SoccerWise - Biggest Trade In NWSL History & Caitlyn Flores Milby GM Racing Louisville

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

A huge episode of NWSL conversation on Soccerwise. David & Jordan contextualize the blockbuster deal of Claire Hutton to Bay, Croix Bethune to KC & a MILLION dollars to Washington. What does it mean for these elite players, these teams, and the league. They also touch on Emma Hayes latest roster for the upcoming SheBelieves Cup. And then Caitlyn Flores Milby the General Manager of Racing Louisville joins the show. She covers so much ground from her career path to where Racing sits in the landscape of the game and how to operate with that. And they talk about some big picture NWSL conversations like future of youth development & the introduction of the HIP rule.6:07 Blockbuster Trade And Biggest Moves Ever9:35 What This Means For Bay FC & Claire Hutton12:50 What This Means For KC & Croix Bethune22:50 What Does This Trade Mean For Washington Spirit34:30 Interview Racing Louisiville GM Caitlyn Flores Milby

We are back here on Soccer Wise for a big show on the NWSL side of things. We are a little less than a month away from this season kicking off. And there's a lot to be excited about. We've got a big guest interview coming up at the end of the show with Racing Louisville's general manager, Caitlin Flores, Milby. And of course, Jordan Angelie is here with me. What's up, Jordan? You know, just living the dream.

You kind of make me a little nervous when you said they were like a less than a, almost a month away. I'm like, man, I got some work to do, Goss, before we get there. So much has happened in this off season that I'm like, wow, I need some, I need an update and boards. But I also think you are in alignment with probably most front offices and coaching staffs where it's like, we've got a lot of work to do. We went through sort of a list of sort of where the roster stand, where some teams stand

as we get ready for our preview coverage. And there's some teams where it's like, have they done anything? there are some teams looking at you Portland where you're like there are huge holes with this team whether it's roster or coaching and then there are some teams where I guess maybe I expected more to happen and it's probably not a bad thing that very little has happened you know there are some really stable rosters I guess you could say with an Orlando with a Gotham and so I think that's also interesting as well and then there are some unstable rosters like a Washington and Kansas City and a bay which is of course a huge part of what we are going to talk about. about today. We will talk about the Claire Hutton and Croy Bethune trades that have occurred. And we're going to talk a little bit about the U.S. Women's National Team as we get the She Beliefs Cup roster for a tournament that's coming up towards the end of March. But first, we have to talk about the exciting news of the day, which is your fellow Denver Summit co-owner, Michaela Schifrin, winning a gold medal. How exciting is that? It was like the first thing I saw this morning when I woke

up. Oh, you didn't watch it at 1.15 in the morning? Well, usually I'm watching the back of my eyelids right then. And it was, you know, I think it's been very well documented that Michaela Schiffran after the accident she had last year, I think a little over a year ago, has just been like really struggling to get back onto her form and spoke about the mental side and how difficult it's been. And to see her come up victorious to stand on the podium with that gold medal. I just was so happy for her. I've got questions for her, though. Like, I need to know more about this ski racing because they just whack into those flags. It's so bizarre. Do they have, does she have, like, calluses on her arms because of that, you know? It is a wild sport. So hopefully I'll get a chance at some point this year to talk to her a little bit more about what she does.

But, yeah, it's so proud of her and such a cool thing to represent Colorado in that way. So she won by 1.5 seconds. That's huge. The seven previous winners combined margin of victory over the last seven Olympics was 1.5. Yeah. That's how much, that's how dominant it was. Wow. And she set a lot of records of like longest gap between gold medals, youngest gold medal, and then I think also oldest at certain ages in certain competitions.

I mean, it's wild. She's been a professional for like 14 years. So long, yeah. And she still has more time if she wants to. She had set every record in the like non-Olympic side of World Cup wins, world championships, all of that. And the Olympics had sort of been this bogey for her, which is bizarre. It's very bizarre. But also, I feel like it's such a good lesson learned to all of us.

We were actually just talking about this before. It's just like staying in your lane and appreciating other people and what they're doing. Like at the beginning of the Olympics when she was in the team race, right? And they didn't win. And the other two on the U.S. team, she's up there saying, like, I'm so happy for you. You guys deserve this. Really celebrating that win for her teammates. And then here she is just a couple days later finding a way to win.

So, yeah, what a good. She just, she's got it all together, doesn't she? Yeah, she really does. And she owns professional sports teams as well. So she will be around. Denver Summit and will be a huge face for that team and is a huge face of Colorado. Which, gosh, you're coming out to that first game. Yeah, we're all going to be there.

All the big stars. It's like coming up soon. I can't wait. Here's my gold medal. Yes. Oh, you're a half marathon. They sent me my half marathon or they gave it to me. That's nice.

I know, right? Because Sedona's like a beautiful place. Oh, it's so pretty. Were there actually hot air balloons when you were running? There were. And I don't know if that was. a gimmick. I didn't know if that was a gimmick. I didn't know what was going on. Then we got the metal and I don't know if they told them to. There was two to three hot air balloons just up over.

Yeah. I guess maybe they're there every day. Yeah. Like all the time. People take tours. I've never done one. Have you done one? No. I don't think I want to. There's a lot in the car in like the Springs area in New Mexico. There's there's a huge hot air balloon thing in New Mexico every summer. Yeah. I think Albuquerque hosts like the big thing. Yeah. I would like to go. and see it. It looks like a cool thing to be around. It looks beautiful. I'm not getting in one.

But I don't think you're like in open air just like floating. I'm okay with heights. I'm not great with ledges. And that feels like floating on a ledge the entire time. I think I'm good. It just doesn't feel like you control it very well. And so I'm, I'm all right.

Yeah. But I like living my life. But maybe I'll bring my metal out for you for the big game. Michaela, look what I got. When we get there. Yeah. All right. Let's dig into this trade first.

because we did get the roster more recent, but I've been waiting to talk about this. This is wild. Like, there's been a couple moments, I think, over the last year or two, as we've covered NWSL, where it's like brain-breaking stuff. I think some of that is a little bit of the landscape of, like, there's not as much coverage in every market.

And so maybe as things are developing, we don't hear about them. And then all of a sudden it's like snap of a finger, this, like, world-changing move is occurring. I think we're getting more of it as the international transfers happen because you have coverage, across the different countries of like people in England are rumoring Alyssa Thompson and

Naomi Germa and then you start to see it connected but this one kind of came out of nowhere. So on Friday, I think it was. Friday morning it was announced that Croy Bethune would be traded from the Washington spirit to Kansas City Current and then in a separate move, Claire Hutton would be traded from the Kansas City Current to Bay FC. So Bay FC paying $1.1 million across the different ways you can do it with allocation money and cash and all that stuff inside the league going to Kansas City and then Kansas City pushing a million dollars of that on to Washington in exchange

for Croy Barthune. So Kansas City makes a very little amount of money. Washington makes a lot and they is paying for the player that they got. I think from a surface level Jordan like this is crazy. This is an absurd thing to occur in the middle of the offseason. I was coming off the plane after our broadcast seminar, and that was one of the first things that popped up. I was like, what is going on? And I tried to think back of previous NWSL trades that would have been up to this. Sam Kerr, Kristen Press was a big trade.

