Navy Sports Central
What if I told you about a group of elite college athletes who compete in 36 different sports at one of the toughest institutions in the nation. For them, it’s not about name, image, and likeness or any other kind of major endorsement deal. Because at the end of the day, their ultimate goal is to serve their country. These young men and women represent the best our country has to offer. They compete at a high level on both the national and world stage, and their stories have mostly gone untold. I’m here to change all of that.
With Navy Sports Central, you'll get the latest news on the athletes, and their teams, gain some unique insights in our Deep Dive segment and hear from some great guests along the way.
So please join me, Karl Darden, and check out Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts to learn more about these incredible athletes and our nation’s future leaders.
Navy Sports Central
Passion, Pride & Perseverance: Haley Carter ('06) Talks Navy Soccer and Her Mission to Grow the Women's Professional Game
It's been a great start to the fall sports season. The volleyball team is riding a seven-match winning streak, the water polo team knocked off two ranked opponent's on their way to moving up in the national rankings, and the women's soccer team enters league play on a three match unbeaten streak. And of course the Navy Football team got into the win column, giving Brian Newberry his first as a head coach.
We'll update you on all these sports in addition to bringing you our Deep Dive and Mid Watch segments as well as our Question of the Day.
Our guest today is Hailey Carter. She is a former Naval Academy Women's soccer player and the current Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager for the Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League,
Carter discusses her journey from playing soccer as a young athlete and how her desire to serve led her to the U.S. Naval Academy. Her passion for soccer continues to drive her today.
Carter also unravels the moving story of the Afghanistan Women's National Team - and their continuing fight to be recognized by FIFA, international soccer's governing body.
This episode has its share of compelling stories and terrific insights. So let's get to it.
Related Links:
- Afghanistan's Women's National Team Fights for FIFA Recognition
- Orlando Pride Announces Haley Carter as VP of Soccer Operations and General Manager
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
Mattie Gallagher's Goals Against Average in 2020 was a microscopic 0.80 per game as she helped the Mids win their 5th Patriot League title. What was her save percentage over that same period?
B. 79%
C. 82%
D 84%
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Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
- Loka Music (Deep Dive Pt. 2 Lead In)
- Artlss (Question of the Day Lead In)
- Cinem
If you like what you hear, support the Mids and the show at the same time! Navy Sports Central is a proud affiliate partner of Fanatics.com, the Ultimate Fan Gear Store! Click on the link to start shopping now!
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to welcome and thank all of you for joining us today on Navy Sports Central. I'm your host and this is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation where we take a deeper dive into Navy Sports. We are well into the fall sports season, with league play just around the corner. Several teams are off to impressive starts, including volleyball, water polo and women's soccer, and it was great to see Coach Brian Newberry pick up his first win as Navy's football coach, as the mid shutout Wagner 24-0. I'll update you on each of those teams and I've got a terrific guest to help me preview the women's soccer team in our deep dive segment. In fact, even if you don't follow soccer, you're going to want to make sure you check it out. You want to talk about making an impact on the international scale and helping to save lives. My guest has done exactly that and I can't wait for you all to meet her, so please don't go anywhere. Okay, it is great to have you all with us on this 54th episode of Navy Sports Central, whether this 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 this sports update.
Karl:As I mentioned in the opening, there are several Navy teams that have had an excellent start to their season. Topping that list is the volleyball team. The mids have won eight of their first nine matches and are currently on a seven match winning streak. In fact, they swept the last four teams they played, and that includes taking down the University of Maryland for the first time a couple of weekends ago. Now, the one thing I've noticed about this team so far is they are consistently winning the big points, and I'm talking about when both teams have put up at least 20 points in a set, and everyone is critical from that point on. When it matters the most, the mids have found a way to make a key offensive or defensive play to earn the point and go on to win the match. That is a direct reflection of senior leadership, and this Navy team is playing at an elite level because of athletes like Jamie and Jordan Llewellyn, Anna Klemeyer, Maggie Bodman and Averi Miller.
Karl:The Mids start their Patriot League schedule this Friday at Loyola. The match will be carried on ESPN Plus, so if you happen to have it, be sure to tune in. This could be a really special year for this team, so you'll definitely want to check them out. Next up we've got Water Polo. The Mids have beaten two ranked teams number nine, Long Beach State and number 19, Santa Clara in the last few weeks. That was good enough to pull them up to number 13 in the rankings. Unfortunately, that number proved to be a little bit unlucky as they dropped their next contest to Wagner in overtime. That puts the team at five and three as they get ready for their upcoming conference schedule and no doubt Coach Nikolai will have them ready to go and be sure to hang in there all the way through to our mid-watch segment, because our male athlete that we'll be featuring is a member of the Water Polo team. Women's soccer is also off to a great start, and we are going to talk about some of those key players in our deep dive segment.
