By Shara Talia Taylor
ABOVE PHOTO: American University screenshot
Participation in women’s soccer has been on the rise according to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), and the most recent NCAA statistics show the numbers of Black women in Division I (D-I) college soccer has increased as well, but not as much.
Women of color in soccer have explained why they think that is and what is needed for change. Kia McNeill, Brown University head soccer coach and retired National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) player, along with PHLY Sports host and former La Salle University soccer player, Renee Washington and others recently shared their thoughts.
Veronica Roach of Pottstown, Pa. has overcome trials to achieve her goal to play D-I soccer at American University.
“My dad always said to me you need to be good,” Roach said. “These other girls you’re going to play with, they have to be good to get time.
You have to be undeniable to get time.”
The journey to playing college soccer wasn’t easy for the 22-year-old senior.
“That was always my dream growing up, to play Division I soccer,” Roach said.
Being a woman of color (tri-racial with African American, Ecuadorian and Japanese heritage), Roach stood out in rural Pennsylvania. She said that she was often the only person of color or one of few on soccer teams.
Veronica Roach at King University.
Photo by Carlos Sampedro
Veronica started playing at the age of four with children older than her and soon realized that it was something she wanted to take to the next level. Growing up she played on travel teams, also known as club teams, which are competitive teams not part of a recreational league that plays against teams in other communities. Later in life, she played both with club teams and her high school team as a teenager.
She also played for her high school soccer team as a teenager.
Looking back, Roach said there were times when she thought she wasn’t playing hard enough but wonders if there may have been microaggressions from leaders in the sport. After being pulled off the field in the middle of a high school game, she asked the coach why. Roach was told that she needed to score. She later scored two goals but was not given more time to play.
“I always had my dad [to] tell me to have thick skin,” Roach said. [He would say,] ‘You’re not here to make friends — you’re here to get better,’ because sometimes I wouldn’t want to go to practice because I’d get picked on a lot.”
She said some of her friends quit because they weren’t being played, and she would have also if it were not for her dad.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without him,” she said. “I feel when I see other people of color that look like me, they might not have somebody to do that for them.”
Fighting for playing time wasn’t her only challenge. She learned as a high school student that there were high financial costs to play on travel teams. Her parents knew that club play was a pathway to college and professional soccer, so they sacrificed to give her the same opportunities as others to dream big in the sport of her choice.
For example, the expense to join one soccer club in Pennsylvania, based on their website, begins at $2,275 per year. The club offers participation in competitive travel teams and intramural programs for members.
Roach played with the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) and the National Premier Leagues (NPL).
“Regular club soccer cost $1,100 to $1,400 a season and ECNL cost $1,900 a season,” said Veronica Roach’s father, Vince Roach, about their experience. “Remember this doesn’t include the travel hotel and food to each game or tournament.”
Roach found that some college coaches and recruiters often did not attend high school games, because college games and high school games were usually played in the fall. Club soccer games provided additional exposure for her.
“If you don’t have that resource of clubs, then your exposure is limited,” she said. “You can be the best player and I don’t know if you’ll get looks if you’re not [part of a] club.”
Due to the expense and lack of exposure, some girls of color might not play, McNeill said.
“Club coaches, I think they really need to find scholarship programs to really help young women of Black and brown communities be able to be a part of their team because I don’t think you should have to pay the highest level to play at the highest level,” McNeill said about club soccer, where children start.
McNeill felt access and exposure at a young age is valuable. She said teaching soccer skills at the grassroots level is an important way to get more girls of color involved in soccer, and also make it financially accessible.
“I think for me personally it’s more [about] educating people of pathways to make Brown affordable, to make club soccer affordable,” McNeill said. “At Brown, we can’t give athletic or academic scholarships, but we can give financial aid.”
Nearly a year ago, FIFA found the number of women and girls playing organized football had increased by nearly a quarter compared to 2019. Yet the number of Black players in D-I college women’s soccer has only increased about 2% over the last 10 years (2013-2023), from 5% to 7% based on the information provided to the NCAA from reports from member schools.
