Passion, Pride & Perseverance: Haley Carter ('06) Talks Navy Soccer and Her Mission to Grow the Women's Professional Game

Episode Transcript
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Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports.
We are well into the fallsports season, with league play
just around the corner.
Several teams are off toimpressive starts, including
volleyball, water polo andwomen's soccer, and it was great

(00:35):
to see Coach Brian Newberrypick up his first win as Navy's
football coach, as the midshutout Wagner 24-0.
I'll update you on each ofthose teams and I've got a
terrific guest to help mepreview the women's soccer team
in our deep dive segment.
In fact, even if you don'tfollow soccer, you're going to
want to make sure you check itout.
You want to talk about makingan impact on the international
scale and helping to save lives.
My guest has done exactly thatand I can't wait for you all to

(00:56):
meet her, so please don't goanywhere.
Okay, it is great to have youall with us on this 54th episode
of Navy Sports Central, whetherthis is your first visit or
you're a regular listener,thanks for taking the time.
We've got a lot to talk about,so I'm going to get right into

(01:17):
this sports update.
As I mentioned in the opening,there are several Navy teams
that have had an excellent startto their season.
Topping that list is thevolleyball team.
The mids have won eight oftheir first nine matches and are
currently on a seven matchwinning streak.
In fact, they swept the lastfour teams they played, and that
includes taking down theUniversity of Maryland for the
first time a couple of weekendsago.
Now, the one thing I've noticedabout this team so far is they

(01:40):
are consistently winning the bigpoints, and I'm talking about
when both teams have put up atleast 20 points in a set, and
everyone is critical from thatpoint on.
When it matters the most, themids have found a way to make a
key offensive or defensive playto earn the point and go on to
win the match.
That is a direct reflection ofsenior leadership, and this Navy
team is playing at an elitelevel because of athletes like
Jamie and Jordan Llewellyn, AnnaKlemeyer, Maggie Bodman and

(02:03):
Averi Miller.
The Mids start their PatriotLeague schedule this Friday at
Loyola.
The match will be carried onESPN Plus, so if you happen to
have it, be sure to tune in.
This could be a really specialyear for this team, so you'll
definitely want to check themout.
Next up we've got Water Polo.
The Mids have beaten two rankedteams number nine, Long Beach
State and number 19, Santa Clarain the last few weeks.
That was good enough to pullthem up to number 13 in the

(02:25):
rankings.
Unfortunately, that numberproved to be a little bit
unlucky as they dropped theirnext contest to Wagner in
overtime.
That puts the team at five andthree as they get ready for
their upcoming conferenceschedule and no doubt Coach
Nikolai will have them ready togo and be sure to hang in there
all the way through to ourmid-watch segment, because our
male athlete that we'll befeaturing is a member of the
Water Polo team.
Women's soccer is also off to agreat start, and we are going

(02:47):
to talk about some of those keyplayers in our deep dive segment
.
Right now.
Coach Gabarra has got the Midsplaying very well.
The only team to score morethan one goal against them was
the University of Maryland, butthe offense finally did get
going and managed to get out ofCollege Park with a 3-3 tie.
Right now, the team is 4-1 and3, which includes three road
wins, so that's prettyimpressive.
They just finished up theirnon-conference schedule with a
4-1 win over University ofMaryland, baltimore County, and

(03:10):
they opened up their PatriotLeague slate with Loyola on
Friday September 15th.
And finally, coach Newberry andthe Navy football team have
their first win of the season.
The defense looked really goodin shutting out Wagner 24-0.
The mids forced five, three andout Seahawk possessions and
they also got the ball backafter stopping them on fourth
down.
In addition to picking up afumble recovery and an
interception.

(03:30):
That total of eight surpassedCoach Newberry's get six goal
and you'll recall that's whenthe defense get six three-nought
possessions, forced turnoversor fourth down stops combined.
Ty Levitite was very steadyunder center, making some good
decisions with the football.
He led the mids on a veryimpressive 75 yard drive on just
five plays right before thehalf to put the team up 17 to
nothing.
Those five plays were allpasses, by the way, and I don't

(03:52):
have any idea when the last timewas that Navy had five
successfully completed passes ina row in a game where they were
ahead at the time.
Anyway, my favorite play of thegame was a 46 yard touchdown run
by sophomore slot back EliHeidenreich, and that came with
about 10-44 left in the thirdquarter.
Levitite just handed it to himas he went in motion left to
right and after he broke throughthe line, heidenreich made a

(04:12):
couple of very impressive cuts,got to the sidelines and worked
his way down for a score.
But the best thing about thatplay was Navy right guard Josh
Pena running downfield justahead of Heidenreich At about
the 27 yard line.
He delivered a key block thatbasically cleared the way into
the end zone, and the funnything about that block was it
wasn't one of those decleders oranything like that, you know,
one of those ones where thedefender just gets planted into

(04:35):
the ground.
Penny just basically pushedthis defensive back and sent him
sprawling five yards downfield.
It looked like he was justshoving this little toy doll out
of the way.
In any case, the mids offenselooked a little bit better, but
there's still a fair amount ofwork to do as they continue to
internalize Coach Chestnut'soffense.
The strong positive yards onthe pass plays was definitely a
plus, though.
Lavotype passed for 161 yardsand the offense did run for 245,

(04:59):
averaging about 5.5 yards percarry.
So on balance I'd say it was adecent day.
Okay, that takes care of oursports update.
Don't go anywhere.
Our deep dive segment is next.
This episode's deep divesegment features the Navy
women's soccer team and with metoday to talk about them is a

(05:19):
member of the class of 2006.
She played goalkeeper for coachKaren Gabara and then went on
to serve eight years in theMarine Corps making two combat
deployments in support ofOperation Iraqi Freedom.
She played a team of two teams,one in the Navy and one in the
Navy.
She played a team of two teams,one in the Navy and one in the
Navy.
She served eight years in theMarine Corps making two combat
deployments in support ofOperation Iraqi Freedom.
She has played in coach soccerat every level, including

(05:42):
professionally andinternationally, and she still
managed to find the time to earnan MBA from the University of
Liverpool and a law degree fromthe University of Houston.
So I'm extremely pleased tohave Hailey Carter from the
class of 2006 here with me today.
Hailey, I really appreciate youjoining me on Navy Sports
Central.
Thanks for taking the time.

Haley (06:00):
Absolutely.
Thanks, Karl Pleasure's mine.

Karl (06:02):
All right, so there's quite a bit of stuff I want to
go over with you, so let's goahead and jump right into it.
First of all, can you brieflyrecap how you got started in
soccer when you were young andwhat led you to the Naval
Academy?

Haley (06:15):
Yeah, so soccer was the very first organized sport that
I got into and I started playingbecause I went to a tournament
with two of my boy cousins andthey were a couple years older
than me, maybe four or fiveyears older than me and I went
to a tournament with them and Ithought it was the coolest thing
ever.
So when I got home I told mymom that I wanted to play soccer
and that was in kindergarten.

(06:36):
So I started playing.
I started playing in four orfive on a YMCA team and I was
the only girl on the team andthen I moved After kindergarten.
I moved to another suburb and Istayed in that suburb.
I grew up, spent my whole lifethere, so first grade through
12th grade and I found a girl Iseemed to play on and I grew up

(06:58):
playing with those same girls inhigh school in club and was
really fortunate to be able todo some great things with that
group of athletes and many of uswent on to play Division I
college soccer.
So it was pretty cool.
It was a very fortunate groupof other athletes to grow up in
and support structure wasfantastic.

Karl (07:19):
Now, was that the only sport you played?

Haley (07:22):
Of course, not right.
I grew up playing every sportthere was, just as an athlete.
I think you know I grew up.
I'll tell you what I didn't do.
I did not do track and I didnot do cross country.
I'm sure you'll find thatshocking, being that I was a
goalkeeper.
Those two sports were of nointerest to me, but I ran plenty
of track for Karen while I wasplaying soccer at Navy.
So but I you know basketball,softball.

(07:45):
I played Little League Baseballfor a year.
I love tennis, racquetball.
I grew up playing golf.
For my 16th birthday my parentsgot me a new set of golf clubs
and then my favorite sportoutside of soccer was water polo
.