Karl:Right now. Coach Gabarra has got the Mids playing very well. The only team to score more than one goal against them was the University of Maryland, but the offense finally did get going and managed to get out of College Park with a 3-3 tie. Right now, the team is 4-1 and 3, which includes three road wins, so that's pretty impressive. They just finished up their non-conference schedule with a 4-1 win over University of Maryland, baltimore County, and they opened up their Patriot League slate with Loyola on Friday September 15th. And finally, coach Newberry and the Navy football team have their first win of the season.
Karl:The defense looked really good in shutting out Wagner 24-0. The mids forced five, three and out Seahawk possessions and they also got the ball back after stopping them on fourth down. In addition to picking up a fumble recovery and an interception. That total of eight surpassed Coach Newberry's get six goal and you'll recall that's when the defense get six three-nought possessions, forced turnovers or fourth down stops combined. Ty Levitite was very steady under center, making some good decisions with the football. He led the mids on a very impressive 75 yard drive on just five plays right before the half to put the team up 17 to nothing. Those five plays were all passes, by the way, and I don't have any idea when the last time was that Navy had five successfully completed passes in a row in a game where they were ahead at the time.
Karl:Anyway, my favorite play of the game was a 46 yard touchdown run by sophomore slot back Eli Heidenreich, and that came with about 10-44 left in the third quarter. Levitite just handed it to him as he went in motion left to right and after he broke through the line, heidenreich made a couple of very impressive cuts, got to the sidelines and worked his way down for a score. But the best thing about that play was Navy right guard Josh Pena running downfield just ahead of Heidenreich At about the 27 yard line. He delivered a key block that basically cleared the way into the end zone, and the funny thing about that block was it wasn't one of those decleders or anything like that, you know, one of those ones where the defender just gets planted into the ground. Penny just basically pushed this defensive back and sent him sprawling five yards downfield. It looked like he was just shoving this little toy doll out of the way. In any case, the mids offense looked a little bit better, but there's still a fair amount of work to do as they continue to internalize Coach Chestnut's offense. The strong positive yards on the pass plays was definitely a plus, though. Lavotype passed for 161 yards and the offense did run for 245, averaging about 5.5 yards per carry. So on balance I'd say it was a decent day.
Karl:Okay, that takes care of our sports update. Don't go anywhere. Our deep dive segment is next. This episode's deep dive segment features the Navy women's soccer team and with me today to talk about them is a member of the class of 2006. She played goalkeeper for coach Karen Gabara and then went on to serve eight years in the Marine Corps making two combat deployments in support of Operation 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 the Marine Corps making two combat deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She has played in coach soccer at every level, including professionally and internationally, and she still managed to find the time to earn an MBA from the University of Liverpool and a law degree from the University of Houston. So I'm extremely pleased to have Hailey Carter from the class of 2006 here with me today. Hailey, I really appreciate you joining me on Navy Sports Central. Thanks for taking the time.
Haley:Absolutely. Thanks, Karl Pleasure's mine.
Karl:All right, so there's quite a bit of stuff I want to go over with you, so let's go ahead and jump right into it. First of all, can you briefly recap how you got started in soccer when you were young and what led you to the Naval Academy?
Haley:Yeah, so soccer was the very first organized sport that I got into and I started playing because I went to a tournament with two of my boy cousins and they were a couple years older than me, maybe four or five years older than me and I went to a tournament with them and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So when I got home I told my mom that I wanted to play soccer and that was in kindergarten. So I started playing. I started playing in four or five on a YMCA team and I was the only girl on the team and then I moved After kindergarten.
Haley:I moved to another suburb and I stayed in that suburb. I grew up, spent my whole life there, so first grade through 12th grade and I found a girl I seemed to play on and I grew up playing with those same girls in high school in club and was really fortunate to be able to do some great things with that group of athletes and many of us went on to play Division I college soccer. So it was pretty cool. It was a very fortunate group of other athletes to grow up in and support structure was fantastic.
Karl:Now, was that the only sport you played?
Haley:Of course, not right. I grew up playing every sport there 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 did not do cross country. I'm sure you'll find that shocking, being that I was a goalkeeper. Those two sports were of no interest to me, but I ran plenty of track for Karen while I was playing soccer at Navy. So but I you know basketball, softball. I played Little League Baseball for a year. I love tennis, racquetball. I grew up playing golf. For my 16th birthday my parents got me a new set of golf clubs and then my favorite sport outside of soccer was water polo.
Karl:How about that?
Haley:I played water polo in high school. The coach for the water polo team came to me and asked if I could play in goal. She was like you know how to swim? Can you tread water? I was like, yes, I can do those things.
Haley:And so I became the goalkeeper for the high school water polo team and I felt like I was cheating the system a little bit, because when you went to high schools that didn't have, they had sort of a shallow end, it wasn't like an even depth pool Goalkeepers could stand, and so I'm like standing on the ground defending a goal that's like the size of a hockey goal and players that I'm playing against are swimming, can't touch the bottom of the pool, right. And I've thought well, if I can stop soccer balls, I can definitely stop balls being thrown at me when I'm defending a goal. That's my wingspan, basically. So I had a great time, I loved it and it was sort of a stress release for me. I love soccer.