It was like a three-way trade. I think Carly Lloyd was involved in that, too, in some way. That was probably the biggest within the league trade we've seen until this. I feel like this is the biggest trade we've seen in NWSL. And the interesting part is it's not like for like. Yeah. But I do feel like we've been calling on Bay to do a little bit of something. And this is a big splash.

The amount of money spent on each player is incredible. And I think shows what they're valued at. And we keep seeing that marker of top class players, not just now going internationally now, within the league, right? You know, we've seen Naomi Germa get sold for, what was, $800,000 and Sam Coffey going away and doing that, but now it's in the league. Teams willing to pay a million dollars to get a player on their team that they know can be a game changer is really big for me, right? Yeah, I think. You're going to keep talent in the league. I think if you say,

like, okay, big trades, I think the first ones that popped up in my mind were like Allie Settnor and Jane Shaw, which it was just for money, but that's the world we've now started to approach. The unique part about this is you've got two players moving across three clubs and then money going in one direction. And so I think the magnitude of both of these players is what makes it feel huge, but exciting that both of them find their home inside of NWSL. And there is those resources to be able to use to move players around and be able to spend that type of money inside the league to bring in big names. And like we had sort of seen Bay lean on these English players with Emma Coates' background and it made sense. But we have always said like there is a unique part of NWSL and you want a little bit of experience.

It's hilarious that the experience you get is a teenager. But she has played games in this league and she has played them at a high level. And this is a huge boon for Bay and what they're able to build. Not only that, Goss. I've had the privilege of talking to Claire Hutton a couple of times. I don't want to call her a kid because she's not. She's a young woman, right? She's still very young.

She speaks beyond her years. And the growth that she's already had within NWSL over the last couple of years shows you that she is so committed to what she's doing, that she, her desire to be the best is, it's palpable. You can feel that. And so I don't even think that she could just be a good pickup for them when it comes to the football. I think she's going to be a leader on me. team. And that is, that's saying a lot for a player that is so young and really not super

experienced within NWSL doesn't have a lot. You know, you, you typically are like, oh, these players are older. They probably probably brought them for leadership. I think this is a reason you bring Claire Hutton in is for leadership. Like she has now been on a team who has won a shield. And they really push the boundaries as to what was asked of them every single day in training. the standard was super high. So now you put her into this Bay team who needed to up the standard, needed to find a leader when all the absence of these leaders, you know, three big names on this team are not playing right now due to maternity leave.

And that's great and awesome and it is what it is. But now you have a young player who is driven and going to up the level of intensity every single week, every single day at training. I think that this is, I still think Bay needs a number nine, but this is the move we've been waiting for Bay to make. A splashy move where it really shows people within NWSL their intention for this year. Yeah, has played next to Lola Banta and Vanessa DiBanardo for the last two years, has 47 appearances in NWSL and has been with the national team.

So as you said, like brings all of that experience, played under Vlako, played under Emma Hayes into this, knows one way of operating. And that's the way you want your club to operate. I will be excited to see, I think, you know, only as she gets older and more experience. I think there's a little more to her game that we will see because Lola Bonta and Debiania and Venice, all of them did so much that you didn't want her to overextend. I think there's a little more in possession. I think there's a little more in creativity, whether it's just more line-breaking passing, whether it's taking space a little more

and maybe breaking a line of pressure with her dribbling. I just think here's an opportunity to see everything she's capable of at this and have her continue to grow into this. And your hope for Bay is, okay, she plays for you for now, like, this is it, right? This is the cornerstone that you're built on, and she's there for five to seven years, and so much of what you do goes around her, and there's a lot of flexibility with that. But it's a huge move, and big move for Bay. And then the athletic article that came out, I think Tamara Griffin wrote it up, which was, as they said, was done before the official announcement, so they were able to prepare it and talk to her. In it, she sort of talks about the move how it came about and I think I actually have the story up. She said this quote at the beginning.

She said throughout the process, I did consider going overseas. Hutton told the athletic in an interview that happened from a partially packed apartment in Kansas City with the raining end of her cell shield winners. I looked at some domestic clubs and I was going through it talking to coaches, talking to sporting directors, GMs. They really struck me as a place that they were ready to build and wanted to create an identity for them that was known domestically worldwide and just something that aligned with and stood for. It's great news for Bay, right? She is as high a prospect as anyone.

She's out there having conversations. Bay is a place that she says, okay, I could play here. I could be a part of this. What struck me is, that sounds like a free agent. Why is she out there talking to clubs? Like I read the quote and was like, okay, that makes sense. And then I read it a second time and was like, wait, Why are you talking?

Why are you talking to clubs overseas? Why are you talking to clubs at home? And I think that is a worrying sign for Casey. Now, in the context of this move, I think they're okay. Cory Bethune is an incredible player, and we'll talk about that effect. But I think big picture, coming off a shield and having your coach in Vlako step away from the coaching side, and then a move like this just shows a little bit of instability from the outside that is worrying, about a club that if everything stayed on the tracks,

they're going in the right direction. And so just the change of direction in any way, I think is a little worrying for me of what you're going to be fighting to do is just getting back to where you were last year. Honestly, I don't think I would have been worried if I hadn't read that quote. Yeah. That quote.

A be a left as well as a free agent. Like I know going home, but yeah. Yeah, I think that quote makes it seem like, okay, why did she want out? Yeah. From the outsiders, that's just what we're curious about. Like, why would you want out of this team? And we've seen some...

So it just brings up questions, I think, from outsiders. And we've seen some explanations with players of Alyssa Thompson. Okay, she wanted to leave home. She wanted to go try this experience. It seemed like, I mean, we all kind of assume Emma has some hand of that. But like, she was playing 15 miles from where she grew up. We had Brianna Pinto on the kickback committee this week. And Suzanne asked her, like, what was the idea?

Going to Chicago, she's like, I grew up playing on. this field. I was just ready to play on a different field for a little bit. Like, there's life stuff that goes with this. Claire Hutton has left home to go to Kansas City. She's young. She's doing well. It's all going in the right direction. There is no reason standard for her to make a move to bay at this point. So the fact that it happened has to be worrying to Kansas City fans that that is a thing that's going on inside of players in this club. And Claire Hutton was supposed to be a staple for them for the next five to seven years. And that's not the case anymore.

