It's about player development, But honestly, it's not what it is.
At the highest level of coaching. It's about getting as
close to as many people as possible. Dorrence began his
(04:45):
UNC coaching career in n with the Tar Hills men's
team Two years later, players on the women's club team
at u NC petition the school for their team to
be upgraded to the varsity level. Doran's argued on their behalf,
so the athletic director at the time and let him
or maybe just made him coach both teams, and the
biggest challenge in coaching the women was learning to lead
(05:08):
them effectively. They have to get a sense that you
respect and admire them for reasons beyond the game. A
male athlete has no issue with his respect coming entirely
from his capacity to dominate competition. A woman doesn't embrace
that as her north star. For nearly a decade, Doran's
coached both squads before committing to the women's game exclusively,
(05:31):
and the North Carolina tar Heels knock off the Ohio
State buck Eyes by a score of two to nothing.
But counting his wins with both the men's and women's teams,
Dorrance has found rarefied air among coaches at any level
of any sport. And coach Dorrance gets is one thousandth
victory as a head coach at the University of North Carolina.
(05:52):
He's got to be aware that the Gatorade is coming
and there it is there at Cactus High. Drance told
Jess that was the growing legacy she could be part of.
At the time, just finished high school, she had won
six state championships with Sereno Sports Programs and a regional championship.
She made a collection of all American teams and was
a member of multiple youth national teams. Darence was giving
(06:15):
Jess the best news of her life on what might
have been the worst day of it. Anson had highlight
tapes of you know, all the seasons, all the trophies.
He's pumping us up, but like, I have all these
mixed emotions going on. I'm nervous, so I'm excited, I'm
angry every emotion and this is my dream come true
meeting and my mood is like changing that. During my reporting,
(06:41):
I tried multiple times to interview Jess's mom, Tracy, but
we couldn't seem to connect with her. Sorry, l box
is full. I asked Lawrence if back in two thousand
five he had any idea of the drama that unfolded
behind the scenes of that recruiting trip. She described a
pretty formative moment for her when she was said to
meet you for the first time at her high school,
(07:03):
and you know, she had to change plans, she said,
and call her dad and her grandmother. And so I'm
curious if you remember those plans shifting at all, what
that meeting was like, I don't remember anything shifting. Um,
I thrive in chaos. So for me, if there was
anything that was disruptive, I'm going with a flow. So
(07:23):
she was pleasant. I mean, she didn't wear her struggles.
Did she have bruises at all or anything, not to
my recollection, But if she did, I wouldn't have associated
it with anything negative. So maybe if she did, for me,
it wasn't a like a social worker where you know
someone beating. You know, for me, it's like, oh yeah,
so you went in on that one and maybe hit
(07:43):
the goalkeeper punch in the face trying to go for
the ball. How cool is that? So my reaction would
be different than you know, someone else that afternoon, someone
else in that room did react differently. A man experienced
with life outside the law in the aftermath of a
fist fight. I can't remember how the words winning and stuff,
(08:04):
but I was asking it, which he hits you full
just as father, since myers, you don't need to be
getting hit. Not at this age period. I was say,
my mom and dam didn't hit me at this age.
I ain't gonna lie nobody to be hit, no my
keys at this age. He's like, why haven't you told
me like that. It's not like you've been consistently in
my life. You know, you're in and out of prison,
(08:25):
You're in and out of you know, South Phoenix, which
is like he said, it is a very dangerous place.
So I said, since it's bad between YouTube, just pack
your bags up and you just come stay with me.
So to split decisions this game for her to come
stay with me right then and there. Mama didn't like it,
(08:45):
but I ain't care. Just ran away from home that day,
clearing out her childhood bedroom with the help of her
estranged father. It began an odyssey of couch surfing, begging
friends for places to stay, and making do on her
own that lasted Jess the next two years. But so
often in Jess's life, success in sports has been directly
(09:09):
driven by adversity. She was battling off the field, and
that has rarely been truer than the day of that
recruiting visit. Because after clearing out her bedroom, Jess had
another competition that evening, and it's one that seemingly everyone
we spoke with an Arizona remembers, even nearly twenty years later.