Haley:Soccer has been my identity for a long, long time, but it's historically been a stress generator In some circumstances. Right, it's a stress release, but when you do it at a high enough level, it can be very stressful. So, having other sports and other outlets that I had that I could just enjoy and have fun and obviously I love to win but that I wasn't quite as serious about was a release for me. Those were hobbies, if you will.
Karl:Right right Now. Given all those wide interests in terms of the other sports, what was it about soccer in particular that made it your sport of choice?
Haley:I mean, I think being a goalkeeper mattered right, I loved being in goal and I think when you grew up there's a lot of players they don't want to go in goal and I wanted to play in goal. I love the ability to impact the game, to be able to keep your team in a game, and the leadership and responsibilities that sort of come with that and the accountability that comes with that when you give up goals. And that really resonated with me and I think you know something obviously I was good at and so I enjoyed it and a lot of opportunities presented themselves because of it. And you know, even looking back now, I think the amount of opportunity that I was given through the game you know I'm thankful for and I was thankful for it. Even then I was smart enough to realize I could go to college and continue to play and get my college paid for and all these other things.
Haley:So being good at it helped, but it was something that I just really thoroughly enjoyed and it, like I said, it was my identity. That's what the other sports I found to be fun, because I was an athlete and, like I said, I loved to compete and win, but I loved soccer. I was eating, sleeping and breathing it as a kid. I had posters all over my wall and you know I was like 15 for the 99ers and you know I was at an Olympic development camp when that happened. So it was just something that was defined, really, who I was especially like in my formative years.
Karl:So Right, right Now to that point. You know you mentioned the 99ers there. That was probably the first women's World Cup that I saw. Obviously, it got started in 1991, so you know, back then you had your Brandy Chastain, your Mia Ham, that group, and most recently you've had players like Megan Rapinoe and Abby Wambach. Before all of them was Karen Gubara. Okay, she led that 91 team to the World Cup title and she was named the tournament's top player. So my question to you is how much did her reputation play a role in you deciding to go to Navy?
Haley:I'll be honest with you, it didn't much play a role and I think that's something that people it's important for people to realize and this may be this may I can't speak for all athletes that go to Navy, but you know I didn't go to Navy to play soccer. I went to Navy because I knew that I wanted to serve my country. It was a good school. I knew that I would graduate and be prepared to lead in all sorts of different scenarios and situations. So you know, my decision to go to the Naval Academy was distinct, I would say, from my decision to play college soccer. I think having the ability to compete in NCAA Division I athletics was icing on the cake. But I got recruited to plenty of Power Five Division I schools to play soccer. So my decision to go to Navy had nothing to do with the soccer. I mean, it was beneficial, I was scouted and so I had a relationship with Karen and Rob going into it. But I think it's important to just be transparent that my decision to go to Navy was to go to Navy.
Haley:I made the decision pretty early on, probably in like seventh grade, I think in 97 or 98. There was a documentary that came out by the Discovery Channel and it basically featured all of the service academies and each year at the service academy and what that experience was like and summer training and those sorts of things. And I remember watching that documentary and telling my mom in seventh grade I wanted to go to the Naval Academy and that sort of became my goal from the beginning. So as I got older and started getting recruited to play college soccer, of course I explored all of my opportunities and options but I really wanted to go to Navy and so you know that. I can even tell you that I think there are some athletes that Went for the sports and I remember being frustrated. Those athletes like you're missing the picture right, like you know that. That you know it might be different for other sports, but the things that guided my decision-making around playing at Navy and and then commissioning into the Marine Corps were really around like service.
Haley:And the concept of service and how important that was and and how influential that was in my life. It was just a very fortunate Opportunity that I was going to be able to continue playing division one College soccer and continue that career and being able to play for somebody with, you know, the, the profile that Karen has and and even being supported by Rob Blank, was a phenomenal opportunity. But what guided my decision-making was certainly the school itself and and what that could possibly mean for my future and and beyond.
Karl:I appreciate it. I guess a better question might have been I don't know if you got recruited by West Point or Air Force, what kind of broke out Navy from those?
Haley:I was not interested in either school, so I probably got a letter I. I probably got a letter from at least one of them, but I would have chunked it in the trash as soon as I got it. So it's right and.
Haley:You know, working with young athletes and like, yeah, you know, any of the service academies could be a great option for you, but I was hell bent on going to Navy. I had no interest in going to school anywhere near the Hudson River. Colorado Springs is nice, but they have no history or legacy. You know their brand new. They haven't been around for a little while. So yeah it was. It was Navy. For me it was like Navy or busts.
Karl:Yeah, I, I feel the same way. In fact, my dad was in the Air Force and I had. I can't even count the number of people asked me why don't you go to the Air Force Academy? I said, well, because, like you said, they had no history. You know, I was all about just that, just that tradition and that sort of thing, and I had no interest in going to To West Point at whatsoever, because all I could envision was cold.