Right. And before Claire Hutton even signed with Kansas City, I know she practiced with a lot of different teams in NWSL. So she had looked around the league and wanted to play for Vlako. And so maybe that was a big piece of this. It's like now Vlako's not going to be the coach. So who do I want to play for? This makes me even more excited to watch what Emma Coates is going to do

because it does feel like Claire Hutton when it comes to her football knowledge is pretty high up their IQ-wise. And she knows what she wants. She knows how she can properly propel a team forward. So she's thinking, okay, Emma Coates is going to be the person that can get the best out of me. At this point, she's 20 years old. It's the year before a World Cup. She could be going to a World Cup next year.

And she is changing teams because she feels like this is a place for her to go. So I'm thrilled because this is making it seem like things are going in the right direction at Bay. And this is a massive, massive pickup. So we're excited for Bay, huge move for Claire, talked about a little worry with Casey. Let's talk about the positive with Casey. Yeah. Corey Bethune is electric. She set the single season assist record in her rookie year and then got hurt and did not

play another game after she set that record. And played half the games. Yeah. And she came back last year and it feels like her highest point was the end of last year that she finally made it back. Then you see her jump into national team camp over the course of the. the off season. And I think we talked about it on this show. Emma said, like, she looked phenomenal. And I think there were some quotes coming out of this look. She looks the best she's

ever looked and she's ready for a big season. And it felt like she was fairly central to what Washington did. Now, she makes this move to Kansas City. What do you make of it for her and what she brings to this team? I was a little, just, it felt like Croy fit in well with the spirit and did so many things that the other midfielers weren't able to do for that spirit team. But those same, same things are transferable right to this Kansas City squad. She is very direct. Like she can be direct. Ball at her feet, her passing range, the way that she wants to carry the ball to break lines. She can be that pivot player for Kansas City to go from winning the ball back defensively to a quick transition, which they beat every single team almost this year with that quick transition,

getting into the attack as fast as possible. I'm excited to see where they end up playing her. I think when we talk to Chris Armis, I also think about that conversation, Goss, and it is going to be a high press, high intensity style. Well, there were so many times where I, we praised what Croy Buthon can do defensively. And she almost like, she's kind of like a predator in that way. She like almost lures teams into the passing lane. She then wants to pounce in and then goes quickly. That ability that she has defensively can't be underestimated if it should fit well with what

Chris Armis wants to do. And then I'm excited to see her play alongside Dabina. And what those two can open up for each other. When Michelle Cooper gets healthy, when Chowinga gets healthy, there are a lot of, similar to Washington, a lot of options for Quoy to be able to dish the ball off after she draws players into her. It does seem like it could be a very well, good fit for Kansas City. It's just, where does she play?

Where does everybody else play? Yeah. So I think one of the things in the immediacy is with these unknown injuries to Schoinger and Cooper, there's a clear need. Like there's a need in the attack just for firepower. There's also positional spots open. My guess blind here is Croy starts on one of the wings. De Beanie is the 10. Ali Centaur is the nine.

And you fill in that last spot. And then you're hoping you get people healthy. Then the numbers crunch starts to occur. And you're trying to figure out where everyone fits week in and week out. where people are most comfortable. But in terms of what you talked about with her soccer, it feels like a perfect marriage. She, all the things you said of in the press,

elite in transition, all that, I think she has the ability to unlock a set defense in a way. It's probably not her best skill set, and she's probably not the best in the world at it. But I think she's a little more comfortable right now than a showingo or Michelle Cooper is at that. So I think it's an added element to this team, even though it's not like her biggest skill set.

And I think you even saw it in the final when they struggled. I thought she was the, I thought she got the closest to scoring for this for Washington against the Gotham team that was sitting in pretty deep. And I thought most of the ideas and change of tempos came from Croix saying, okay, here's a moment. I found a gap. Let's play quickly.

Let's go. Let's put pressure here. Like it feels pretty natural for her. And she's going to grow into that as kind of what it sounded like Emma felt coming out of the window. So I think it's a great. fit for her. And I think it alleviates a little bit of stress of like showing us out, Cooper's out, you get to the playoffs, you lose the first game without it. Now, you have to go and replace Claire Hutton

deeper on the field and they are not like for likes. And so that's now going to be questionable. But like the best attack in the league after losing Bia and has these injuries probably just got better at its peak, I would say. Like it's really hard to contextualize that way. But that's what it feels like happened and it also cushions the loss of losing claire houghton which is i think this is one of the faces of the sport going forward and like on the same day say well look what we brought in for kc it feels like okay you're shifting a little bit more than we're losing yeah i think they're both face like the upcoming faces of this sport right and and and bathune so if you're going to lose one you better gain something back and they they were able to do that uh that would have been a much

tougher day for Kansas City current fans if they hadn't replaced with Grey Bethune. I am very intrigued to see how this works and just some of the new players that they got in, how all the pieces fit together. I do think one last comment just about the build in Kansas City is I think last year was super tough because they were so different when Schoingo was on the field that now starting a season without her on the field, you will be. able to figure out what your identity is in real game situations without superpower. Yeah, you have plan B built before plan A. And if you end up having to go back to plan B in big moments, yeah, there's probably a lot more comfort in that. I think this emboldens Ali Sennor to just be the player

she should be, which is there's not a ton of responsibility. Like, Croix and DeBina will create for you, like be solely focused on being that forward, stretching the back line, all that type of stuff. And let's go to Washington, the last piece of this. In a offseason where you re-signed Trinity Rodman, like it's going to be hard to be unhappy. And I don't know, it feels like there's probably a numbers crunch here as we learn the hip rule and how it comes in and what part of the salary cap it takes.

There may be a responsibility crunch of maybe Croy wants to be the face of her team. It's hard to say that in the context of she's going to the team with the two-time reigning MVP. Like, you know, it's not like she went to Houston and she's clearly going to be the face. of this team. So that's the part. It's a lot of it's hard to figure out from the Washington side. I think our history and trust of like there's so much talent there and they keep bringing it in is well, Washington at a minimum will remain competitive, but it's a half step back to start the year,

for sure. Without Croix, absolutely. But if we have learned anything about this Washington Spirit team is they will find somebody. I mean, they already signed, I think it was the fifth most expensive player in the world in this Paraguayan teenager. I don't know how ready. she is to impact the game. But like, yeah, that's where it's hard to be like, well, you're not worried about Washington. No, I don't think they're done. I think they're going to have another. I mean, with that money, I just feel like they're going to sign somebody that might not be a like for like replacement with Croix, because do you need that, right? You have Lacey Santos. You have players that can play in that position. But you're always wanted another goal score.