Karl (08:00):
How about that?

Haley (08:01):
I played water polo in high school.
The coach for the water poloteam came to me and asked if I
could play in goal.
She was like you know how toswim?
Can you tread water?
I was like, yes, I can do thosethings.
And so I became the goalkeeperfor the high school water polo
team and I felt like I wascheating the system a little bit
, because when you went to highschools that didn't have, they

(08:24):
had sort of a shallow end, itwasn't like an even depth pool
Goalkeepers could stand, and soI'm like standing on the ground
defending a goal that's like thesize of a hockey goal and
players that I'm playing againstare swimming, can't touch the
bottom of the pool, right.
And I've thought well, if I canstop soccer balls, I can
definitely stop balls beingthrown at me when I'm defending

(08:46):
a goal.
That's my wingspan, basically.
So I had a great time, I lovedit and it was sort of a stress
release for me.
I love soccer.
Soccer has been my identity fora long, long time, but it's
historically been a stressgenerator In some circumstances.
Right, it's a stress release,but when you do it at a high

(09:06):
enough level, it can be verystressful.
So, having other sports andother outlets that I had that I
could just enjoy and have funand obviously I love to win but
that I wasn't quite as seriousabout was a release for me.
Those were hobbies, if you will.

Karl (09:23):
Right right Now.
Given all those wide interestsin terms of the other sports,
what was it about soccer inparticular that made it your
sport of choice?

Haley (09:31):
I mean, I think being a goalkeeper mattered right, I
loved being in goal and I thinkwhen you grew up there's a lot
of players they don't want to goin goal and I wanted to play in
goal.
I love the ability to impactthe game, to be able to keep
your team in a game, and theleadership and responsibilities
that sort of come with that andthe accountability that comes
with that when you give up goals.

(09:52):
And that really resonated withme and I think you know
something obviously I was goodat and so I enjoyed it and a lot
of opportunities presentedthemselves because of it.
And you know, even looking backnow, I think the amount of
opportunity that I was giventhrough the game you know I'm

(10:12):
thankful for and I was thankfulfor it.
Even then I was smart enough torealize I could go to college
and continue to play and get mycollege paid for and all these
other things.
So being good at it helped, butit was something that I just
really thoroughly enjoyed and it, like I said, it was my
identity.
That's what the other sports Ifound to be fun, because I was

(10:33):
an athlete and, like I said, Iloved to compete and win, but I
loved soccer.
I was eating, sleeping andbreathing it as a kid.
I had posters all over my walland you know I was like 15 for
the 99ers and you know I was atan Olympic development camp when
that happened.
So it was just something thatwas defined, really, who I was
especially like in my formativeyears.

Karl (10:55):
So Right, right Now to that point.
You know you mentioned the99ers there.
That was probably the firstwomen's World Cup that I saw.
Obviously, it got started in1991, so you know, back then you
had your Brandy Chastain, yourMia Ham, that group, and most
recently you've had players likeMegan Rapinoe and Abby Wambach.

(11:19):
Before all of them was KarenGubara.
Okay, she led that 91 team tothe World Cup title and she was
named the tournament's topplayer.
So my question to you is howmuch did her reputation play a
role in you deciding to go toNavy?

Haley (11:33):
I'll be honest with you, it didn't much play a role and I
think that's something thatpeople it's important for people
to realize and this may be thismay I can't speak for all
athletes that go to Navy, butyou know I didn't go to Navy to
play soccer.
I went to Navy because I knewthat I wanted to serve my
country.
It was a good school.
I knew that I would graduateand be prepared to lead in all

(11:56):
sorts of different scenarios andsituations.
So you know, my decision to goto the Naval Academy was
distinct, I would say, from mydecision to play college soccer.
I think having the ability tocompete in NCAA Division I
athletics was icing on the cake.
But I got recruited to plentyof Power Five Division I schools
to play soccer.
So my decision to go to Navyhad nothing to do with the

(12:18):
soccer.
I mean, it was beneficial, Iwas scouted and so I had a
relationship with Karen and Robgoing into it.
But I think it's important tojust be transparent that my
decision to go to Navy was to goto Navy.
I made the decision pretty earlyon, probably in like seventh
grade, I think in 97 or 98.
There was a documentary thatcame out by the Discovery

(12:41):
Channel and it basicallyfeatured all of the service
academies and each year at theservice academy and what that
experience was like and summertraining and those sorts of
things.
And I remember watching thatdocumentary and telling my mom
in seventh grade I wanted to goto the Naval Academy and that
sort of became my goal from thebeginning.
So as I got older and startedgetting recruited to play

(13:04):
college soccer, of course Iexplored all of my opportunities
and options but I really wantedto go to Navy and so you know
that.
I can even tell you that Ithink there are some athletes
that Went for the sports and Iremember being frustrated.
Those athletes like you'remissing the picture right, like

(13:24):
you know that.
That you know it might bedifferent for other sports, but
the things that guided mydecision-making around playing
at Navy and and thencommissioning into the Marine
Corps were really around likeservice.
And the concept of service andhow important that was and and
how influential that was in mylife.
It was just a very fortunateOpportunity that I was going to

(13:49):
be able to continue playingdivision one College soccer and
continue that career and beingable to play for somebody with,
you know, the, the profile thatKaren has and and even being
supported by Rob Blank, was aphenomenal opportunity.
But what guided mydecision-making was certainly
the school itself and and whatthat could possibly mean for my

(14:10):
future and and beyond.

Karl (14:15):
I appreciate it.
I guess a better question mighthave been I don't know if you
got recruited by West Point orAir Force, what kind of broke
out Navy from those?

Haley (14:23):
I was not interested in either school, so I probably got
a letter I.
I probably got a letter from atleast one of them, but I would
have chunked it in the trash assoon as I got it.
So it's right and.
You know, working with youngathletes and like, yeah, you
know, any of the serviceacademies could be a great
option for you, but I was hellbent on going to Navy.
I had no interest in going toschool anywhere near the Hudson

(14:44):
River.
Colorado Springs is nice, butthey have no history or legacy.
You know their brand new.
They haven't been around for alittle while.
So yeah it was.
It was Navy.
For me it was like Navy orbusts.

Karl (14:56):
Yeah, I, I feel the same way.
In fact, my dad was in the AirForce and I had.
I can't even count the numberof people asked me why don't you
go to the Air Force Academy?
I said, well, because, like yousaid, they had no history.
You know, I was all about justthat, just that tradition and
that sort of thing, and I had nointerest in going to To West
Point at whatsoever, because allI could envision was cold.

Haley (15:16):
The building is gray, the skies are gray, the uniforms
are gray, the grass is gray.
I hear it's nice in the screen,but All right, let's.

Karl (15:27):
Let's jump into a coach Gavara's coaching style a little
bit.
What?
What are a couple of thingsabout that style that resonated
with you.

Haley (15:34):
I think there are really two things about her that stood
out to me that I probably havecarried on with me and in
various leadership positionswithin the game, and the first
one is the importance oftreating everyone in your
program as though they're valuedwhen they're with you in your
program and then in the yearsthat follow and.