Haley: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:Let's jump into a coach Gavara's coaching style a little bit. What? What are a couple of things about that style that resonated with you.
Haley:I think there are really two things about her that stood out to me that I probably have carried on with me and in various leadership positions within the game, and the first one is the importance of treating everyone in your program as though they're valued when they're with you in your program and then in the years that follow and.
Haley:So if you look back at my career as I was a goalkeeper right, there's only one goalkeeper that starts in a in the match, but we traditionally will carry a core of three or four goalkeepers depending on the year. So you know I actually sat the bench my plea beer through my second-class year. I didn't start until I was a first-team but I got really good at understanding my role and knowing my role and feeling valued in that role that when I showed up at training, like training was my game day. So there was an expectation there that I Show up and be the best that I can for my teammates in that, in that role. And so from Karen standpoint, you know the way that she treated all of us and and really went out of her way to make sure that all of us felt valued and got, you know, an equal amount of attention. And from a development standpoint, we felt like they were invested in us.
Haley:And you know it was hard, I think for me, being a High-performing athlete coming out of high school and relatively highly touted like it's disappointing. I remember being really disappointed in my plea and in youngster years with not getting playing time and and that was a hard lesson to learn, but there couldn't have been a better place for me to learn that lesson, and that lesson has served me well in many environments, 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, the number one thing that they want to do is see playing time. So the importance of that and the importance of you know we talk about here in our environment in Orlando, that it doesn't matter if you're here on trial for two weeks or if you're signed to a multi-year agreement. It doesn't matter if you're a trialist or if you're Marta, you know, the six-time FIFA world player of the year.
Haley:We're gonna treat you the same exact way.
Haley:You know, we're gonna treat you as though your value, we're gonna make sure you have all the resources that you need to succeed and to develop. And that's something that's really Stuck with me and we talk about as well in the pro game. Every player leaves an environment, so whether they retire, they get traded, they get waived, they go on loan, the reality is anybody who comes in is at some point gonna leave and and that's also probably true of the staff and so ensuring that that athletes and and personnel who work for us are Developing on and off the field as people and as players or as coaches, that they're leaving in a better place than when they arrived, and I think that that's something that really that stood out to me, and playing for Karen and the growth that I did in the four years that I was there, that's just something that's really stuck with me. And then the second thing, too, is is the importance of really getting to know your players and your athletes and who they are off the field Right.
Haley:I think that's something you know when you're. I look back at what I was like at 18 and 22 years old, and one I was infuriating for sure I Can only imagine. Like, looking back on, I feel like I've lived 20 lifetime since then and the person that I was then very different than the person that I am now. But the effort and time that the staff and Karen and Rob and others Greg Calhoun it was our athletic trainer, who's one of my people I'm put into Getting to know us as as people as much as as players, and that's especially important at Navy, where You're taking 20 hours a semester on top of playing college athletics and, yeah, you, they had to make the effort to get to know us because there's just so little time, there's so little time that we get to spend with them.
Haley:So whether we're in the weight room at lunchtime or we're training after school, it is genuinely a really limited amount of time and you look at the length of the college season it's not very long, even with spring season and the fall season. You're you're kind of limited on time. So they went out of their way to make the effort to really get to know us as as people as much as players and really Be invested in what we wanted to achieve and what we were doing off the field, how we were performing, what was going on in our lives, what was causing stress 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 one programs and it's the sports that are the priority, not the academics and.
Haley:So to be supported on that level was really important to okay, so you finished up your time.
Karl:They graduated in 2006 with honors. Right yeah, eight years in a Marine Corps. You mentioned playing soccer professionally. How did that opportunity come up?
Haley:So I was really fortunate I was able to continue playing. While I was in the Marine Corps I played on deployment right, and this is actually a funny story. My roommate on my first deployment was a girl named Stephanie Drake. She was Stephanie Parker at Navy and her married name is Drake and we were teammates and she was a logistics officer as well. We were roommates. I was awake at night, she was awake during the day, so I was a day sleeper.