I was going to say, if you were to always want that. If you were to have that and say, okay, I'm going to go out and improve this team with a player in this range, which let's be conservative and say between $500,000 and $700,000, which probably for a little cut rate, Sam Coffey moved for $800,000. So like that's the level of player we're talking about. What position, what aspect would you look for for this team? Oh, you know, my mind is just, I heard rumors of Jarelli from Italy coming over. And I feel like that would be a really fun piece in this Washington. Washington team just because they already have an Italian very you know good midfielder can play a little bit higher up on the field those two could work off of each other well

Yeah, yeah it's hard to say because we don't know when Ashley Hatch is gonna be back We don't know like we don't know the timing of some of these players who can very well be Game-changing players for this like Ule Sarr what's the deal with Ula Sarr? I don't like we nobody has known for a year Yeah, and so those are bigger questions that don't get answered in this trade, but you have money now. And so if you sign a player like that, that I think gives everybody the sign that maybe hatches him back until the middle of the season. Maybe Laysar is not going to be able to come back.

You know, that's, to me, what the writing would be on the wall if that's how the money were spent. Yeah, I think to me, the assumption that you'll probably get a chunk of the season from Andy Sullivan, and I'm just making that up from the outside. But if you feel confident about that, then I would look at that center forward position. Because I think between Rose Coasi and the other options you have, you feel pretty good on the wing. And like, you cannot build a team, I think at this point with the redundancy of like, okay, well, how do we cover for Trinity Rodman? You have to believe she'll be available most of the season and in the biggest moments because you can't have, like you can't afford a back, a confident backup for that.

And so I think the position opening, if Andy can play and not how. to play every minute because Rebecca Bernal can play in that position. So the loss of Naurumi you're not fully filling in for, I think you go number nine. Because as good as Kintori looked last year, that's the spot. Thank you. Why could I think of her name, Kintori? That's the spot where I think you don't have like a potential best 11 player as a starter right now.

And the other spots, it feels like this team does. And so that's the only one. But I wouldn't be shocked also as like, do you hold it? get to the summer, see where the team looks, and then maybe in the European off season, that's your chance to, okay, here, and that's what they did with Kintori last year. I mean, we've talked about it over and over on the show. They did with Kauasi the year before. Like, they've been really good at that secondary window, bringing in the right piece that can impact them then, and then be big for the future.

So huge moves going on in NWSL, as you said, maybe the biggest of all time. And as we get ready for a huge season to kick off, I know Bay fans are going to be way more. excited so it's good to have another fan base that can be excited and energized about this season. Before we get to our interview with Caitlin Milby talking racing Louisville, their excitement, what worked last year, how they're building their club. Really good insight from her on the vision of what this team is, knowing who they are and how they want to build. Let's talk U.S. Women's National Team for a second. So we get the She Believes Cup roster coming out two days ago for this team. I thought it was a first.

fascinating roster and that you saw a chunk of the big names brought back in that we think will be the staples of this team trini rodman who was with that last camp but then the players playing over in europe like a sam coffee naomi germa lindsay heaps uh alissa thompson and then you kind of i think it was the sign of okay here's who's won so far over the last year we've tested out a lot of players we've given a ton of opportunity it feels like every other camp emma goes all right we're done testing and then tests again in the next camp but But I think this is your leaderboard right now of like, these are the players who have put themselves at least at the top of the list and it's their spot to lose or it's other people

that have to come and get them. Some of the names that popped out to me that I was talking about on Blue Sky. Riley Jackson, a huge one, young central midfielder gets into the team for the last camp, stays. I think that's a really big one. James Joseph, who got a goal in the last camp and got into the team. and that was her first opportunity under Emma Hayes. She's been in some of these futures camps as well.

But I think those were the two that really stuck out to me. Kennedy Wesley, of course, and Kate Wisner, who have had a little bit less experience. And then, of course, Claudia Dickey and Mandy McClain getting called in at the goalkeeper position, which is a bit of a rotation. But that Jordan to me was like the big pop with this roster. It's like, okay, these are the players from spots 15 through 26 that feel like they've taken that first step forward to establish themselves.

And just speaking to what you were saying about Riley Jackson, she also getting her first camp with Sam Coffee and with Lindsay Heaps. And if you're a young player like Jackson with the aspiration of being like those two one day, right, leading and captaining this team, you want to learn from them and be in trainings camps with them. And she believes Cup, there's three different games. Like the opportunity that these players are going to at least get a little bit of minutes alongside those players, I think, is really high. My biggest, my eyeballs go to the forward line, Goss, because if you're forward right now, what an opportunity you have. You have now, you've had over a year to prove that you are going to be a part of this really mainstay group with the forwards because there's been no

Sophia Wilson, there's been no Mallory Swanson, Michelle Cooper is now injured as well, right? So to me, those are three players who could very much start for this U.S. team. And now you have an opportunity to prove that you can be maybe that next line or if something were to happen, you would be the first call. So I think Dahlene, Joseph, Sears, even Ali Settinor, like those are the players that have to prove that they, in these games, especially because they're going to be a little bit more difficult of games and potentially in the Japan games if that happens, if they make that roster. Those are the types of games you have to make the difference defensively and in the

attack. So I just think that there's a huge opportunity for the forwards right now to show how they're different from everybody else. Yeah. Maddie Deline, I think also, by the way, a big one that hadn't really been in, obviously a rookie. To me, I look at a lot of these players and I think you know, a lot of these young players or players trying to push in, there's holes in there's holes in game, there's huge strengths, and it feels like Emma, and I think Emma Sears is the best example of this is like, find strengths that she wants in her team and is like, okay, I'll work on the rest of it and we'll get them up to speed, and it's worked with Emma Sears, right? She has this game-breaking speed. It's never going to go away. That's who she is. You know, at a minimum, if you put Emma Sears

into a game, you're going to get this. But there was, you know, less refined pieces of her game. And now, over the last two years, she has become one of the best attackers in NWSL and is a part of this team and it feels like there's a lot of young players in here who have attributes like that and so emma can sort of put together this roster of like okay what are the other maybe if my star doesn't have this what am i missing now we should mention sophia wilson unavailable for this it sounds like emma hayes was saying fitness not there yet not all the way back obviously mal swanson's not playing yet catarina micario uh i think it was a heel injury that was mentioned with her she is not on Chelsea's Champions League roster for the rest of the year.

Yeah, there's also a lot going on with her. So, like, I wonder if that has something to do with it, too. And it feels like with the money spent by Bay, which was one of the rumors, it's not Bay. And everyone's looking at San Diego, which would be awesome to have Katerino Mikario coming to the league. But this is also, okay, all the things I said of, like, these players are up next leading. Yeah, for sure. Are you guys awake up there? But, like, this is also a chance because those players are not here.

And if they come back, there are players. who would come off the roster. So this is a chance again to be in with Emma and get an opportunity. Yeah. Last point I have on this roster is there are five centerbacks. That's a lot of centerbacks out of this defensive group. Yeah. And it says to me, Emma does not know what the best pairing is.

And mind you, Naomi Germa hasn't been in the last few years. So you haven't got to see these players with Naomi Germa alongside of them. So I'm just curious to see how they're utilized. Will they all play centerback? Will Kennedy Wesley play outside back? I know she's played there a couple of times with San Diego. I don't feel like it's the best, like is the best use of her abilities. But I just felt like that was a lot.