(15:54):
So if you look back at my careeras I was a goalkeeper right,
there's only one goalkeeper thatstarts in a in the match, but
we traditionally will carry acore of three or four
goalkeepers depending on theyear.
So you know I actually sat thebench my plea beer through my
second-class year.
I didn't start until I was afirst-team but I got really good
at understanding my role andknowing my role and feeling

(16:17):
valued in that role that when Ishowed up at training, like
training was my game day.
So there was an expectationthere that I Show up and be the
best that I can for my teammatesin that, in that role.
And so from Karen standpoint,you know the way that she
treated all of us and and reallywent out of her way to make
sure that all of us felt valuedand got, you know, an equal

(16:39):
amount of attention.
And from a developmentstandpoint, we felt like they
were invested in us.
And you know it was hard, Ithink for me, being a
High-performing athlete comingout of high school and
relatively highly touted likeit's disappointing.
I remember being reallydisappointed in my plea and in
youngster years with not gettingplaying time and and that was a

(17:00):
hard lesson to learn, but therecouldn't have been a better
place for me to learn thatlesson, and that lesson has
served me well in manyenvironments, in many contexts,
and it serves me well now.
And and leading in the pro game, because we have athletes here
as well that you know, thenumber one thing that they want
to do is see playing time.
So the importance of that andthe importance of you know we

(17:21):
talk about here in ourenvironment in Orlando, that it
doesn't matter if you're here ontrial for two weeks or if
you're signed to a multi-yearagreement.
It doesn't matter if you're atrialist or if you're Marta, you
know, the six-time FIFA worldplayer of the year.
We're gonna treat you the sameexact way.
You know, we're gonna treat youas though your value, we're
gonna make sure you have all theresources that you need to
succeed and to develop.
And that's something that'sreally Stuck with me and we talk

(17:44):
about as well in the pro game.
Every player leaves anenvironment, so whether they
retire, they get traded, theyget waived, they go on loan, the
reality is anybody who comes inis at some point gonna leave
and and that's also probablytrue of the staff and so
ensuring that that athletes andand personnel who work for us
are Developing on and off thefield as people and as players

(18:06):
or as coaches, that they'releaving in a better place than
when they arrived, and I thinkthat that's something that
really that stood out to me, andplaying for Karen and the
growth that I did in the fouryears that I was there, that's
just something that's reallystuck with me.
And then the second thing, too,is is the importance of really
getting to know your players andyour athletes and who they are

(18:26):
off the field Right.
I think that's something youknow when you're.
I look back at what I was likeat 18 and 22 years old, and one
I was infuriating for sure I Canonly imagine.
Like, looking back on, I feellike I've lived 20 lifetime
since then and the person that Iwas then very different than
the person that I am now.
But the effort and time thatthe staff and Karen and Rob and

(18:51):
others Greg Calhoun it was ourathletic trainer, who's one of
my people I'm put into Gettingto know us as as people as much
as as players, and that'sespecially important at Navy,
where You're taking 20 hours asemester on top of playing
college athletics and, yeah, you, they had to make the effort to

(19:13):
get to know us because there'sjust so little time, there's so
little time that we get to spendwith them.
So whether we're in the weightroom at lunchtime or we're
training after school, it isgenuinely a really limited
amount of time and you look atthe length of the college season
it's not very long, even withspring season and the fall
season.
You're you're kind of limitedon time.
So they went out of their wayto make the effort to really get

(19:36):
to know us as as people as muchas players and really Be
invested in what we wanted toachieve and what we were doing
off the field, how we wereperforming, what was going on in
our lives, what was causingstress and that sort of stuff,
and and really supporting that,really supporting the academic
struggle, if you will, of Navy,because you know you look at
other schools and division oneprograms and it's the sports

(19:59):
that are the priority, not theacademics and.
So to be supported on that levelwas really important to okay,
so you finished up your time.

Karl (20:07):
They graduated in 2006 with honors.
Right yeah, eight years in aMarine Corps.
You mentioned playing soccerprofessionally.
How did that opportunity comeup?

Haley (20:17):
So I was really fortunate I was able to continue playing.
While I was in the Marine CorpsI played on deployment right,
and this is actually a funnystory.
My roommate on my firstdeployment was a girl named
Stephanie Drake.
She was Stephanie Parker atNavy and her married name is
Drake and we were teammates andshe was a logistics officer as
well.
We were roommates.
I was awake at night, she wasawake during the day, so I was a

(20:38):
day sleeper.
But we would go and play intournaments on Fallujah, you
know, once a month and we go andplay pick up, and we actually
got connected with several Iraqiinterpreters that were working
on Fallujah, because Quinn Nash,who was Quinn Reinhardt at the
time, and Claire Henry had beenthere on the deployment right
before us.
So they told the interpretershey, we have two teammates from

(21:00):
Navy that are coming and so youcan start to play with them, and
so we kind of just tagged out,so we started playing with them.
And then On my next deploymentI was at Al-Assad, but some of
those interpreters had movedfrom Fallujah because by that
point we had closed Fallujah andwe had moved a lot of things to
Al-Assad, and so Then I wasplaying again with the same
interpreters that a year and ahalf before in Fallujah I've

(21:22):
been playing with.
So I was really fortunate to beable to get to just play from,
like I said, from a stressrelease standpoint.
In between deployments I wasable to compete on the all-arm
forces team.
So I competed in two worldchampionships for that and it's
just an amazing Time, you know,for for those of us, for the
vast majority it was, you know,air Force grads, west Point

(21:43):
grads, navy grads.
There was a few other collegeathletes that did ROTC and a few
enlisted athletes and and forus, I think many of us that was
the highest level of Soccer thatwe had played.
If you know much about theCouncil for International
Military Sports System, whenthey host these world
championships you have countrieslike Germany, south Korea and

(22:05):
Brazil who all have sort ofobligatory service requirements,
and so what winds up happeningis you get their U23 national
teams or some of their seniornational team players who come
in.
You know they get issued amilitary ID card and a uniform
and then they go and theycompete in these Tournaments and
that wants up being theirservice obligation to their

(22:25):
country.
So the Brazilian U23s wouldshow up and they'd all be like
third-class petty officers inthe Navy.
They'll be wearing the sameuniform and you know we'd show
up and it'd be a smattering ofall of the different service
branches and but the soccer wassome of the best soccer that you
could imagine.
And so there's athletes thatyou know I played against Then

(22:46):
in those tournaments who thenlater came to the NWSO and I've
seen in other environments aswell.
So that was incredible.
That was that was reallyfortunate to be able to do that.
And then I moved to Hawaii.
I was stationed in Hawaii withthe joint POW MIA accounting
command and when I was not outon missions for that I Was able
to play semi professionally fora club called the Honolulu bowls

(23:07):
and there's this league calledthe W1 League there and it's
it's very much.
You know you get together andyou go out to a Soccer park.
It's, it's it very much seemslike Recreational soccer.
You know I get to a soccer park, you play on a Sunday afternoon
and there's 20 other fieldswith kids on it and and whatever
.
But the the level of the soccerthere was actually quite good.

(23:28):
Caprice Didasco, who nowactually plays for the Houston
dash, was my teammate and Forthe bowls and she was a senior
in high school.
She was getting ready to go toUCLA, and so you look at the
level of players that wereplaying in that league and it
was actually one of being reallycompetitive.
And that was 2011, 2012, 2013.
When I got out of the MarineCorps.

(23:49):
I took a job in Austin.
I took a corporate procurementjob, and so it was just a
successor in the Marine Corps.
So not long after that, thedash were established as an
expansion team in the NationalWomen's Soccer League and I Got
a call from their new head coach, and just back then you only
could sign two goalkeepers to acontract, and you need more than

(24:13):
two goalkeepers to survive aseason.
You need more than twogoalkeepers to survive a
preseason right.
And so you know, I got askedwell, you know You're back in
Texas, right, and you want towould you be interested in
coming in?
Well, of course I would.
So you know, it's like we'llcome to open tryouts and then
we'll see how you're doing it,open tryouts and then we'll go
from there.
So I went to open tryouts and Igot invited to come in for

(24:36):
preseason and then I was therefor as a reserve for the next
three seasons.
So there you go.

Karl (24:43):
Good deal, all right.
So now I wanted to transitionand talk about some of the
players on this year's Navy team.
I know that with your skills oneverything, it's been really
tough to follow, but theapproach I'd like to take is
just basically Throw out aboutthe you know five players out
there, give you some little bitof background and then ask you
to draw upon your player andcoach experience To provide some

(25:05):
perspective for me.
Okay, sounds great.
So I want to start with JennaDaunt, who is a senior
midfielder.
She's from Haymarket, virginia,which is about 40 miles west of
DC, and she has been a constantpresence on the field the last
two years, especially starting31 of 38 games, I think, and one
of the things that have beenpointed out about her she's very

(25:26):
, very good two-way player, asmost midfielders have to be, as
as I.
You know, and I will tell youright now that I'm not
tremendously schooled in soccerI, you know I try to educate
myself as much as I can.
There are some sports that kindof cross over, like I'm very
familiar with lacrosse and therole of midfielders and lacrosse
and and that sort of thing, butto, from what I've been able to

(25:48):
find out, the midfielders insoccer.
They have a ton ofresponsibility, just based on
whatever the team strategy is.
Yeah, but one thing that Ithink is fair to say is they got
to be really good in transition, they got to have really good
positional awareness and theyhave to have an eye for creating
scoring opportunities.
So that's something Jenna'sbeen able to do fairly
consistently, and I waswondering if you could Kind of

(26:10):
speak to those three skills, ifyou could maybe force rank them
or or, and throw in a couplethat I might have left out.
Yeah, and, and just tell mewhat, as a coach, what
responsibilities as a midfielder, are most important to you.