Haley:But we would go and play in tournaments on Fallujah, you know, once a month and we go and play pick up, and we actually got connected with several Iraqi interpreters that were working on Fallujah, because Quinn Nash, who was Quinn Reinhardt at the time, and Claire Henry had been there on the deployment right before us. So they told the interpreters hey, we have two teammates from Navy that are coming and so you can start to play with them, and so we kind of just tagged out, so we started playing with them. And then On my next deployment I was at Al-Assad, but some of those interpreters had moved from Fallujah because by that point we had closed Fallujah and we had moved a lot of things to Al-Assad, and so Then I was playing again with the same interpreters that a year and a half before in Fallujah I've been playing with. So I was really fortunate to be able to get to just play from, like I said, from a stress release standpoint. In between deployments I was able to compete on the all-arm forces team. So I competed in two world championships 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 grads, navy grads. There was a few other college athletes that did ROTC and a few enlisted athletes and and for us, I think many of us that was the highest level of Soccer that we had played. If you know much about the Council for International Military Sports System, when they host these world championships you have countries like Germany, south Korea and Brazil who all have sort of obligatory service requirements, and so what winds up happening is you get their U23 national teams or some of their senior national team players who come in. You know they get issued a military ID card and a uniform and then they go and they compete in these Tournaments and that wants up being their service obligation to their country. So the Brazilian U23s would show up and they'd all be like third-class petty officers in the Navy. They'll be wearing the same uniform and you know we'd show up and it'd be a smattering of all of the different service branches and but the soccer was some of the best soccer that you could imagine. And so there's athletes that you know I played against Then in those tournaments who then later came to the NWSO and I've seen in other environments as well. So that was incredible. That was that was really fortunate to be able to do that.
Haley:And then I moved to Hawaii. I was stationed in Hawaii with the joint POW MIA accounting command and when I was not out on missions for that I Was able to play semi professionally for a club called the Honolulu bowls and there's this league called the W1 League there and it's it's very much. You know you get together and you go out to a Soccer park. It's, it's it very much seems like Recreational soccer. You know I get to a soccer park, you play on a Sunday afternoon and there's 20 other fields with kids on it and and whatever. But the the level of the soccer there was actually quite good. Caprice Didasco, who now actually plays for the Houston dash, was my teammate and For the bowls and she was a senior in high school. She was getting ready to go to UCLA, and so you look at the level of players that were playing in that league and it was actually one of being really competitive. And that was 2011, 2012, 2013.
Haley:When I got out of the Marine Corps. I took a job in Austin. I took a corporate procurement job, and so it was just a successor in the Marine Corps. So not long after that, the dash were established as an expansion team in the National Women's Soccer League and I Got a call from their new head coach, and just back then you only could sign two goalkeepers to a contract, and you need more than two goalkeepers to survive a season. You need more than two goalkeepers to survive a preseason right.
Haley:And so you know, I got asked well, you know You're back in Texas, right, and you want to would you be interested in coming in? Well, of course I would. So you know, it's like we'll come 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 I got invited to come in for preseason and then I was there for as a reserve for the next three seasons. So there you go.
Karl:Good deal, all right. So now I wanted to transition and talk about some of the players on this year's Navy team. I know that with your skills on everything, it's been really tough to follow, but the approach I'd like to take is just basically Throw out about the you know five players out there, give you some little bit of background and then ask you to draw upon your player and coach experience To provide some perspective for me. Okay, sounds great. So I want to start with Jenna Daunt, who is a senior midfielder. She's from Haymarket, virginia, which is about 40 miles west of DC, and she has been a constant presence on the field the last two years, especially starting 31 of 38 games, I think, and one of the things that have been pointed out about her she's very, very good two-way player, as most midfielders have to be, as as I.
Karl:You know, and I will tell you right now that I'm not tremendously schooled in soccer I, you know I try to educate myself as much as I can. There are some sports that kind of cross over, like I'm very familiar with lacrosse and the role of midfielders and lacrosse and and that sort of thing, but to, from what I've been able to find out, the midfielders in soccer. They have a ton of responsibility, just based on whatever the team strategy is. Yeah, but one thing that I think is fair to say is they got to be really good in transition, they got to have really good positional awareness and they have to have an eye for creating scoring opportunities. So that's something Jenna's been able to do fairly consistently, and I was wondering if you could Kind of speak to those three skills, if you could maybe force rank them or or, and throw in a couple that I might have left out. Yeah, and, and just tell me what, as a coach, what responsibilities as a midfielder, are most important to you.
Haley:Yeah. So I think, if you look at Our environment and and I know I know the expectations Karen has of midfielders as well Something that's important for us when you talk about being a two-way player like you have to be able to track back and defend. You know, nobody wants a midfielder who's not going to put in the work defensively. So ensuring that you're fit enough to do it and you're smart enough to read when it needs to be done, or to even sit and seams and block and prevent that from happening so that goes back to your positional awareness piece. But so that's something that we really care about is are you gonna put the work in? Are you gonna be the gritty player who tracks back and does what needs to be done, especially in the case of a turnover, right? So that matters for us.
Haley:The other thing, too, is like when you receive the ball, are you looking forward? Are you taking a forward touch? Are you looking for seams? And on the other side, if you're off the ball and we've now regained possession, are you finding seams right? So that positional awareness you talk about, are you looking around to find the space that's available? Are you creating space for your teammates based upon your movements.