I would imagine more outside backs than centerbacks typically, but maybe it has to do with the rotation next to Germa. Also, like, she's played Giselle Thompson as a wide centerback. Like there are other players in the, and obviously Lily Reel played centerback all through college. Yeah. Yeah, there are like 15 options at that position. Emily Sam's not one of them, which I think is also pretty fascinating. It feels like she needs to have a really hot start to the year with Angel City.

And maybe that was part of the move for her is to get herself sort of reestablished in this conversation. But yeah, it feels like there's question marks in a positive way. Like there's a lot of options. But we're going to learn a lot about who Emma lands on. obviously as I said, one of them is M.S. I still don't understand why Taylor Flint is not one of them. I will beat that drum every day. A number of Louisville players that were in this futures group that was called up as well.

Sarah Weber, a few others for Louisville. That is an intent of what this club is trying to build. They did very well last year in bringing college players into the team and having them hit their rookie year. It feels like they've done even better this year. And to talk more about it, we chatted with their general manager and Caitlin Milby. Caitlin, thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having. having me excited to have a great conversation with you.

So I wanted to start with your journey before we get into the club's journey. You've been with the club for a while, elevating finally to the general manager position. It's one of those roles where it doesn't feel like there is a pathway. There are very few of them in the world. We don't really know how they get there. So talk a little bit maybe about how you've come to this spot and sort of what you've learned along the way. Yeah. I'll go back a while now, almost 12 years, how I've done.

got to Louisville in the first place. So played soccer, K. Do you have Louisville? Won't lie. I probably hadn't heard much of Louisville before. I decided to play here, but ended up here, played, and then had a little bit of a left, came back, left came back, decided, hey, I really want to stay in a sport. How can I do that?

I'm not going to, I didn't want to coach. I obviously wasn't playing. And I went back to Karen, the coach at Louisville and said, hey, can I beat your team manager? She said, yep, go for it. was a team manager. I was able to kind of be with my former teammates, friends. So that was interesting, right?

Because I'm kind of on this. And loved it. Loved every bit of it. Loved the organization. Love the problem solving. Had a blast. Figured, okay, this is what I want to do. Try to figure it out.

Went to the EC&L. Got that gig, which was fantastic. I worked primarily on the boys side as it was pretty new then. And did national events, again, problem solving, organizing. But really missed that like team. aspect. So with the national events, right, you're dealing with thousands of parents, kids, rest, everything in between. Don't miss the dealing with the parent side of stuff. And wanted, okay, how do I get back? And around that time, racing came to be. And obviously,

I was an intern back during when I was like a team manager. I said, okay, I want to go be a part of Lou City, the team in town. I was a operations intern, but I worked the team store. They saw I had done retail at some point in my life They're like, hey, we need someone to help the team store. Can you do it? Sure, let's do it. Selling T-shirts out at a baseball field, but loved it. Obviously made a little bit of an impression with people here.

So time came and it was, hey, racing was a team. I remember the day that the colors came out, the name came out. And I looked at my, I think, boyfriend now husband at the time and was like, I'm going to find a way to be a part of that team. I don't know how, but I'm going to do it. So fastboard. Fast board the director of op. Went for it.

And it was a shot in the dark, right? It was a pretty, I didn't have a ton of experience. I obviously had no league experience. Got on the call, did the interview. I was, they asked me, what do you know, what do you know about the end of B. I'm like, oh, gosh. Oh, I'm tanked at this point. But it was good.

We end the call later that day. They're like, hey, we're going to have to go with someone with more experience. but we really, really enjoy talking to you. We want you to be part of the organization. Will you come work in this kind of random role in our academy? What that random role was is running their adult leagues and here at the training facility. And at the time, I was working these large national events. It would have a maybe step backwards if you looked at kind of where I thought I was going.

And so it took a lot of like, okay, what should I do here? I go for it. And I thought I'm not going to be able to get the job that I want from here. I need to be over there. I need to be in the organization. I need to do it. And maybe I'll get lucky. Came over. Did it for a year. I was there till 1130 dealing with 45-year-old men thinking they were the greatest thing since Messi. It got to a point where I was like, I don't know if I want to be in sport anymore. I don't know if I want to do this. Is this really what I want to do? I honestly applied for a handful of non-sports jobs. And then everything happened.

There was obviously some stuff going on down the hall for me. And the position opened. And they said, hey, you want the job? My first day of doing anything was the draft that year that was still on Zoom. I had no idea what I was doing. I was handed a laptop. And I was told, this is the player we're drafting next. Type their name into this little and go for it.

and since then hit the ground running that was back in December of 21 at this point director of ops for a couple of years loved it right your problem solving you're being able to work with the players you're trying to make everyone's life easier a friend of mine said the best way to describe that role is a duck like swimming so gracefully

but their little legs are going crazy under the water it's director of off right they do so much behind the scenes to hopefully if doing their job right you don't realize that they're doing their job at all. And I loved it. And then the, obviously, we decided we needed to hire a GM. And I was a part of that process of the hiring. I wasn't obviously interviewing, but I was helpful. I had been around for a couple of years. And so we did some interviews. Ryan came in and I got the opportunity to work with Ryan. We shared an office. So I learned a lot. And I'll say this to Ryan. He unfortunately got the first run at it. So I got to

to see a lot of good things. I got a lot to see problems, how he did, what he did right, what he did wrong. And I got to benefit from that. So I would like to think I helped him quite a bit. I would like to think we had a lot of great conversations going back and forth, learned a ton from him. And then when time came back last November or two November ago at this point, another one that said, hey, we're not going to renew Ryan.

We want you to step in. And at the time, I remember we were like walking around the facility. and I thought to myself, how in the world am I going to do this? How am I going to step from the role, which was a support role? However, I've been around for a while, but again, just a support role to now being in charge of this amazing group of staff and players. My fear of going into how do I change that role, how do I change people's kind of perception to say, okay, now I am going to have to be in charge? Again, there was a lot of, oh, my goodness, am I ready for this?

Should I do it? Will I fail? and it was there's never going to be another time. So if I don't take the opportunity now, I'm never going to get it again. So took it then and here we are now. Over a year later, full tie. In end of March when I had my daughter, so I remember I was at the hospital room going back and forth contract-wise, getting that done. And had my second child.

So I was back in late, late March, early April. and it's been fun. It's been a lot of fun. It's been great being with Bev. I think one of obviously any of my success that I've been able to have is being able to bounce idea as a partner with her. So that's been a lot of fun. And that's kind of how I got here. Amazing.

Incredible path. Incredible story. I also feel very vindicated because I just did a job fair for people. And I said, if you want to be somewhere, get there first. because once you're there, it's a little easier than jumping into the dream job. So I feel very vindicated right now for that advice. So I'm going to continue to give that. But now talk about the role, which you watched for a little while and now you're in.