Haley (26:21):
Yeah.
So I think, if you look at Ourenvironment and and I know I
know the expectations Karen hasof midfielders as well Something
that's important for us whenyou talk about being a two-way
player like you have to be ableto track back and defend.
You know, nobody wants amidfielder who's not going to
put in the work defensively.
So ensuring that you're fitenough to do it and you're smart
enough to read when it needs tobe done, or to even sit and

(26:44):
seams and block and prevent thatfrom happening so that goes
back to your positionalawareness piece.
But so that's something that wereally care about is are you
gonna put the work in?
Are you gonna be the grittyplayer who tracks back and does
what needs to be done,especially in the case of a
turnover, right?
So that matters for us.
The other thing, too, is likewhen you receive the ball, are

(27:06):
you looking forward?
Are you taking a forward touch?
Are you looking for seams?
And on the other side, ifyou're off the ball and we've
now regained possession, are youfinding seams right?
So that positional awarenessyou talk about, are you looking
around to find the space that'savailable?
Are you creating space for yourteammates based upon your
movements.
So obviously you need to betechnical enough to be able to
play one touch, two touch, findthose goal scoring opportunities

(27:28):
, not be afraid to take a shotwhen you can get it at the top
of the box and having thatconfidence.
But for midfielders, reallybeing that all around footballer
, where you are smartdefensively, you're mobile,
you'll track back.
But also, the minute that thattransition happens and you
regain possession, are yougetting into those spaces that
you're creating opportunitiesfor your team to advance and

(27:50):
build up the field?
From what I've heard, jenna isthat player right, she's a
complete package, she's able toget into those spaces, but she's
also willing to do the workdefensively.
So having a player like thatthat's tenacious offensively and
defensively is like hittingjackpot as far as a midfielder
is concerned, for sure.

Karl (28:07):
Yeah, yeah, and I wanna take a second to ask you this
question as well, because socceris one of those sports that,
when you look at it thingstatistically right, I mean
certainly there's goals andassists in the offensive end and
specific to the goalkeeper,there's saves and goals against
average and stuff like that.
But when you talk about thoseplayers like your midfielders

(28:29):
and your backline defenders,your midfielders can get an
opportunity to score for sure,and some of the defenders also,
but not as many statistics totrack them performance wise,
right.
So in your capacity, I guess Ican even address this now, just
based on what your current roleis.
How do you evaluate thoseplayers where those numbers just
don't show up on a sheet allthe time?

Haley (28:49):
Yeah.
So we evaluate a couple ofdifferent stats.
So one I'll tell you, I am verymuch a middle of the road
person in terms of, you know,there's like the science of
soccer and the art of soccer.
So I feel like you can makestats and numbers tell any story
that you want, depending uponhow you use them.
So I like to combine statisticswith the eye test so, you know,
I can look and see whether ornot a footballer is a good

(29:10):
footballer.
But having data to support yourthoughts, or second guess your
thoughts, make you really, youknow, evaluate and reflect on
whether or not what you'reseeing is really what you're
facing sort of testing yourbiases, if you will.
But the statistics we reallylook at, like when we're
scouting players or recruitingthem potentially to sign them.

(29:30):
There's a couple one.
We talk about fitness, right, sowe talk about your average
match speed, your maximum matchspeed, so how fast you are on
kilometers per hour, but alsoyour average, like you know, in
general, like I know how fastyou are, I can see what you can
sprint, but what are you onaverage with the ball at your
feet?
What are you moving at youraverage distance covered in a

(29:52):
match?
Now that can kind of go otherway.
It depends on how smart you areas a player, right?
Some players are running allover the place because they
don't know how to read the gameas well, right, so their average
distance covered in a match canbe a little bit higher.
But it's always good to know.
Like I said, that's why youcouple it with the eye test,
because you can see is thisplayer just a workhorse and
they're just working their tailoff and that's why they're

(30:14):
covering that kind of distance?
Or they just run it around likea chicken with their head bent
out.
So you can make thatdetermination.
But for midfielders, things thatwe look at are like successful
tackles.
So if they go in for a tackle,we talk about the defensive work
, like what is their successrate?
When they go in for a tackle,we also look at their successful
passing percentage, right, sohow accurate on average are the

(30:35):
passes that they're making?
And then we also look at justnot from a statistic standpoint,
but just in general, like youcan look at a heat map it's
similar to that but what aretheir successful through passes?
So what kind of opportunitiesare they creating for the front
line?
Are they getting balls playedin behind the back line, and so
you can start to see that basedon what passes are they making,

(30:56):
so not just what is theirsuccessful pass percentage, but
also like, how dangerous are thepasses that they're making
successfully.
And so we tend to evaluate allof those stats right, and we're
really fortunate because we'vegot plenty of stats and video
available for us to use toevaluate players.
But those are the kinds ofthings that we're looking at,

(31:18):
and especially for midfielders.

Karl (31:20):
All right, good stuff.
Next, I want to talk aboutthree forwards.
They are Alexa Riddle, MarleyHeaven and Amanda Graciano.
Riddle and Graciano are bothjuniors.
Heaven is a sophomore and theystarted every game so far.
They're also the top threeleaders on the team in points.
So, Mike, the one thing I didnotice, though, when I was

(31:40):
looking at their assists, isthere's a fair number of assists
to each other.
In other words, they are yousee, Riddle assisting Heaven and
Graciano assisting both of them, vice versa.
So, first of all, my thoughtthere was okay, they seem to
have pretty good chemistrydeveloping because they're
looking for each other all thetime, and that makes a lot of
sense.
What other things do you lookfor in a starting forward line

(32:06):
that demonstrates, okay, thesefolks are building good
chemistry, and what can you doto develop that chemistry
further?

Haley (32:12):
Yeah.
So I think not enough can besaid about the importance of
chemistry.
With any line, to be honestwith you, whether it's a back
line or a front line, thechemistry between the players
matters, but not just thechemistry.
I think, beyond the chemistryof sort of knowing where your
teammates are gonna be, istraining that right, training
what spaces we wanna get into.

(32:32):
So whether you make asubstitution and somebody comes
off, it doesn't matter.
They know the space that theyneed to be into.
And that's something that, whenI was at Navy, we were very
serious about, like ensuringthat you were getting into
dangerous spaces and creatingopportunities for each other
based upon that.
So that's something that weevaluate as well, like we talk
about here in Orlando, forinstance, getting within the

(32:54):
width of the frame of the goal.
So if our forwards, if you havea winger who takes the ball
wide and is able to crosssomething in, we wanna make sure
that the opposite side playerand the nine right, the center
forward, are gonna be makingruns that are at some point
within the width of the goal,because that's the most
dangerous area.
So whether it hits off you, youjust redirected or whatever,

(33:15):
the likelihood of you scoringthe goals is significantly
larger than if you're outsidethe width of the frame of the
goal.
So we talk about that.
We talk about getting intodangerous spaces.
We talk about knowing how toplay in the blind spot of two
center backs right, so can youplay on the blind side of a
defender, so that you can get inbehind the back line.
Right, so that a ball can beplayed through to you.

