Scandals highlight lack of women coaches at top of US soccer

When Twila Kilgore was 12, a young soccer coach who used to drive her to practice gave her a glimpse of her future and helped her decide on a professional path.

She credits the journeys for exposing her to “what a coach truly does” and hearing “all the behind-the-scene stuff that were going.” After retiring from playing, I very much always planned on becoming a coach.

Now she’s one of just four women in the country to have the U.S. Soccer Federation’s top pro license and an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s national team.

A person with Kilgore’s background is quite unusual. Women have little possibilities to coach at the highest levels in American soccer due to the high expense of licensing.

Soccer’s governing body has taken notice of the problem. More than 13 million girls and women played organized soccer in 2019, according to the sport’s governing organization, yet just 7% of coaches were women.

Empty positions in the country’s premier professional league were a stark reminder of the dearth of competent women.

Five male coaches of the National Women’s Soccer League were fired or forced to retire in 2021 after a controversy involving misbehavior, harassment, and abuse broke out in the league. As a result of an inquiry by the league and the players’ union, four of those individuals were banned from ever coaching in the NWSL again earlier this month.