What is a general manager of an NWSL team? What is the day to day? What is the life? What's sort of the main focus? Yeah. I think I'll talk primarily probably from the racing chair, right? Because when I talk to other teams, there's an AGM, there's a sporting director, there's a technical director, and there's a general manager.

So what do I do here at racing? A little bit of everything. The best way I described it, I think was two days ago. I got, I think, eight tech staff day saying, hey, can you chat today? And as I was going from one conversation, I got a text, can you chat, this, this, and this. So it's very similar in the world of problem solving in the day to day. So in those conversations, it's managing staff. It's managing making sure players are okay.

Everything's happening. And then bigger pictures, obviously making sure that our roster is built the way that we want it to. So I think that's kind of what people think of like, okay, you're trading, you're doing this, you're doing that. But in reality, the day-to-day is making sure that I support my director of ops. I support my technical staff. I support the players. I would like to think that I would want my door to always be open, which I put a sign on it because I promise you if I didn't. I would probably get three people coming in and say, hey, can you, you know, whatever it is.

And it's just making sure that people feel good to come to me, right? I want to make sure that everyone can come in and say, hey, I've got a problem. or, hey, this is great. And so that's kind of the very small day today. And then the roster building and what that looks like, I think is obviously the biggest overarching thing that I do. And with that, watch to see what happened. And I think everyone would probably agree that we've changed the way that we're recruiting and we've changed the way that we're building our roster. When probably two years ago in the time when I kind of took over that off season, you're seeing these transfer fees skyrocket.

and again, not a secret. We don't have the biggest budget. We don't have the biggest owners. We don't have, you look and you can compare us. And we thought, why be something we're not? And so that's kind of my mentality of with anything in life. You could fake until you make it. But it just didn't seem like it was really worth us to go that path in the sense of what I kind of clarified as like buying guaranteed goals.

So if we were going out, we would have to spend a lot of money that you've seen on these players who are going to guarantee you goals. They're going to guarantee you scoring, assisting, or stopping goals, one of the three. And if you're not spending the big, big numbers that we're seeing, you're still taking a little bit of a gamble, which is possible, right? I have a lot of faith in our staff and our recruitment that if someone says, okay, we want to take a gamble on this player, then I know we've done our homework. But we thought, let's shift our focus. and we have, again, a fantastic coaching staff. We have Sergio, our goalkeeper coach, came from the college world. And it's crazy.

I think Bev said at a time or two, I was like, I don't know how this man knows everyone, but he somehow was like, oh, I knew this person, knew this person. And we all know the soccer world is small, the collegiate world even smaller. And so we said, okay, we have this. We've done while the draft. We've picked up some players through that process. We obviously don't have the draft anymore. last year was the wild wild west of the collegiate game.

I think we're seeing it kind of even itself out now. And we said, okay, where can we go find the best players? And in that, not only the best players, but the best players for racing Louisville. So we thought, what do we want to be? And I think Bev did a really great job in the off season leading into 25 to understand what that looked like. And so she could come to me and say, okay, this is where I think player-wise we need to go. And you saw that last year. We're a high-pressing transition team.

How can we find players that fit that? And how can we find players that we want in our locker room? So we'll say it time and time again, we will pass on top-top players if we don't think they will fit the culture that we have set out to build. And so that was something else that we really felt going into 25, that that needed to be the foundation of this team. How can we?

And we fully, fully believe that that culture that we built got us across the line last year when in previous years we missed out. And so during that recruitment process, we're going and saying, okay, what do we need last year? What do we need? How are we going to do this? How are we going to be this transition team? We got players like Ella Haas, who are able to be able to do that. We added KDU Kane to the midfield who came in until like our pro day. Wasn't even, she just kind of came in for a tryout.

Bev and I both left it of like she was the best player out there, came in, did fantastic. A little bit of an underdog, Sarah Weber. I mean, I know she was through the youth national system, but again, someone like Matt that we take pride in finding those types of players that we know who are going to work hard, buy into the system and fit culturally is what we did. So we said, okay, we had success. How do we do it in 2026?

And I think having a year to kind of run up to it was great. as I sit there and we work to build out what our roster looks like, who are we losing, who are we gaining, where do we want to go, and then go after those targets. And I will say, I think we probably had a handful of targets in the collegiate game this off season, and we got all but two. Yeah. And so we felt really good about the offseason.

And again, we didn't go. We didn't get an international. We kept domestic. And we said, why fix something that worked for us? why try to again be something we're not. Let's see what was successful and let's go with that. So three all Americans coming out of college in the signings, clearly, as you said, leaning back into what worked.

Now with two years of experience in terms of this process of college players coming in and signing, can you take us behind the scenes a little of like, what is the pitch process? What's the conversation? Is it different than it is with an already professional player? Like, how does Louisville go about bringing these players in? So we've got a little presentation that Bev and I sit on this call and do with the player and their agent most of the time. A couple of them, the collegiate ones, you'll see the good chunk have agents, but some don't.

So we were just talking to someone. And I tried to do a little bit of homework before to find a couple bits and pieces. Where's their hometown? What are they like to do? And we'll throw those in the presentation of what Louisville has to offer. Because again, you'll hear me say it multiple times out. I'm not going to pretend that Louisville as a city is something that it's not. We are not the LAs.

We're not the New Yorks. We're not even the Chicago, so to speak. We are a smaller market, so I'm going to discuss the benefits of being in a smaller market. And I think previously we were trying to make it and we were trying to compete against it. If a kid wants to stay in California, I'm not going to waste my time or her time.

That's great. Stay in California, go for it. But if I can find someone who went to Texas Tech who grew up in a small town, I'm going to go there and I'm going to chat about how Lubbock, Texas, and Louisville similarities and whatnot. So I do that kind of homework to make sure. And then obviously, Bev is a fantastic speaker in those settings

to be able to talk to the players, give a little bit of insight without giving away all the secrets. But we throw that up there, throw what our principles are, our culture. And I'll tell you, we get on these calls, and we know almost immediately what we either like or don't like. If we can get on a call, you can tell by body language, You can tell by their questions, their interactions, and we're like, hey, she wasn't feeling it.

We weren't feeling it. We're not going to press on it. And we'll go on. And that's fine. But you can really get from just a quick kind of Zoom conversation what that looks like. So it's a presentation. We run through soccer. We run through the city.

We run through them. We'll pull up some clips of them. People love to watch themselves play. We'll do some good. And then I hear a lot of from these collegiate players, their development. They want to develop. They want to develop. So we'll throw up a IDP for them that our coaches have put together to show them what it would look like here, how we would implement that.

And essentially, what our coaching staff thinks they do well, not so well, and how we will get them to where they want to be. So that's about an hour. It's the same, you know, it's not rehearsed, but you get pretty comfortable doing it. Then you hear these questions and just sell among the benefits of Louisville and all the fun things that it has to come. It's not a big city. It's not a small town. It's got a little bit of both. And being able to find the people that that resonates with has been successful.