(33:35):
And now you're going to goal.
And so how do you read that?
How do you read stepping up andcreating space so that somebody
else, potentially, can getbehind?
So we evaluate that.
And then the other thing, too,is having the confidence to take
your chances in front of goal.
It's again something we talkabout here and this is true
across the college game and atNavy is players will get the

(33:57):
opportunity at the top of thebox, but they want to have a
perfect touch, they want to setthemselves up on a silver
platter, and the problem isright if you take too many
touches, you lose possession.
Well, now half of your team isin the attacking third and now
you're facing a counter and atransition with very few people
back.
So trying to explain likelisten, you're better off just
hitting it one time and whiffingit and it going out for a goal

(34:18):
kick, than you are losingpossession, while we're having
to now deal with a counter.
And then, once you present it toplayers like they're like, oh
yeah, I should just shoot it.
You're like, yes, you should.
You should take.
You know, if you got to takeone touch to settle it, fine.
But also don't be afraid to hitit one time.
And if you miss it, you miss it, but have the confidence to try
and attempt to be dangerous,because if you don't miss it,

(34:40):
that's going to be a very, verydangerous strike and that's
going to be very difficult fordefenders and goalkeepers to
deal with.
So, you know, having thatconfidence, getting into
dangerous spaces, knowing how toget in behind the back line and
then, like I said, trainingthat chemistry and training that
these are the spaces weanticipate each other being able
to get into, and then knowingthat.
So, even as you have to makechanges per se, you've got.

(35:01):
You know where your teammatesare going to be, because you've
trained that over and over andover again.

Karl (35:08):
Right, right, right now I'm going to move over to the
defense.
We've got a couple more playersI want to cover.
One of them is KieferWilliamson.
She's a senior who last yearreally started to kind of show
herself as a defender, who wasjust totally reliable.
I mean, I can?
I'll ask you, because I'm notquite certain, based on, again,
my experience with soccer.
So far this year she's averagedabout 75 minutes of field time.

(35:34):
So what is the norm as itrelates to a good defender being
out there on the field in termsof time?

Haley (35:42):
Minutes.
So you know I'll tell you thisis what I love about the college
game is you get reentry in thesecond half.
You know we don't have that inthe pro game.
So for us, for the most part,unless you're making a tactical
adjustment, the backline youstart with is the backline you
end with, and so for us we tendto see consistent 90 minutes at
the pro level but at the collegelevel, again, because you have

(36:05):
reentry and you have the abilityto make some changes in your
backline as you need and ensurethat players that you need to
get a break, catch a breath fora second to get back on, to then
be playing at 100% is reallyfortunate.
I love that.
It makes the game completelydifferent.
Truthfully, there are so manythings that are different about
the college game, but reentry iscertainly a big one.

(36:25):
So you know, being able tomaximize the impact of players
because you have reentryavailable to you, you've got
flexibility when you've gotdepth.
You know it just sort ofdepends, right.
So Karen's got the depth to beable to work with reentry in the
backline and that is a veryfortunate place to be.
I don't recall when I wasplaying there that we had much

(36:48):
depth in our backline.
I remember Lindsay Adlum wasour team captain and she played
in our backline and maybe it wasjust a long time ago, but I
remember pretty consistentlyholding on to our backline as
often as we could.
I think maybe an outside backmight get subbed here or there,
because you know outside back.
Except that position is agassing position.
You are running up and down thefield the entire match.

Karl (37:07):
Right right.

Haley (37:08):
And so, yeah, I think it just varies, and having the
ability, like I said, to doreentry means you've got some
depth and that's a really goodplace to be.

Karl (37:18):
Yeah now, what are some of those qualities in a defender
that fosters that high level oftrust?
In other words, you know if Ican help it.
You are never coming out of thegame.

Haley (37:27):
Yeah, I think you know we talk about fitness.
Fitness has obviously been ahigh priority for Navy for a
very, very long time.
So you have the fitness andyou're smart on the ball, your
decision making and looking forspace, looking for options,
knowing how to create space.
One thing that's very differentnow than when I played is now

(37:47):
the trend is to try and buildout from the back.
When I played, it was who couldkick the ball the furthest,
whether it was off, a pun or agoal kick.
It was how accurate are yourgoalkeepers' distribution skills
, because that really mattered.
And now that's not the case.
Right Now you see a lot of teamsevery team really sort of
building out of the back.

(38:08):
So, being a defender, you'vegot to be somebody who's
comfortable with the ball atyour feet and getting into
spaces.
And finding being able to pingballs 20, 30, 40 yards on the
deck effectively is reallyimportant, but also being smart
about how you're defending,right.
So not just a good 1v1 defender, but how you're defending as a
unit.
And we talk about the chemistry, right.

(38:30):
That's why I say chemistry isjust as important for a
goalkeeper and a back line as itis for a front line and
ensuring that, from acommunication standpoint, you're
all on the same page and reallyknowing how to cover for your
teammates, so that your abilityto read the game is really,
really important as well as adefender.

Karl (38:47):
Okay, great, and you've hit on a couple of things.
That kind of feed right intoour next player here, which is
the goalkeeper, maddie Gallagher, who has been I love Maddie
Gallagher.

Haley (38:55):
by the way, I'm a huge Maddie Gallagher fan.
I actually I remember lastseason she did really well and I
texted Karen and I was like Ilove her.
I don't know her, but I loveher.
I'm a good fan.

Karl (39:06):
She's pretty awesome and in the games that I actually was
able to catch a game live Ithink it was two just about two
years ago.
Yeah, I happened to be out inAnnapolis and they were playing
a night game at Glen Warner, butanyway, clearly, somebody who
has been a mainstay on that teamfor all four years and she's
off to a great start this yeargoals against average hovering

(39:28):
right there at about one.
Now you spoke to communicationand obviously that goes a long
way towards making sure that thedefense is playing at the top
level.
So what does good communicationsound like, if that's a good
question for you?
I mean, I know what it soundslike on a lacrosse field and a
basketball court.
What does it sound like on asoccer field?

Haley (39:46):
It's really just consistency, right?
So you're all speaking the samelanguage.
You know we talk about here.
The terms that we use, you know, are pretty consistent, I would
say, across the professionallandscape.
But you know, it's really aboutensuring that when I use a term
, you know what I'm saying andthat you know something we talk
about too is not communicatingjust for the sake of saying
something, but it has to beuseful.

(40:07):
It has to be useful information, because when you're playing in
a stadium, right where there'syou talk about playing in
Portland.
There's 30,000 people inPortland.
You can't hear hardly anything.
So when you communicate, it hasto be loud, but you're also
have to be you're communicatinguseful things.
You tend to see some goalkeepersand players that are like
cheerleading a lot.
We don't have time forcheerleading.

(40:27):
That cheerleading is okay everynow and again, but if you're
communicating, you'recommunicating with a purpose,
right?
So, whether it's left shoulderor right shoulder, to tell the
defender they've got an opponenton one side of them or the
other, or you know home, to sendthe ball back to the
goalkeepers, or the goalkeepercan reset it and build back out.
It's knowing when to step andwhen to hold and just making

(40:48):
sure that you're, regardlesswhat your team comes up with,
ensuring that everybody on theteam is using the same language
and that it's consistent and thethought.
Communication, like I said, isintended to be useful and not
something you have to work withyoung goalkeepers on.
You know young goalkeepers whenyou tell them to communicate
generally, they'll think, ohyeah, I should be like cheering

(41:09):
on my teammates and again,that's great, but that's not
necessarily what we need to besuccessful on the pitch.
So teaching them to communicatequality instructions is really
important and you know, when yougrow up coaching goalkeepers,
it's something that you reallyfocus on with them.

Karl (41:25):
So All right, good.
Okay, so that's going to takeus to the end of our discussion
around the players, so we'regoing to go ahead and take a
short break, but first I wantedto let you all know that you can
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(41:45):
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(42:07):
We'll be right back.
Okay, thanks for staying withus here on Navy Sports Central.
Karl Darden here with you, andI'm joined today by Haley Carter

(42:29):
.
She is a former Navy women'ssoccer player from the class of
2006 and currently the vicepresident of soccer operations
in the general manager of theOrlando Pride of the National
Women's Soccer League.
Hailey, we're going to get intoyour current position here in a
minute, but first I wanted togive you an opportunity to share
a story or a cause that'sreally important to you, just to
get it out there and increasesome awareness.

(42:49):
I found that this is a greatway to gain some additional
insight when it comes todiscovering who people are, and
it can be an opportunity tolearn something as well.
So the mic is yours, thanks.