Panelist photo–(left to right) Renee Washington, Bekah Salwasser, Kia McNeill, Darian Jenkins, and Danita Johnson
Photo credit: Shara Talia Taylor
Similarly, Washington felt the way to increase women of color in D-I soccer is with access and inclusivity by leadership in soccer.
“Soccer has not always been the most welcoming, and we need more allies and real change to truly create soccer as a welcoming sport,” Washington said.
McNeill and Washington joined a panel of women in soccer in May at the Jackie Robinson Museum in Manhattan to share their experiences in the sport and to discuss the growth of the presence of women of color in it. The panel was called “Leveling the Playing Field” — one of a series of four events that the museum is currently featuring on women pioneers and sports.
“We are covering a lot of issues at the museum dealing with equal opportunity, diversity, and change in our society,” said Della Britton, president & CEO of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. “Obviously sports are very much in our wheelhouse because Jackie was a renowned well-rounded athlete.”
Other panelists included the president of business operations for D.C. United, Danita Johnson (the first Black president of an MLS club); executive director of the Red Sox Foundation, retired professional soccer player for the Boston Breakers of the NWSL and former Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Bekah Salwasser; and sports broadcaster/analyst, former retired soccer professional selected seventh overall pick in the 2017 NWSL College Draft, and 2013 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Champion, Darian Jenkins.
Jenkins played soccer at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and said Jackie Robinson, who also attended college there, was a part of the reason she chose the school.
“I think it paved the way for people like me who see themselves, especially in a predominantly white sport, to know that I can do it and see myself in these positions,” she said.
Panelists discussed the financial costs to play, pay equity, how to increase diversity in the sport, career paths beyond play, and shared their journeys playing soccer in high school, college and beyond. They found ways, post-playing, to continue to be involved with the sport and other sports in careers including broadcast, college coaching, youth sports, and front offices of professional sports. They try to encourage other young ladies of color to pursue soccer.
“I’d like to see it change so that young girls have female coaches at the youngest level all the way through up into the professional level,” Salwasser said.
Britton said Rachel Robinson was instrumental in having the museum built and wanted to educate people about social challenges in America and hoped it would lead to “honest good will dialogue among the people who see the exhibit.” Robinson will be 102 this July, two years after opening the museum doors. She is the founder of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which Britton said she intended to use to promote education and to provide support for talented, highly motivated students who were going off to college.
(Source: NCAA)
Roach did not attend the event at the museum, but felt support was the answer to more women of color playing soccer. She said she feels accepted at American University.
“I always think about how privileged I am to have a support system, but why can’t other people have it if they maybe don’t have parents that do it?” she said.
Roach said she reached out to coaches to share her game schedule in high school. She was offered a full scholarship and was committed to a college, but there were some challenges as she left high school.
“I wanted to go to college for pretty much free, because of all the money my parents spent (on her travel team years),” she said. “I ended up de-committing from the team because the coach had given away my scholarship.”
Roach said during her visit to the college, she was told her scholarship was given away, because she took too long to respond to the coach. She said she learned this in February of her senior year, when most of the money allocated for scholarships is gone for D-I colleges.
“I was really devastated and depressed afterwards, because I worked so hard, and it felt like I was letting my parents down as well,” she said.
Roach said her parents paid for a sports recruitment app, and then after an agent put together a portfolio for her, coaches reached out. King University in Tennessee was interested and provided a scholarship for her that May. She attended the college but transferred last year to American University.
“At King, I did really well,” she said. “I was a 90-minute player. I got the accolades and everything, but I wanted to know if I could do it.”
Roach wanted to prove to herself that she could play at the D-I level. This coming fall will be her last season.
“It really worked out, and it’s always a story that I will tell, because I think a lot of people are sometimes scared to take that step to change things in life, to make a huge change, and it was probably, like, [one] of the scariest things I’ve done,” she said.
Roach now believes things will work out when it looks impossible. She feels support and dialogue from soccer leaders are important for change, because challenges exists and “even if you change sites” people need to have the resources to know how to respond to those circumstances.
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