Haley:So obviously you need to be technical enough to be able to play one touch, two touch, find those goal scoring opportunities, not be afraid to take a shot when you can get it at the top of the box and having that confidence. But for midfielders, really being that all around footballer, where you are smart defensively, you're mobile, you'll track back. But also, the minute that that transition happens and you regain possession, are you getting into those spaces that you're creating opportunities for your team to advance and build up the field? From what I've heard, jenna is that player right, she's a complete package, she's able to get into those spaces, but she's also willing to do the work defensively. So having a player like that that's tenacious offensively and defensively is like hitting jackpot as far as a midfielder is concerned, for sure.
Karl:Yeah, yeah, and I wanna take a second to ask you this question as well, because soccer is one of those sports that, when you look at it thing statistically right, I mean certainly there's goals and assists 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 those players like your midfielders 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 to track them performance wise, right. So in your capacity, I guess I can even address this now, just based on what your current role is. How do you evaluate those players where those numbers just don't show up on a sheet all the time?
Haley:Yeah. So we evaluate a couple of different stats. So one I'll tell you, I am very much 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 make stats and numbers tell any story that you want, depending upon how you use them. So I like to combine statistics with the eye test so, you know, I can look and see whether or not a footballer is a good footballer. But having data to support your thoughts, or second guess your thoughts, make you really, you know, evaluate and reflect on whether or not what you're seeing is really what you're facing sort of testing your biases, if you will. But the statistics we really look at, like when we're scouting players or recruiting them potentially to sign them. There's a couple one.
Haley:We talk about fitness, right, so we talk about your average match speed, your maximum match speed, so how fast you are on kilometers per hour, but also your average, like you know, in general, like I know how fast you are, I can see what you can sprint, but what are you on average with the ball at your feet? What are you moving at your average distance covered in a match? Now that can kind of go other way. It depends on how smart you are as a player, right? Some players are running all over the place because they don't know how to read the game as well, right, so their average distance covered in a match can be a little bit higher. But it's always good to know. Like I said, that's why you couple it with the eye test, because you can see is this player just a workhorse and they're just working their tail off and that's why they're covering that kind of distance? Or they just run it around like a chicken with their head bent out. So you can make that determination.
Haley:But for midfielders, things that we look at are like successful tackles. So if they go in for a tackle, we talk about the defensive work, like what is their success rate? When they go in for a tackle, we also look at their successful passing percentage, right, so how accurate on average are the passes that they're making? And then we also look at just not from a statistic standpoint, but just in general, like you can look at a heat map it's similar to that but what are their successful through passes? So what kind of opportunities are they creating for the front line? Are they getting balls played in behind the back line, and so you can start to see that based on what passes are they making, so not just what is their successful pass percentage, but also like, how dangerous are the passes that they're making successfully. And so we tend to evaluate all of those stats right, and we're really fortunate because we've got plenty of stats and video available for us to use to evaluate players. But those are the kinds of things that we're looking at, and especially for midfielders.
Karl:All right, good stuff. Next, I want to talk about three forwards. They are Alexa Riddle, Marley Heaven and Amanda Graciano. Riddle and Graciano are both juniors. Heaven is a sophomore and they started every game so far. They're also the top three leaders on the team in points. So, Mike, the one thing I did notice, though, when I was looking at their assists, is there's a fair number of assists to each other. In other words, they are you see, Riddle assisting Heaven and Graciano assisting both of them, vice versa. So, first of all, my thought there was okay, they seem to have pretty good chemistry developing because they're looking for each other all the time, and that makes a lot of sense. What other things do you look for in a starting forward line that demonstrates, okay, these folks are building good chemistry, and what can you do to develop that chemistry further?
Haley:Yeah. So I think not enough can be said about the importance of chemistry. With any line, to be honest with you, whether it's a back line or a front line, the chemistry between the players matters, but not just the chemistry. I think, beyond the chemistry of sort of knowing where your teammates are gonna be, is training that right, training what spaces we wanna get into. So whether you make a substitution and somebody comes off, it doesn't matter. They know the space that they need to be into.
Haley:And that's something that, when I was at Navy, we were very serious about, like ensuring that you were getting into dangerous spaces and creating opportunities for each other based upon that. So that's something that we evaluate as well, like we talk about here in Orlando, for instance, getting within the width of the frame of the goal. So if our forwards, if you have a winger who takes the ball wide and is able to cross something in, we wanna make sure that the opposite side player and the nine right, the center forward, are gonna be making runs that are at some point within the width of the goal, because that's the most dangerous area. So whether it hits off you, you just redirected or whatever, the likelihood of you scoring the goals is significantly larger than if you're outside the width of the frame of the goal. So we talk about that. We talk about getting into dangerous spaces. We talk about knowing how to play in the blind spot of two center backs right, so can you play on the blind side of a defender, so that you can get in behind the back line. Right, so that a ball can be played through to you. And now you're going to goal. And so how do you read that? How do you read stepping up and creating space so that somebody else, potentially, can get behind? So we evaluate that.