We'll tell you more about that in a moment. Jesse's
(09:45):
time with the Sereno Soccer Club made her a top
national recruit that she cemented her local legend on the track.
Right around that same time, she met with Dlorance Jess
as old basketball coach Mark Ryan mentioned it to us
on the phone. Used to be a journalists and I
was covering the state track meet. I can remember She's
at the state record for the four d and her
(10:07):
first year ever running track. Dorrance has a story about it.
Jess has a story about it. Jess's father, Vince, has
a story about it, and like any good legend, the
details seem to have evolved over time. I had a
track meet that day. This is all the same day,
so me moving my stuff out like thanks happen with
my mom, aunts and Dorance track meet that day. From
(10:29):
what I can tell from my reporting, all of these
storytellers get at least some of the facts right. So
this is a kid that doesn't know anything except first gear.
It's one of Doran's favorite tales about Jess, delivered with
his distinctive flourish. She's walking through the halls of her
high school one day and the track coach has just
lost his four runners. She's never running the four hunders
(10:50):
in her life, and the track coach walks up to
her high school and says, hey, do you mind just,
you know, running the race, just so I don't have
to forfeit the spot. Sure, I mean, she's such a
nice girl. Sure, I'll jump in. She sets an Arizona
state record in She's never run it in our life.
So let's pause here for a moment. I didn't. True.
It's not possible to determine exactly which spring day Dorn's
(11:13):
visited Cactus High School, but we know from state and
local records that the week of May fourth that year,
Just competed in her school's regional tournament with a shot
at States on the line. In that last race, one
lap around the track, she beat the second place finisher
by three full seconds. The next week, just turned even
(11:36):
more heads at the state Track and Field Championships held
a nearby Mesa Community College. That's the event Jess's former
basketball coach, Mark Ryan remembered from this time as a
local sports reporter. By that state meet, Jess was alternating
between her grandmother's house and Vince's place in South Phoenix,
and Jess's father did something he had rarely done before
(11:58):
attend one of her competitions. Oh there that meat, I know,
she said, a record she ran aft according to state
high school athletic records. Thence watched his daughter run a
four hundred dash. They clocked fifty five point to six seconds. Oh, like,
(12:18):
I didn't even know she could run like that was
shocking for the state record it happened. That wasn't even
a goal of mine. At the Finnish lide. My coach
is just like you literally just at the Arizona state record,
and I was like, excuse me. I had no idea
I was even remotely close to something like that. I
was doing track and field in the first place, not seriously,
(12:39):
just to stay in shape. Four other sports really and
or something like that to happen. I mean, I am
proud of myself for the things that I have accomplished,
you know, along my my journey. It was yet another
sports accolade for Jess to go along with the two
state titles she would win at Cactus High in basketball,
and the various other honors she received playing the game
(13:01):
her mother once loved. At that point just told us
the biggest growth may well have come from the people
around her, particularly her father. He was helping me. You know,
he's she's my dad. Even though I knew how risky
of a lifestyle. I knew he lived. I needed a parent,
and my grandmother stepped in as well. So those two
(13:22):
definitely helped me throughout the rest of my high school career.
Since is the first to acknowledge he didn't exactly turn
into Father of the Year. When she stayed with him,
he was often out late, so he had her take
his navigator and drive herself to school in the mornings,
even though she didn't have a license. I can't get
(13:42):
up at that time. You're gonna have to drive. So
you know, she was driving driving life and that's it.
I can't go. You know, I was coming in too late,
and you know I had you know, last did had
bad habits, you know, but I had to get rid
of She made I say just drive com you know,
he was calling the rich key. This is like really
(14:06):
the first time my father was like really there for
me when I needed him most. I didn't wish her
to stay with me, but I was happy she stayed
with me. I was really proud of what she was
going through. I'm even more proud of Rent to day.