Haley (42:59):
So you know, some people have looked at my background.
They know that.
You know I coached collegiateand in the youth space prior to
coming into this position, but Ialso coached in the
international space and one ofthe countries that I worked with
I was the assistant coach theAfghanistan women's national
team.
I worked with them from 2016 to2018 and we navigated quite a

(43:20):
few battles around the abuse ofplayers and holding the Afghan
football Federation andindividuals in that generation
accountable for that abuse.
So that basically took up thewhole of 2019 and my time with
the Afghan women's national teamplayers.
I'd recommend anyone who'slistening to this to really
research that team and thethings that they went through in

(43:43):
2018 and 2019 and what theyexperienced.
And those young womenfundamentally changed the
criminal justice system inAfghanistan at the time.
Things are obviously a littlebit different, but the work that
they did not only fundamentallychanged the criminal justice
system and how the abuse ofwomen was handled by the legal
system in Afghanistan, but alsofundamentally changed how FIFA,

(44:05):
which is the internationalgoverning body for soccer,
handles instances of abuse ofplayers, and they really set a.
It's almost.
It was almost like the Me Toomovement for women in
Afghanistan and for athletes ofthe game worldwide, and
something that's important toknow is that initially, when we

(44:26):
were dealing with instances ofabuse, that the response we got
oh well, it's Afghanistan.
These sorts of things justhappen in Afghanistan.
Two years later, we're seeinginstances of it here in the
United States and the NationalWomen's Soccer League being
investigated.
So it happens everywhere.
It happens in every sport, andso I think raising awareness on

(44:48):
that team in particular and thesacrifices that they made to
reform systemically how abuse isaddressed in the game, is
really important.
You look at the latest WorldCup and you know Jenny Hermoso
gets kissed on the lips by thepresident of the Spanish
Football Federation right afterthe championship game.

(45:08):
You know, in a non-consensualmanner.
He did that in front ofmillions of people and the fight
around him being heldaccountable for that.
You know it's like a questionmark.
The guy did it in front ofmillions of people on global
television.
Yeah, I mean, and it's still aquestion mark as to whether or
not that's acceptable behavior,so I would encourage everyone to

(45:32):
look into that.
The other piece about theAfghan women's national team is
that you know, I participated Iwas one of five individuals a
team that evacuated them out ofKabul in, you know, august of
2021.
And now they most of them havebeen resettled in Australia and
they're now playing soccer underthe umbrella of a professional
club in Melbourne calledMelbourne Victory, and so

(45:54):
they've, you know, re-gatheredtogether and are competing as a
club team, and but one of theissues that they're facing right
now is that FIFA is not workingto formally recognize the
Afghan women's national teamanymore.
As you can imagine, the AfghanFootball Federation will not
recognize the women's teambecause the Afghan Football
Federation is now being run bythe Taliban, and so men are

(46:15):
being allowed to compete underthe flag of Afghanistan but the
women are not.
So all of the work that we did,you know, talk about nation
building.
All of the work that we did andthis is probably why I'm so
serious and passionate about itis, you know, the work that we
did in the Middle East to tryand empower women.
So the last 20 years inAfghanistan, we've done
everything that we can toempower women and create

(46:35):
opportunities for them andchances for them and, as a
result, the Afghan women'snational team was born and they
were able to live out theirdreams and compete and play
international soccer.
And now that the Taliban isback, those, all of that work
and all of that investment andall of those dreams have just
been shattered overnight.
And with the Afghan FootballFederation being allowed to

(46:57):
continue to sanction men'sfriendlies while prohibiting
women from playing is a directviolation of FIFA's own policy.
So you know it's somethingthat's frustrating for me to see
and for others that FIFA hasthe opportunity to make the
right statement here and holdthe Afghan Football Federation

(47:18):
accountable.
But it's not like there's othercountries around who just
haven't invested in women'sfootball.
This is a country that isexpressly prohibiting women from
participating in these things.
So you know there's a lot ofwork that's happening behind the
scenes, trying to get theathletes, trying to give them a
way to be able to sanction sothat they can compete
internationally again.
And, being that they're inAustralia right, and we just

(47:40):
completed the women's World Cupin Australia a couple of weeks
ago it's really important thatwe continue to keep visibility
and awareness of the fight thatthey're still fighting to be
able to play the game.
And it's always interesting tome because we talk about sports
and you know, when you startcomparing being in the Marine
Corps and working inprofessional sports,
professional sports are not lifeand death.
The Marine Corps life or deathdecisions, professional sports

(48:02):
not so much.
But for these women, playingthe game of soccer was very much
a life or death decision andyou know it really is something
that kind of puts things inperspective for you.
In the big scheme of thingslike that, this is a game, but
they were willing to risk theirlives to be able to play it.
They're separated from theirfamilies, who are still in
Afghanistan, all because they,you know, kick a ball around.

(48:23):
So, yeah, I would just encourageeveryone to look up their story
and, you know, be aware thatthis game means so much more to
so many people around the world.

Karl (48:32):
Wow, pretty compelling story.
I really appreciate you sharingthat with us All.
Right now let's talk a littlebit about what you're up to
these days.
As I mentioned, on the lead inyou are the vice president of
soccer operations and thegeneral manager of the Orlando
Pride.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow long the National Women's
Soccer League has been around,how many teams you know?
That sort of thing.

Haley (48:51):
Yeah, so the National Women's Soccer League was
established in 2013.
That was its first season andright now we currently have 12
teams, but we've got two moreexpansion teams that have come
on board.
This season will compete as 14teams and then we have
additional expansion teams thatare looking to come on before
2026.
But it's grown quite a bitsince its its infancy in terms

(49:12):
of investment and interest and,yeah, it's good things are
happening.
It's the third iteration ofprofessional women's soccer in
the United States.
The first was WUSA and thesecond was WPS Women's
Professional Soccer and now thethird is the NWSL, and prior to
the NWSL, no league had survivedinto its, you know, sort of

(49:32):
third season and beyond, and sowhen the NWSL successfully
completed its third season androlled into its fourth season,
that was a big accomplishment.
And now here we are in 2023competing.

Karl (49:43):
So there you go.

Haley (49:44):
Good stuff yeah.

Karl (49:46):
All right.
So now I'd like to focus onyour team here and talk a little
bit about goals.
You took over the job inJanuary.
What would you say the primarygoal is for you over the next
one to two years when it comesto putting the team on your
desired path to success?

Haley (50:00):
Yeah, so the Orlando Pride was established in 2016,
2015, 2016.
So what I can tell you is therehas been a significant amount
of churn in our club, whetherit's been front office churn,
head coaching churn, ownership,changes in churn.
And so you know, one of ourbiggest goals, one of the things

(50:21):
I was hired to do, or headcoach he's a first year head
coach as well is to really sortof lay a foundation that can be
built, that is going to createsustainable success over the
long term.
You know, obviously we're in itto win.
We need to win and get as manypoints as we can right now and
perform, because that's thenature of professional sports.
So that's really the focus ofour coach and our technical

(50:43):
staff.
But my focus has to be biggerthan that, Right, my focus is
much more strategic.
And so you know how are wecreating an environment, a high
performance environment and aculture where the best players
in the world want to come andplay here and the staff wants to
come and work here, andeverybody is excited to come to
work and to thrive and to be thebest that they can be for their
teammates and for the club.
And I'm excited.

(51:05):
I think in this initial firstseason, we've implemented some
things that I think, as we startto get into the next couple of
seasons, we're are going tostart to pay off.

Karl (51:15):
So Okay, all right.
Now you spoke a little bitabout the coach and just
following sports for as long asI have, there's a few franchises
that really kind of stick outto me on a professional level.
Most specifically, you know theSan Antonio Spurs basketball
team, and one of the reasons isbecause of that strong
relationship between the generalmanager and the coach, right?

(51:38):
So what do you think are someof the critical elements that go
into making sure that yourconnection with your coach is as
strong as it can be?

Haley (51:46):
So I'll tell you we.
So Sub Hines is our head coachand I would tell you that we
have a phenomenal relationshipnot just with him, but also with
assistant coaches and theentire technical staff.
For me, you know, sub obviouslyreports to me, but we very much
make decisions in collaborationwith each other and we're very
serious about fostering anenvironment of professional

(52:08):
disagreement.
I think you need to surroundyourself with people who are
comfortable disagreeing with youand talking through things and
working through things, and Ican tell you that when we make
decisions, you know he, anythingthat happens on the field he
owns that.
That's his responsibility andand I give him the space to make
those decisions and when hemakes those decisions, that's
what the staff goes with rightLike, that's his job.

