My love for sports started early. I began playing soccer at four years old after a season of T-ball, where my parents quickly realized there wasn’t enough running to wear me out. Neighborhood pick-up games of football, basketball, and Capture the Flag fueled my competitive spirit. Over the years, I added basketball, cross country, and track to my sports lineup and even dabbled in cheerleading and swimming during middle and high school. But soccer was my true passion, eventually leading me to play collegiately at Bellarmine University. As I transition from athlete to sports fan to sports parent, I realize how deeply sports have shaped who I am and continue to influence my life and who I am as a parent.
As I moved into adulthood and the role of ‘athlete’ became less central to my identity, I had to figure out how sports would fit into my life in new ways. I’d been an Indianapolis Colts fan for as long as I could remember, so getting season tickets felt like a natural choice. I also became a club and high school soccer coach, eager to pass on the knowledge and mentorship that so many incredible coaches had given me. My devotion to the US Women’s National Team never wavered—I’d been following them since the 1996 Olympics and the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Watching those incredible women play the sport I loved opened my eyes to possibilities far beyond what I’d seen before for women in soccer. I had officially transitioned from athlete to sports fan and coach, and it felt right.
In 2017, my husband and I were over the moon to find out we were expecting our first child after years of trying. The only hitch was that her due date fell right in the middle of the high school soccer season, and I was the head coach. After weeks of weighing the pros and cons, I made the tough decision to step away from coaching after ten years. Now, as a mom to two little girls, I find myself drawing from the countless experiences I had coaching some of the brightest, hardest-working, and most creative young women. My coaching era in sports may have ended, but its impact lives on in how I parent every day.
There wasn’t much time to be sad about the end of an era when my oldest daughter decided to make her appearance several weeks early on the opening Sunday of the 2017 NFL season. From that week on, she attended every home Colts game of the season, partially because we had renewed the tickets before we knew she existed and partially because it was a rough season to Believe in Blue, and selling our tickets was next to impossible. Football Sundays have become a big part of our family traditions since those days, and we always try to make it fun for the kids to experience sports and to cheer on our team. We even give our dog touchdown biscuits. Needless to say, she likes it when we score.
Being a sports fan always came second nature, and I hoped my daughters would find joy in participating in sports themselves at some point. During the height of the pandemic, we got my three-year-old a soccer ball and a little goal for the backyard. That next year, she promptly asked me if she could play on a soccer team, and my mom-heart could not contain my excitement. I was finally going to be a soccer mom! Those first few seasons presented us with some amazing life lessons learned through sports that I don’t believe she would have gotten otherwise. She’s had some wonderful volunteer coaches who have poured patience into her and encouraged her competitive spirit within the team. My youngest daughter followed suit as soon as she was old enough. While I don’t believe soccer is her favorite thing in the world, she continues to surprise me with her tenacity to take on new challenges.
As much as I’d love for them to participate in the sports, I’m passionate about. I’m thrilled to let them explore any sport that sparks their interest. Last winter, they both took up gymnastics, and this year, my oldest is excited to join a co-ed basketball team with her cousin. As their mom, I do my best to make sure they know how much I support them and how proud I am of their efforts, no matter the game’s outcome. Ultimately, it’s not about the specific sport they choose—it’s about the confidence, resilience, and joy they gain from playing and the lessons learned from being involved in sports. As their biggest fan, I’ll always be there, cheering them on, no matter where their love for sports takes them.