She got what she wants, She get to do what
(14:27):
she wanted to do. I'm very proud of her. Eventually,
Vince about Jesse used car for her own. That made
it easier for her to get out of South Phoenix periodically.
Do you go stay a few days with her friends
or her grandmother Abby? If I want to find you know,
I went to a grandma. Y'all know what Jessica, you know,
(14:48):
and they give me the number. Everything just like that,
you know, was no problem. And you know, even if
Fince hadn't always gotten along with Big Abby during Jesse's
junior and senior years high school, their priorities were clearly
the same. I like bench he took care of her
when she was at my house. Is she going to
(15:09):
get because she had an own car? He did what
he want to do, did like which he had then
to do with Jessica. Right, He loved his daughter. He
took care of her, So I don't have been saying
against I don't have been against anybody. There's not me. Still,
(15:32):
the turmoil of couch surfing, particularly with Jess's extracurricular schedule,
was terrible for a kid in school. She was driving
all over Phoenix for school, then basketball practice opens, freaking
McDonald to the basket, then club soccer, then track meets,
(15:53):
then to wherever she was going to sleep that night.
I didn't know how to handle it mentally at that point.
You know, my grade started to decline after that had happened.
S A T score sucked. By that point, my g
p A wasn't up to far with my SAT scores
you would see was out of the window. Joran's took
(16:14):
the news almost as hard as Jes died. I tried
to get her in out of high school, and I
wasn't able to get her in. You know, someone that
is stripped of the tools in high school to try
to succeed at collegiate level is going to continue to
have to fight you tooth and nail to recover. Because
obviously what was critical is we had to get her
(16:34):
academics up to a level where we could admit her.
Jesse's dreams of UNC would have to wait, big time
college sports at all, We're off the table for the moment.
So Jess looked down the street at a scholarship opportunity
from a school where grades wouldn't keep her from playing,
a small community college that plays something like minor league soccer,
and the Bears are blowing it open here in the
(16:56):
first half. She had no idea how large an impact
it would have on her life. Shoot so stuff. When
it was she hall of fame, So it's two hall
(17:18):
of fame. Phoenix College is an eight thousand student community
college located just north of downtown. You want to see
them played. The Bears play under the National Junior College
Athletic Association, so not knowing that the women's soccer team
just won the n j c A A national championship,
(17:40):
or that the men's soccer team has won more than
a dozen county and regional titles might be forgivable. That's
the old gym, and they just redid it. College sports
rosters at this level can be full of players who
were down on their look or couldn't make the grade,
Those looking for a last chance at playing time or
a final path to the big time. All their security,
(18:01):
they wouldn't get into. Dave Cameron is the men's head
soccer coach. Hey, guys, we're doing a story about Jessica McDonald.
Is there any way we can get into the Handley Center?
You mean just for a few minutes or in fluent
from North Carolina, thank you. Sure. Cameron isn't one to
(18:22):
men's words, and it isn't often he sees an athlete
like Jess McDonald come through Phoenix College. She came here
because she had to and we were just fortunate enough
to have her heard for soccer. Phoenix College is a
two year school, and in his twenty years there, Cameron
has seen a handful of Bears athletes in various sports
move up to larger Division One programs and even eventually
(18:44):
go pro. So her stuff is right there. Oh yeah,
the entire trophy case. She almost has a wall to
herself until Jess came along. Phoenix Colledge's most famous athlete
alone was probably Nick Nolty, who only became famous once
(19:04):
he stopped playing college football. So for a Blue Chips
soccer recruit like Jess had been, the talent level for
the Bears women was a little inconsistent when she came
on campus. The women's team at the time wasn't competitive
enough for her, so she was moved up to the
men's team to challenge her. And that's kind of how
I met her. Her first practice, she scored a bicycle
(19:27):
kick and I even wonder on the men's team, so
that's kind of how we met. She just started training
with us because she needed more competition. Jess was on
scholarship at Phoenix College for both soccer and track. She
also played on the women's basketball team. Years later, during
a ceremony at the school in her honor, Morgan Lee,
the women's soccer coach at the time, admitted Jess hadn't
(19:48):
been on the recruiting board at all. I didn't know
anything about her because I was recruiting men's so the
women's side. Morgan Lee at the time, who was the
head coach, definitely knew who she was and was shocked
that even had an opportunity. So he was very fortunate
to have a player of that caliber at this level.