(52:29):
So, and I make it abundantlyclear that the expectation is
that the staff will support theteam, that the staff will
support those decisions and but,that being said, those
decisions come with significantcommunication and discussion
beforehand, and that's really, Ithink, how we get by in right
Is, everybody in the technicalstaff will contribute and then
you know it's sub prerogative tomake the decisions.

(52:50):
That's not a democracy.
He's the head coach and when itcomes to the two of us and
making those decisions.
We tend not to make a decisionon a player, for instance,
unless we both get to yes.
So if I'm a no, the answer isno, and if he's a no, the answer
is no.
Both of us have to be yes.
So we work to get the other twoyes, and sometimes we are able
to and sometimes we're not.
But what we found is if wecan't get each other both to yes

(53:12):
, then whatever we're trying toimplement or whatever trial
player we're trying to bring in,or whatever we're going to set
that player or initiative up forfailure right off the bat,
because it's something that weboth have to be on board with.
So I think, having an openrelationship and creating, like
I said, the environment forprofessional disagreement and
constructive criticism andgrowth you know, having a growth

(53:36):
mindset, like everybody herechecks their egos at the door,
and we're all learning togetherand we're navigating things
together and we do that as ateam.
And you know we talk abouteverything that happens on the
field being his responsibility,right, everything that happens
Elsewise ultimately is myresponsibility.
So knowing that we'reaccountable to those things, but
also being accountable to eachother for our performances, you

(53:56):
know, it's just really created apositive environment.
We, you know, we love workingtogether.
It's criminal, probably, howmuch fun we have working with
each other, but it's it's.
I would agree with you.
It's such an importantrelationship and it's something
where we have to be in alignmenton on things and, you know,
just being professionallyconsiderate of where someone's

(54:17):
at and getting to know them wellenough to know and hey, you
know you responded this way tothis but I don't think that's
really what's bothering you,what's going on and being
comfortable enough to have thoseconversations and, again, I
think, to be reflective and toget feedback on your performance
and being willing to take thatfeedback and change to be better
, I think is really important.
So, like I said, everybody herechecks their egos at the door

(54:39):
and it's always about the cluband about the team.
It doesn't matter who you areLike.
No one here is more importantthan the club itself and the
club success.
Right right.
Because it's our responsibilityto set that tone and set that
example.
If we don't do it, we can'texpect the players to do it.

Karl (54:55):
Yeah, that is so true.
Okay, so we're just aboutwrapped up here, but I did want
to get your take on one morequestion related to your current
position.
In the last several years,we've seen a significant
increase in the number of womenselected to lead professional
sports franchises at theexecutive level.
So what advice would you giveto young women who would like to
work in sports management inthat capacity?

Haley (55:17):
You know, I had a really non-traditional path.
I was really fortunate when Iwas playing pro soccer.
I had a full-time job the wholetime I was playing, which is
like unheard of now.
But I had a mortgage and twocar payments and I hosted like
nine different teammates in myhouse.
So I had had my MBA.
When I got out of the MarineCorps I'd already had it and

(55:38):
I've risen in corporate positionsince then.
I used my GI bill to go to lawschool because it drives me
crazy when veterans don't usetheir benefits and so I used my
GI bill and I woke up one day inlaw school and did that.
That was great.
So I had for the bar and didall of that stuff.

(56:00):
But every decision that I made,I think from the time that I got
out of the Marine Corps and wasplaying professional soccer, I
coached, I played, and noteverybody's going to have the
opportunity to play.
So I want to make it clear thatjust because you play doesn't
mean you're going to be good atother things, and just because
you didn't play doesn't meanyou're not going to be good at
other things.
So I think even and I tell thisto people all the time, because

(56:23):
we tend to hire former playersinto positions and for me it has
to be the right former player.
There have to be qualificationsand life experiences that would
qualify that individual to bein a certain position.
And oh, they just happen to bea former player.
So that helps them inunderstanding the context and
how to lead and things like that.
But I think for me, I reallythought about what are the

(56:43):
things that I can put on myresume that are going to get me
into a position where I caninfluence the game at a high
level for good?
And this position was the firsttime that my everything I'd
done in my personal life andeverything I'd done in my
professional life my soccer life, my corporate life sort of came
and married together into aplace where I could influence
the game for better, and thatfor me has been a big driver.

(57:08):
Like I am obviously verypassionate about the league.
I want to create a club thatcan win, but my biggest passion
is growing the women's game andcreating a league.
We've got leaders in thisleague right now who obviously
we want to do well for our clubs.
We compete for the same pool ofplayers with each other, but
for us we make decisionscollectively as a group that are
going to benefit the entiretyof the league, and so I just was

(57:30):
really fortunate to be able tocombine the leadership
experience that I have thecoaching experience, the playing
experience, the educationalqualifications that I have into
this role.
And so for anybody looking toget into this role, I would say,
like get your MBA, get amaster's in sports management,
put yourself out there, get intoleadership positions that may

(57:50):
seem untraditional.
Go out and coach.
Coaching will change yourperspective on the game
completely.
I became a better player when Istarted coaching because I had
a better understanding of thegame when I was coaching and I
also had a better understandingof what my coaches were
navigating.
So I probably was more fun tobe around from a coach's
standpoint when I startedcoaching myself.

(58:11):
So get out and coach and learnabout the sport that you want to
be involved in so that you canbe conversational in it, and
look for internships where youcan work in the operations side
or on the business side or inmarketing.
Find any opportunity you can tobe around the sport that you're
interested in working in, andeven if it's not a sport you're
interested in working in, butyou know that you want to work
in sports.
If the opportunity presentsitself, take it.

(58:32):
And then I would just say don'tgo to law school.
It's a trap Mine was free, soit's a little bit different but
don't feel like you need to goto law school to be a GM because
you don't.
It does help when you'renegotiating player contracts,
but don't feel the pressure togo to law school if you don't
absolutely necessarily have toor it isn't free.

Karl (58:53):
That's some good advice, all right.
All right, that's going to doit for the heavy duty questions.
I just want to finish things upby just asking three or four
fun type questions and let youget on with the rest of the day.
But I like to throw these inwith some guesses to kind of
find a little bit more aboutthem and that sort of thing.
So the first one is what isyour favorite sports themed

(59:16):
movie Bull?

Haley (59:17):
Durham.

Karl (59:17):
OK.

Haley (59:18):
Bull Durham.
I love Bull Durham.

Karl (59:20):
Yeah, that was one of my favorites as well.
Ok, next Weirdest, most strangeor funniest thing that's ever
happened in a game where youeither played or coached.

Haley (59:29):
I would say I could come up with a couple of them, but
they're probably not appropriatefor this podcast, but the one
memory that I would give,because this is a Navy woman
soccer memory, and it wasn'tweird or crazy.
We didn't actually get to play,but we used to play in this
tournament in the spring calledKicks Against Breast Cancer, and
it was played at the Plex inGermantown, maryland, and we

(59:52):
drove over to it.
I forget who we were supposedto play that day.
We were supposed to.
I don't, it doesn't even matterbut it starts blizzard like out
of nowhere, just thick, fatsnowflakes coming down.
So there's no way we're goingto be able to compete.
So North Carolina has gotten ontheir bus and meanwhile Karen
looks at us and is like well,you can either run Fitness Now

(01:00:14):
or you can run it when you getback to Annapolis.
So of course, naturally, all ofus are like, oh, we're going to
run the Fitness Now becausewhen we get back to Annapolis we
want to be done and off.
So it was a terrible decision,by the way.
So we're running sprints in theparking lot and of course it's
like serious snow and NorthCarolina is just on the bus,
like those ladies are crazy.

(01:00:34):
And then we like after thesprints, then we are like
running around the park, like atthe Germantown Plex, there's a
road that goes around us.
We're like running this and Iremember like having to put my
head down because we wererunning against the traffic so
traffic could see us, but thesnow was like in your face.
So I had to run like this sothat nothing was getting in my
eyes, and I just remembergetting back and being like I

(01:00:57):
was like getting back andgetting on the bus and being
like, oh my God, I've never beenso cold in my life and that was
ridiculous.
But we get on the bus and wedrive back to Annapolis and I
swear it's like 40 degreeswarmer in Annapolis.
There's no snow anywhere.
It's like a 45 minute drive.
That's hilarious, yeah.