Then they get here and they want to stay here. And we want to make sure that we can keep the people that want to be here here. So one of the other signings you made was Audrey McKean in the offseason, a U18 player. And you talked about development right there. And obviously your background at ECNL, but on the boy's side and the growth of the game, I've worked a lot alongside the MLS next setup and watched it grow. And everything you're talking about with Louisville, as we look at global soccer, it's normally, okay, they're an academy developing club that then maybe potentially sells.

That's a different conversation. But that's where teams that have those disadvantages normally lie. That's not the setup of NWSL. So I'm curious, what would be your dream scenario of how that could be set up and how a club like you would be able to utilize it maybe going forward? Sure. So when we, you see all these teams across the league signing players. And they seem to be signing. some 14-year-old, some 16-year-olds, what does that look like?

And we had always said, similar, we're not just going to sign a player to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak. We're going to sign a player that we think can make an impact for us. And we also don't have the budget and a ton of resources to say, we're going to have someone who's just going to develop for years to come. So when we were doing the process, that's why, you know, we waited and waited. And then we found Audrey. she came into preseason last year with us.

She did well. She held her own, but we don't think she was quite ready yet. And then we had her back in for the summer for some training when school was out for her, and it was a completely different player. We thought, oh, wow, her confidence on and off the field, completely different.

And at the time, we're like, okay, she could probably come in and play for us right now at some point in the summertime. And then she went back and forth. I think she didn't know. It came at her fast. She was already signing to go to Florida State. And so what that looked like? And we again said, hey, we don't want to force someone who doesn't want to be here,

who isn't ready for that. So, Audrey, if that's your plan, if that's what it is, we are going to watch you and cheer for you from here. Great. A couple weeks. And then it was, okay, you know what? I think I changed my mind. I think I do want to go pro.

And so we were obviously ecstatic and brought her in. But through that development, you see we're one of the few clubs. that has that EC&L team in our backyard, so to speak. You look at our facility, we've got four turf fields. That's where our academy trains every weekend. For example, this weekend, if we're out here, all the players are walking by. Like, it's a fantastic kind of small family feel. And with our academy, though, being so young, right?

And so young to speak when you compare us to a place like PDA or Slamors or SoCal, we are babies in that environment. And so I think it's going to take time and you're seeing that progression. The boy side, I think, was a little bit quicker for the Luce City Academy. They've obviously got some players to go to the USL team and then off and play globally

and had that success. So we know what success looks like of the academy system and we will get there one day on the girls side to be able to have an academy product come here and play for us. I think it's just going to take a little bit of time as they start to get the best talent of girls in Louisville, in Kentucky, in this area. And we do have the appeal of should they show that they're capable of training

with the first team come over. And we've had academy players train with us a handful of times throughout the year. Obviously, school is a little bit difficult, but being able to have that. And then just understanding how the league, and there are some bright people at the league level trying to figure out the best way to do this, And I think with everything, it's not rushing the process.

So let's not rush into something that isn't completely fully, fully thought through of every little piece, right? Going into player development, how does that look for the salary cap? How do we operate? How do we make sure? How do you get and kind of get return on the investment that you put into this player? And what does that look like? So that's all coming along and then obviously partnering with the ECNL and how successful they've been for. 10, 11 years of this point.

And just the growth that I saw from my time then to what I see now from what they get to do is phenomenal. And obviously you look at the numbers. The numbers don't live how many NWSL players are EC&L products. So it's very, very fun to see that growth. And then obviously for us, as we go through, we might just have to look a little bit past our backyard like someone like Audrey to be able to come through. And my little fun tidbit is Audrey and I,

actually played for the same club because I'm from that area. So when I was there, it was a different name, transformed into VDA. But her coaches, the directors, all there, like, from where I went, she went to high school with, you know, where a lot of my club teams went to high school. So small soccer world. Small soccer world. But just a fun little connection there. So I think it's, we will continue to work with our academy, work with the W League in the summertime. to be able to find those products. And it's funny, we joke. If you made an all-star team of our W League,

they would probably be a fantastic NWSEL team. Emily Sams came through. We had L.A. Setner come through. Like the amount of players, Sarah Shepansky has come through. And at the time, with the draft, we obviously wanted, but you never knew because it depended on and you were spending money, you were doing this, you're doing that. It's completely different now.

So again, making sure that we are very selective. with the players that come into the W League and working with the academy to ensure that there is academy spots for those players. It's not just collegiately from across the country, but coming in, bringing in, they train again, right next door. If someone that we think is good enough, they'll pop in, they'll do some training with us, they can see the facilities, they can see kind of the atmosphere. And then it's a heck of a lot easier when I get on those calls for someone who's already been here to be able to get the deal done. So you talk a little bit about some of the big name players that have come through there on the W side on that first team side though emma sears has

really like put her name up there what has it been like watching her development and obviously emma hayes has a point of view but what is her ceiling and what can she be for this club i don't think we even have touched on the ceiling yet um it's a again it's seeing what we saw right of when we drafted her and she wasn't a first round draft pick. We had seen and we were like, okay, you know, we feel like we have this person in our back pocket. Okay, we're waiting, we're waiting against us. We do it.

She shows up at first day of preseason and we were blown away. I think like two days in they did a 1K test. And as the world knows, like Emma just like flies, right? She almost looks like she's floating through space. So it has been a lot of fun to really see from then of just her musical ability and her speed to then everything that we can do on the club side to help develop her and those close communications with the national team to say, okay, what are they seeing in camp? What do they want to see from her here? And working to make

sure that she's developing all year round. And so I think she's, I won't say that, depending on, she's obviously headed out of town here shortly to go for camp. I don't know when that gets released publicly. But, and it's just been very, very exciting to see what she can do. And it was, again, a really big deal for us to keep someone here who is happy that we want to keep here. So trying to get ahead of those contracts, watching when things are happening, understanding, and saying, okay, Emma, we want to extend you. We want to keep you here. I think it's a testament to see these players, like an Emma, like a Taylor, say, hey, I want to stay in Louisville. And for me, it was a little bit of that domino fall to get one done to say, hey, we're investing in these players. We are, I think Louisville had

a little bit of a bad rap, understandably so, for quite a while on the start. But I think we've turned to that page. We're a completely different group now. And to be able to say, hey, no, no, no, people want to be in Louisville. People want to be here. And we're going to make sure that we keep those players here. And they could go to a lot of different places and do all these different things, but there's clearly something about here that they appreciate. Taylor Flint is one that we talk about on this show a lot. She feels like sorts of of the central force of a lot of what you've created. Talk a little about how you've set her up and what you've seen from her. And I have said on this show many times, I think should be national

team call-up. So you're already preaching to the choir. Yeah. No, when I came in, obviously, with Tay, she was out of contract at the end of 25. So that was probably my biggest. Okay, here's the job. You've got Emma and Taylor out of contract, if I'm thinking back to numbers, right and it was a big big big mountain to climb there with tay to make sure that i was doing everything to make sure that she was happy i think you see it with a lot of these players as they might bounce around or do different teams is they play their best when they feel their best and that's not just physically but when they enjoy where they are and so for me it was okay taylor clearly enjoyed being here how do we get this done i know that if she even touches the free

market what I'm up against, what people are saying, the phone calls, this and that, lots of phone calls being like, what are you doing with Tate? I'm like, I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Back off. It's not time yet. And so being able to get Taylor done was a very, very big kind of weight off the shoulders and a little bit of incompetence boost.