And that two thousand six women's soccer season, Jess recorded
(20:10):
eighteen goals and tennis sists. She was named the Player
of the Year and a first team All American by
the associations that oversee women soccer at that level, but
they have been on a hot streak of late. It's
just a different team. On the basketball court, Jess received
various honors and was the top rebounder in the nation
among JUCO players with thirteen point six rebounds per game,
(20:30):
Phoenix walking it up, taking some time off that clock
shortly game, so to speak. At the time she was
done at Phoenix College, she was the most decorated women's
athlete in the school's history. With talent like that, any
coach would attempted to play Jess as much as possible.
And for a player who only has one gear, the
(20:51):
wear and tear of year round sports for years on
end was bound to add up Phoenix able to hold
on for the two point win down into Son. When
I was watching and played basketball, you could see her
LYMPI and the coach at the time we just player,
player player. I remember watching her play like why are
we playing her so many minutes? But she led him rebound,
(21:13):
she led him scoring, so we presented a different problem.
Despite growing knee pain on the basketball court, when Jess
wasn't practicing with her own teams, she could be found
practicing with Cameron's men's squad. With the men's team, everyone
appreciated her because she was talented. If she couldn't compete,
then she wouldn't be accepted. I don't think as much,
(21:33):
but a lot of her friends are from that team.
She has a the ability to relate to anybody. It's
a unique quality. Jess might have been the most talented
soccer player on campus, men or women, and thanks in
part to her help at practice, that men's team went
on to win their county championship. Shot the goal and
Phoenix ties it. The Bears get the goal, but more importantly,
(21:58):
just his time at Phoenix College, it's the very model
of something larger. It was an example of how community
colleges can provide lifelines to struggling students and acted springboards
for more significant opportunities. In Jess's heart, that still meant
to vision one soccer in the tar Heel State. Absolutely,
I needed to get to you and see I knew,
even at such a young age, I can just throw
(22:18):
it away. And one of the most incredible things that
I was able to have at Phoenix College was great mentorship.
They were like, this is what you literally have to
do if you want to make it to D one,
and I did it, and it was kind of like
hitting the restart button, you know. And if junior college
wasn't even an option for me, I probably wouldn't have
(22:40):
made it to D one. In general, I just didn't
see that realistically happening, and so I took advantage of it.
And that was because of the leadership that I had
on campus. As much as Jess never gave up on
u n C, Dren's never gave up on her. He
kept in touch with her regularly to check on school,
in Jess's home life, and to let her know that
(23:00):
a roster spot would be available for her as soon
as she qualified academically, though Dorn's did have one request.
At the Division one level, the n C Double A
grants players four seasons of eligibility, but the n C
Double A includes seasons played at the community college level,
like Jess was doing. We only played her in soccer
one year because we didn't want to lose eligibility at
(23:22):
the n C Double A. Dave Cameron again mainly because
Ants and Dorrence asked us. Ay, we howeverr not play
the second year, which is very hard for us to do.
If I was a coach, I'd be like, I want
to play her, and you know, I want to win,
but we put her in basketball, so when affect her
eligibility and soccer. In less than two years at Phoenix College,
(23:43):
Jess graduated with honors and an associative arts degree. A
spot on u n c's roster was waiting, Just as
Dorrence had said it would be, Jess finally had Chapel
Hill in her sights. That was like one of the
artist times of my life, from junior year all the
way through my soft where you're in junior college, just
four years of me just trying to figure out who
(24:04):
are you, Jess? You know, just like at myself a mayor,
Who the heck are you? What are you doing? What
do you want to do? And I'm a jock at heart.