(01:01:18):
So then we get back and I'mlike man, I would have much
preferred to run the Fitnesswhen we got back to Annapolis.
But it was a wild story we had.
Still there's a team photofloating around of all of us in
the snow but it was a solidexperience and I can tell you
that I'm friends with playerswho played at UNC at the time
and hearing their version ofthat story is very funny Because
they're like those Navy ladiesare crazy.

(01:01:41):
Like what are they doing?
And Annson's like well, that'swhy they serve our country and
why you don't.
You can't say that is one of mycraziest stories, but yeah.
All right.

Karl (01:01:56):
That's pretty good.
Ok, I'm going to go ahead andfinish up with this one, and
it's appropriate because of theposition that you played, in
your opinion, the best USwomen's national team goalkeeper
, and why.

Haley (01:02:08):
This is going to be controversial, but I'm going to
say Hope Solo, hope Solo is thebest goalkeeper to play in the
history of the US women's team.
That's just a fact, factuallyspeaking, yeah.

Karl (01:02:21):
I don't doubt that, just based on my small data set and
the games that I've seen, Iwould have to agree with that.
If you just look at herperformance on the field, I
don't really have much of anargument against it.

Haley (01:02:34):
Just yeah, I think, I think.

Karl (01:02:36):
What do you think made her so good?

Haley (01:02:39):
Her athleticism.
Her athleticism, certainly Idon't know if you know this
about her, but she didn't reallystart playing in goal until she
was about 16.
So she actually played in thefield in college.
She wanted to play in bothpositions.
She's a soccer player, but Ithink her athleticism and I
think her like unflinchinglyunapologetic approach to being

(01:03:00):
herself and you know she's yeah,she's an extremely polarizing
figure.
You either love her or you hateher, but the reality is her
performance on the pitchconsistently, time after time.
You know, I think we'vecertainly had our fair share of
incredible goalkeepers.
You know, you look at BryceCurry, you look at others
performance wise on the field.
I don't think that anyone holdsa gamble to hope in her

(01:03:24):
performance over time.
So yeah, Like I said, perhaps acontroversial answer, but I only
call them like I see them.

Karl (01:03:32):
That's right and I'm with you.
I mean when, like I said, basedon what I saw on her
performance, specifically in theWorld Cup, I mean she showed up
for those yeah.

Haley (01:03:40):
Just an unbelievable athlete an unbelievable athlete,
for sure.

Karl (01:03:46):
All right.
So, hailey, we're going to wrapthings up there, listen.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to speak with me today.
I've probably taken a quantumleap in terms of my knowledge as
far as professional sports goand what goes on behind the
scenes, so I appreciate youeducating me there.

Haley (01:04:01):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me on thishas been fun.

Karl (01:04:04):
Thanks very much.
Okay, you take care.
All right, coming up.
Next we have our question ofthe day and mid-watch segments.
This is Karl Darden and you'relistening to Navy Sports Central
.
We are back.

(01:04:29):
We are back.
I'm going to get to our questionof the day here in a minute,
but I did want to come back toone of the things my guest,
hailey Carter, spoke aboutearlier in the show regarding
Afghanistan's women's nationalsoccer team.
I've included a video link inthe show notes that tells their
story.
It's roughly six minutes longand well worth watching.
By the way, I highly encourageyou to take a look at it.
These young women are trulyheroic and, hailey, much respect

(01:04:52):
to you and all of yourcolleagues who help them get
relocated to Australia so theycan continue their fight to
represent their country on theworld stage.
Pretty inspiring stuff.
Now let's go ahead and get toour question of the day.
First, we'll go ahead and checkour responses to the question
from our last show and, if yourecall, here it was Navy women's
triathlon coach.
Billy Edwards is a NavalAcademy graduate from the class

(01:05:12):
of 2000.
How many other sports atAnnapolis have a Navy grad as
part of their coaching staff?
Is it A5, b6, c8, or D9?
So, as we check out the answers, most of you went with D9
sports, with 63% of you choosingthat one.
Next was C8 and 27% made thatselection.

(01:05:33):
After that was A5 sports.
9% of the responders pickedthat one.
Nobody picked B, which was sixsports, and that actually
happened to be the correctanswer.
After going through all thecoaching staffs, I came up with
a total of six other sportsbesides the Navy women's
triathlon team that has at leastone Naval Academy graduate, and
they are Navy women's rugby.

(01:05:53):
Murph McCarthy, who is from theclass of 2000, is their coach.
Men's Cross Country, coachLenzel is from the class of 2003
.
Football has got a bunch.
You've got Coach Green, classof 98, coach Akaitis, class of
2006, coach Thomas, who'scoaching the slot backs, from
the class of 2014, and CoachWade, from the class of 2017.

(01:06:13):
In Track and Field, we haveCoach Campbell, from the class
of 89, and Sprint Football,coach Matys of class of 2009.
And finally, water Polo isCoach Nicolaou from the class of
92.
I was pretty thorough lookingat the coaches from each sport,
so I don't think I missed one,but that doesn't mean I didn't.
So for those of you who came upwith eight or nine other sports

(01:06:33):
.
If you're pretty confident ofyour answer, let me know which
ones I missed.
Now it's time for this week'squestion.
The Navy women's soccer teamwon their fifth Patriot League
title in the 2020 season, andMaddie Gallagher started nine
out of 10 games as a freshmanthat year.
Her goals against averageduring that season was a
microscopic 0.80 per game.
So the question is what was hersave percentage over that same

(01:06:56):
period?
Was it A 77%, b 79%, c, 82% orD 84%?
You guys can take some time tothink about that one.
You can answer by going to theNavy Sports Nation group
Facebook page and I should havethat up later this evening.
Okay, now I'd like to go aheadand move right into our first
mid-watch segment of the year.
Remember, this is where I pickone male and one female athlete

(01:07:19):
to follow throughout the seasonto see how they're contributing
to their respective teams.
This fall, I've decided thatwe're going to track Averi
Miller from the women'svolleyball team.
Avery is a senior from PhoenixArizona and she is the
mid-seventh setter, and at sixfeet, she's taller than most,
which makes her even more of anoffensive threat.
Miller started every game lastyear and finished the season
with double digit assists perset.

(01:07:39):
So far this year, she's posted288 assists in over 29 sets
played, which works out to ateam leading 9.93 assists per
set.
Defensively, miller ranksfourth on the team in digs and
fifth in blocks.
The Mids have been playingextremely well over the last
couple of weeks.
They just competed in theUniversity of California,
Invitational Diego and won allthree of their matches over the

(01:08:00):
University of UCSD, and SanDiego State.
In fact, they didn't drop asingle set.
In those games, miller put up atotal of 83 assists, including
30 against San Diego State.
Now you're going to hear a lotabout Jordan and Jamie Llewellyn
this fall, and rightly so, andone of the reasons why is
because of the teammate who willlikely be setting up most of
their kills during each match.

(01:08:20):
As the setter, avery Milleracts as the quarterback of the
Navy offense and she's got themplaying at an extremely high
level as they head into theirpatriot league schedule.
Moving on to the men, the sportis water polo and the athlete is
Kiefer Black.
He is a freshman from La Jolla,California.
This guy is a beast.
At 6', 7", 220 pounds.
He is already making hispresence felt just eight games

(01:08:42):
into his Navy career.
So far this season he has rungup 12 goals and 18 assists for a
total of 30 points.
Black's best outing so far wasin the mids' 10-9 upset over
ninth ranked Long Beach State,where he scored four goals and
assisted on two more.
The water polo team will beheavily into their conference
schedule in a couple of weeks.
Based on what I've read so far,Kiefer Black will be critical
to their success as they starttheir run for a championship,

(01:09:04):
and I'll be looking forward toseeing him in action.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcast, and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankHailey Carter from the class of
2006 for being with me today.
What a great conversation, andwe wish her the very best as VP

(01:09:27):
of soccer operations and generalmanager of the Orlando Pride.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.

(01:09:47):
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy! Beat Army!

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