Haley:And then the other thing, too, is having the confidence to take your chances in front of goal. It's again something we talk about here and this is true across the college game and at Navy is players will get the opportunity at the top of the box, but they want to have a perfect touch, they want to set themselves up on a silver platter, and the problem is right if you take too many touches, you lose possession. Well, now half of your team is in the attacking third and now you're facing a counter and a transition with very few people back. So trying to explain like listen, you're better off just hitting it one time and whiffing it and it going out for a goal kick, than you are losing possession, while we're having to now deal with a counter.
Haley:And then, once you present it to players 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 take one touch to settle it, fine. But also don't be afraid to hit it 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, that's going to be a very, very dangerous strike and that's going to be very difficult for defenders and goalkeepers to deal with. So, you know, having that confidence, getting into dangerous spaces, knowing how to get in behind the back line and then, like I said, training that chemistry and training that these are the spaces we anticipate each other being able to get into, and then knowing that. So, even as you have to make changes per se, you've got. You know where your teammates are going to be, because you've trained that over and over and over again.
Karl:Right, right, right now I'm going to move over to the defense. We've got a couple more players I want to cover. One of them is Kiefer Williamson. She's a senior who last year really started to kind of show herself as a defender, who was just totally reliable. I mean, I can? I'll ask you, because I'm not quite certain, based on, again, my experience with soccer. So far this year she's averaged about 75 minutes of field time.
Karl:So what is the norm as it relates to a good defender being out there on the field in terms of time?
Haley:Minutes. So you know I'll tell you this is what I love about the college game is you get reentry in the second half. You know we don't have that in the pro game. So for us, for the most part, unless you're making a tactical adjustment, the backline you start with is the backline you end with, and so for us we tend to see consistent 90 minutes at the pro level but at the college level, again, because you have reentry and you have the ability to make some changes in your backline as you need and ensure that players that you need to get a break, catch a breath for a second to get back on, to then be playing at 100% is really fortunate. I love that. It makes the game completely different.
Haley:Truthfully, there are so many things that are different about the college game, but reentry is certainly a big one. So you know, being able to maximize the impact of players because you have reentry available to you, you've got flexibility when you've got depth. You know it just sort of depends, right. So Karen's got the depth to be able to work with reentry in the backline and that is a very fortunate place to be. I don't recall when I was playing there that we had much depth in our backline. I remember Lindsay Adlum was our team captain and she played in our backline and maybe it was just a long time ago, but I remember pretty consistently holding on to our backline as often as we could. I think maybe an outside back might get subbed here or there, because you know outside back. Except that position is a gassing position. You are running up and down the field the entire match.
Karl:Right right.
Haley:And so, yeah, I think it just varies, and having the ability, like I said, to do reentry means you've got some depth and that's a really good place to be.
Karl:Yeah now, what are some of those qualities in a defender that fosters that high level of trust? In other words, you know if I can help it. You are never coming out of the game.
Haley:Yeah, I think you know we talk about fitness. Fitness has obviously been a high priority for Navy for a very, very long time. So you have the fitness and you're smart on the ball, your decision making and looking for space, looking for options, knowing how to create space. One thing that's very different now than when I played is now the trend is to try and build out from the back. When I played, it was who could kick the ball the furthest, whether it was off, a pun or a goal kick. It was how accurate are your goalkeepers' distribution skills, because that really mattered. And now that's not the case.
Haley:Right Now you see a lot of teams every team really sort of building out of the back. So, being a defender, you've got to be somebody who's comfortable with the ball at your feet and getting into spaces. And finding being able to ping balls 20, 30, 40 yards on the deck effectively is really important, 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. That's why I say chemistry is just as important for a goalkeeper and a back line as it is for a front line and ensuring that, from a communication standpoint, you're all on the same page and really knowing how to cover for your teammates, so that your ability to read the game is really, really important as well as a defender.
Karl:Okay, great, and you've hit on a couple of things. That kind of feed right into our next player here, which is the goalkeeper, maddie Gallagher, who has been I love Maddie Gallagher.
Haley:by the way, I'm a huge Maddie Gallagher fan. I actually I remember last season she did really well and I texted Karen and I was like I love her. I don't know her, but I love her. I'm a good fan.
Karl:She's pretty awesome and in the games that I actually was able to catch a game live I think it was two just about two years ago. Yeah, I happened to be out in Annapolis and they were playing a night game at Glen Warner, but anyway, clearly, somebody who has been a mainstay on that team for all four years and she's off to a great start this year goals against average hovering right there at about one. Now you spoke to communication and obviously that goes a long way towards making sure that the defense is playing at the top level. So what does good communication sound like, if that's a good question for you? I mean, I know what it sounds like on a lacrosse field and a basketball court. What does it sound like on a soccer field?
Haley:It's really just consistency, right? So you're all speaking the same language. You know we talk about here. The terms that we use, you know, are pretty consistent, I would say, across the professional landscape. But you know, it's really about ensuring that when I use a term, you know what I'm saying and that you know something we talk about too is not communicating just for the sake of saying something, but it has to be useful. It has to be useful information, because when you're playing in a stadium, right where there's you talk about playing in Portland. There's 30,000 people in Portland. You can't hear hardly anything. So when you communicate, it has to be loud, but you're also have to be you're communicating useful things.