I always have been in sports, has always been my life.
And graduate with honors and I was able to transferred
the University of North Carolina. It's not easy being here either.
I mean it's not like you're handed anything. I mean
you have to work for everything. Can't run again. We
(24:28):
can't pick them up, we can't provide him a food card,
we can't provide them housing we can pay for their
school and books and give them hope. That's pretty much
all we can do. Justice success still makes him emotional.
We're here because we get to witness miracles like that.
I considered a miracle when anyone coming from where she
came from having nothing, I mean nothing is she was homeless.
(24:50):
I don't know how many times. And uh when she
told me what was going on, I was crying, like,
which was she dealt with? I was just in tears.
I'm like, how how do you deal with that? We're
an outlet to help people like Jessica McDonald. We'll be
(25:14):
back after the break. Jess arrived at u n C
early in the two thousand eight soccer season. Not all
of her Phoenix College credits transferred over, making her sophomore
in Chapel Hill, but that was still in line with
the three years of soccer eligibility she had remaining. Building
(25:38):
on her grandmother's early influence, just chose African American Studies
as her major. It was my first time I ever
learning about true black history. I feel like that you
learn in school growing up. MLK Malcolm x Rosa Parks.
We get nothing else, Okay, Slavery happened knowing slaves built
my school. I had no idea what slaves built UNC
until I went there, and it was just such a
(25:59):
beautiful thing to be able to learn a little more
in depth about my history here in the United States.
Jess joined the tar Heels seven games into their two
thousand eight season. Jess was joining a team that felt
a fire in them, coming off of a rare loss
(26:21):
the year before in the quarterfinals of the n C
Double A tournament to Notre Dame, and once she finally
got her shot, she made the most of it. Despite
missing the first quarter of the season, Jess would finish
that year with five goals, catching up statistically to the
rest of the team. By season's end, she led the
squad and assists. Soon, the Tar Heels were once again
(26:43):
on a collision course with Notre Dame in the n
C Double A championship game. I remember drawing a foul
about twenty yards out from the goal and Casey Gara
just took this quick free kick and ended up scoring,
and I was like, Yes, things just kind of went
upboard from that point on. North Carolina won that game
two to one. Jess was celebrating a national championship at
(27:08):
her dream school. It seemed so far from where she
had started. You know, here is this young woman who
had some really great challenges in her life before she
got to u n C. Cindy Parlo Cone was an
assistant coach on that two thousand eight u n C team.
(27:28):
You first heard from her in part one of this season.
As a member of that historic US women's national team
during her college days, when she was known as Cindy Parlow,
she won national titles as a tar heel player. Then,
after rising all the way up to play for the
women's national team, she came back to u n C
(27:50):
to begin her coaching career. Perhaps more than anyone in
all of women's soccer today, Carlo Cone represents the intermingling
of elite, amateur, professional, and international women's soccer in the
United States. That two thousand eight season was the first
time Parlocone cross paths with Jess, but it certainly wouldn't
be the last. She was obviously a great player, but
(28:14):
then to see her get there and be one of
the players that reaches out to others to lift others up,
when you know that she's one that has been struggling.
I didn't have the full story at the time, which
makes it even a better story now. Players from that
EURA told us that fitting in with the culture Dorance
fostered on the team it was almost as important as
(28:35):
understanding their assignments on the field. Anson he just creates
this culture where you have to be a good person
or you're not gonna last. He Leah Watt is a
forward for the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women's
Soccer League. She played at u n C a few
years after Jess. We got to know Jess well in
the pro game. We had to read books and we
(28:55):
had values that you had to live by, and when
you get to a with someone that went to u
n C, you just have this connection. And it is
definitely one of the reasons Jess and I have been
so close and have loved playing together. As a tactician,
Dorance has long employed a specific style of play, and
by the start of the two thousand nine season just
(29:17):
fit in perfectly. And you see we have a substitution
pattern because we try to press for ninety minutes, and
to press for ninety minutes, you've got to be extraordinarily fit.