I think not only to myself, but the team, to the staff, to the environment, to the fans, everyone say, hey, we've got Taylor. Let's keep going to this next domino. And I think you've seen it, right? Taylor's ability in the midfield has been extraordinary for us. Obviously, any time that she's not on the field, most of the time is a yellow card accumulation, and we won't say, but I also think some of those are a little on call for, but I won't go too far into that. And you can tell when she's not out there on the field. And so into this offseason trying to see how can we get her even more involved and not just out of possession, but in possession.

She'll win those headers. I can pull up the statistics of her tackles and everything else that she does defensively. But how do we get and how do we hone in on that in possession? And I think going in from last year, people would probably say we're a very good out-of-cossession team. Once we get the ball, how are we going to be successful now? Because people kind of have an idea of what we do after last year. They'll probably still try to play out the back. And for whatever reason, not understand that MS. Sears is going to be sprinting at you.

But I'll take it. and seeing what we can do. And obviously Taylor's going to be a very, very large part of that. It feels like a piece that really worked for you last year that you seem to have even double down into is those full backs bombing forward and being high up the field and being aggressive. In big picture, take me for through, clearly in those conversations, so what's the jump now? How does this club get better in 26?

And maybe what are the goals that you're stating as a group to say this is the, this is what 2026 needs to be? Yeah. So I think now, right, every year, every preseason, we'd go through and write the goals and playoffs was on. That's what we got to get to. And now we've gotten there. So now that's the expectation. So in the off season, we obviously looked.

We saw where are some holes, where are some moving pieces, where do we think? How do we get that much better? How do we add to this? How do we go out and get someone who's going to cover the ground that we need to cover? How are we going to get those fullbacks high to be involved in the game? What does that look like? and we went very, very specifically to find those pieces. Again, right, into the 25 season, we had the casting net this big, we shrunk it down.

And I think into this off season, we shrunk it down even more. So we're even more specific of what we were looking for. That speed up top with someone like a Taylor White, you have Maya coming in at that nine working. What does that look like? You bought our full backs. You're just adding depth as well. And I think that's something that we have really wanted to, close the gap a little bit.

So that way, when Bev looks down the bench, she goes, okay, I have confidence in these five subs that I can make that they're going to go on the field and they're not only going to keep the level, but they're going to give us that little bit next, right? I think the game changer, so to speak, is now that we have that depth to be able to and you see the schedule. And it's a pretty tough schedule at times. I think there in July, we're in L.A., Kansas City,

and then back home to Chicago in less than a week. And so there's going to be some brutal, brutal times and the depth is going to come into play even more this year. So another piece into the off season to say, hey, we need to make sure that we have what we need so that we can last the full season. And so I think it's just those in possession, how do we do that?

How do we know that people are going to start to figure us out a little bit? So how do we get that kind of upper hand on the tactics in that world? And then again, how do these pieces really come in? And I think we feel confident starting with the first day of preseason this year to compare it to last year, we feel good that we started an even higher ceiling than we did. So again, it's now looking, can we host a playoff game? Can we go to that next level?

We know that no matter who we face, as with any team in this league, right, then that's the great part about the NWSL, is that you never know what's going to happen on any given day from the top to the bottom. And so for us, it's making sure we perform well at home. we performed really well in the road last year. It's getting that goal differential up, right? We got into playoffs with a negative goal differential, only team to do so. How do we fix that this year?

How do we get those? So those little but large pieces getting a little bit fitter so we can outrun our opponents. And when we go into those deep season games, we still look and feel and see that we're fit is definitely something that we're working on in this preseason to build out for the season. I'm excited to watch the team. I could do this all day. It's great talking to you. We appreciate the insight.

So I want to close you out on this one, which from everything we're talking about over the last 25 minutes, maybe not as relevant to you, but you are one of the decision makers. And it's one of the big news, which is obviously this high impact performance spot that's been brought in by NWSL, the hip rule, whatever we're going to end up calling it, the Rodman rule. Who knows? And from everything you're saying, it doesn't sound like you're shopping on the Guardian top 30 list. that often. So as you see this get talked about and announced, how does it affect you? Is it just the idea of maybe it helps you resign the player in two or three years that you've developed? Like,

how does the hip rule live in the world of racing Louisville? You were hit the right on the spot, right? We're not shopping in those realms that we would be able to kind of have that. I think it obviously opens the door, should we? But it's... hey, some other teams might have some players that aren't happy because they're not getting that money. And I'll be here and we can get something done. So I think you can be creative and you can look around and see OK, because, again, I'm not going to try to pretend that we're something. We're not.

Everyone sees it, knows it. And we're just going to continue to find. So if people are distracted by going to try to find them, we will find the best collegial player that we can find, who want to be here in the Louisville, who want to play our style. because again, you look around some of these European teams coming in, these Spanish players, they are fantastic on the ball. Are they going to want to do what we're doing? Maybe not.

Maybe they are. Maybe they're not. And we're going to go and have those conversations. But we'll continue to do what we do really well, which is the collegiate game. Look around the league. We'll find some players who maybe don't fit that system, who we know will fit ours. You see that in our trades throughout the off season. We went out and found some players that we think would fit us a little bit better.

And so I think we'll keep focusing on that. that and maybe get to the point where we, we dabble into the hip. But for now, we're just going to stick with what we know is working and continue to do that well. Obviously, a record last year, finally making the playoffs, as you said, it was the goal. Now it's the expectations. It's going to be exciting to watch it all go down this season under Bev Viennes and, of course, under yourself. So, Kaelin, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. And hopefully we'll get to do this again soon.

Yeah, appreciate it, David. And, yeah, root for racing this year. We'll do. Thank you so much again to the general manager of Racing Louisville and Caitlin Flores Mill being taking the time to chat with us. Could have talked all day, but didn't want to spend her whole day because she has some moves to make and some rosters to build. But we appreciate it once again. We're going to be doing interviews with a number of people going into the season to help preview it. We really want to take everyone behind the scenes with some of the big characters across NWSL. So thank you once again to Racing Louisville. Thank you to you, Jordan. Thank you to all of you out there for listening and we'll talk to you again very, very soon.