We spoke with Dorance on multiple occasions for this podcast.
This time it was over the phone. We would start
Jess because she was certainly one of our best players,
and after about thirty minutes in the first half, we
(29:38):
would supper. Dorrance's scheme is notorious for its defensive pressure.
While three defenders hold a high line, three forwards disrupted plays.
It's been described as like a pass Russian football before
checking in hockey. Meant to press an opponent in their
space and not give them time to settle. And I
have a lot of stories of other players that we
would sell about this one play. She would get so
(30:01):
upset and say I'm not even tired, and my response
to her was exactly In other words, you didn't do
a bloody thing the whole time you are in there,
which is why we're taking you out. Jess exerted extraordinary
effort in Dorance's scheme, which led to peer out of
cortisone shots for her nagging me pain, but her attitude
never wavered. Momly would supper out. Just would be breathing
(30:22):
so hard it sounded like she was going to have
a heart attack or an aneurysm, and she would high
five me my coaching staff in the entire bench. This
just doesn't happen in our game. Jess and her grandmother
Abby made a habit out of talking before most games,
(30:43):
certainly the big ones. I just told her that never
go up, stay strong, and you guys say, focus on
your steph. Nobody else you know, and ain't gottadn't do it,
nobody else you know, you can do it, do it,
don't worry about the team. Anybody support him, but don't
(31:04):
let him abody take your joy away. The two thousand
nine tar Heels blew through the regular season, then toppled
Notre Dame again in the n C Double A semifinals.
All that remains was the championship match in the top ranked,
undefeated Stanford. For that clash of Titans, Abby wanted to
(31:25):
be in the stands, and before that final, Abby would
give her signature pep talk in person. She clearly remembers
the pregame conversation she had with her granddaughter and what
she said were the perils of an undefeated team getting overconfident. Grandma,
who you say, don't win the game, as we're gonna
win the game, step and lost the game. Ain't nobody
(31:46):
gonna beat us? Be dea you hear me and welcome
to College Station Texas. Signed about in just the third
minute of the game, just made an impact. That girl
chased someone down. Kevin mcdone remembers exactly how it happened.
She chick came all the way from the other side
of the field, chased her down, stole the ball, got foul.
(32:08):
Fellow Tar Heel striker Casey A. Gara lined up her
free kick on Stanford's side of midfield. She crossed the
ball deep into Stanford's penalty box, where Jess split two
defenders and met the ball with her right foot on
a dead sprint. The garret play the tar Heels Jessica McDonald,
(32:28):
what's up? Jesse's gold was the only one of the match.
The Tar Heels held on one to nothing, but their
second straight national title final change seconds the mess girl
in the third minute the Jesse's There's some players I'm
(32:54):
paid to coach. There's some players that coach for free.
And that's a player I would pay to coach. Hands
and durance. Again, I didn't have to do anything for Jess.
She came in fully formed, she came in tough as nails,
and yet somehow she just ended up so positive that
(33:14):
two thousand nine Championship would be her final game for
the Tar Heels, but that signature toughness would have to
last Jess far beyond her time at U n C,
and on part five of Payback, I end up getting
drafted and within minutes here I am thinking my pro
career is done. When she came to me, I was
looking at her, going, Holy cow, we've got an uphill
(33:36):
battle here in her head. She want to play in
the World Cup. If I was going to bet on it,
I wouldn't bet on it. I was going to tell
her that it's not uncommon to come back, but it's
uncommon to come back as good or better than your world.
It absolutely does seem plausible that pregnancy could help the
healing process. I'm Alexandrea. Payback is a production of The
(33:57):
Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News, An Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I
Heart Radio. It's produced by Cotta Stevens, Casey Toth, Julia Wall,
and Davin Cockburn. The executive producer for iHeart Radio is
Shawn ty Tone. For lots more on this story and
to support journalism like this, visit Charlotte observer dot com
slash payback or news observer dot com slash payback. And
(34:22):
for more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
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