Haley:You tend to see some goalkeepers and players that are like cheerleading a lot. We don't have time for cheerleading. That cheerleading is okay every now and again, but if you're communicating, you're communicating with a purpose, right? So, whether it's left shoulder or right shoulder, to tell the defender they've got an opponent on one side of them or the other, or you know home, to send the ball back to the goalkeepers, or the goalkeeper can reset it and build back out.
Haley:It's knowing when to step and when to hold and just making sure that you're, regardless what your team comes up with, ensuring that everybody on the team is using the same language and that it's consistent and the thought. Communication, like I said, is intended to be useful and not something you have to work with young goalkeepers on. You know young goalkeepers when you tell them to communicate generally, they'll think, oh yeah, I should be like cheering on my teammates and again, that's great, but that's not necessarily what we need to be successful on the pitch. So teaching them to communicate quality instructions is really important and you know, when you grow up coaching goalkeepers, it's something that you really focus on with them.
Karl:So All right, good. Okay, so that's going to take us to the end of our discussion around the players, so we're going to go ahead and take a short break, but first I wanted to let you all know that you can stay totally up to speed on what's going on with Navy Sports by joining our Group Facebook page and by following this podcast. I'll put a link in the show notes to get you to our Navy Sports Nation group page, and following the show is even easier. All you got to do is tap the follow button. Whether you're listening to Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts, it doesn't matter. This will automatically drop the most recent episode into your library as soon as it's released and you can listen to it whenever you're ready. It is definitely the easiest way to show your support for Navy Sports Central and the fastest way to grow the Navy Sports Nation community. So go ahead and hit that follow button right now. We'll be right back. Okay, thanks for staying with us here on Navy Sports Central.
Karl:Karl Darden here with you, and I'm joined today by Haley Carter. She is a former Navy women's soccer player from the class of 2006 and currently the vice president of soccer operations in the general manager of the Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League. Hailey, we're going to get into your current position here in a minute, but first I wanted to give you an opportunity to share a story or a cause that's really important to you, just to get it out there and increase some awareness. I found that this is a great way to gain some additional insight when it comes to discovering who people are, and it can be an opportunity to learn something as well. So the mic is yours, thanks.
Haley:So you know, some people have looked at my background. They know that. You know I coached collegiate and in the youth space prior to coming into this position, but I also coached in the international space and one of the countries that I worked with I was the assistant coach the Afghanistan women's national team. I worked with them from 2016 to 2018 and we navigated quite a few battles around the abuse of players and holding the Afghan football Federation and individuals in that generation accountable for that abuse. So that basically took up the whole of 2019 and my time with the Afghan women's national team players.
Haley:I'd recommend anyone who's listening to this to really research that team and the things that they went through in 2018 and 2019 and what they experienced. And those young women fundamentally changed the criminal justice system in Afghanistan at the time. Things are obviously a little bit different, but the work that they did not only fundamentally changed the criminal justice system and how the abuse of women was handled by the legal system in Afghanistan, but also fundamentally changed how FIFA, which is the international governing body for soccer, handles instances of abuse of players, and they really set a. It's almost. It was almost like the Me Too movement for women in Afghanistan and for athletes of the game worldwide, and something that's important to know is that initially, when we were dealing with instances of abuse, that the response we got oh well, it's Afghanistan. These sorts of things just happen in Afghanistan. Two years later, we're seeing instances of it here in the United States and the National Women's Soccer League being investigated. So it happens everywhere.
Haley:It happens in every sport, and so I think raising awareness on that team in particular and the sacrifices that they made to reform systemically how abuse is addressed in the game, is really important. You look at the latest World Cup and you know Jenny Hermoso gets kissed on the lips by the president of the Spanish Football Federation right after the championship game. You know, in a non-consensual manner. He did that in front of millions of people and the fight around him being held accountable for that. You know it's like a question mark. The guy did it in front of millions of people on global television.
Haley:Yeah, I mean, and it's still a question mark as to whether or not that's acceptable behavior, so I would encourage everyone to look into that. The other piece about the Afghan women's national team is that you know, I participated I was one of five individuals a team that evacuated them out of Kabul in, you know, august of 2021. And now they most of them have been resettled in Australia and they're now playing soccer under the umbrella of a professional club in Melbourne called Melbourne Victory, and so they've, you know, re-gathered together and are competing as a club team, and but one of the issues that they're facing right now is that FIFA is not working to formally recognize the Afghan women's national team anymore. As you can imagine, the Afghan Football Federation will not recognize the women's team because the Afghan Football Federation is now being run by the Taliban, and so men are being allowed to compete under the flag of Afghanistan but the women are not.
Haley:So all of the work that we did, you know, talk about nation building. All of the work that we did and this is probably why I'm so serious and passionate about it is, you know, the work that we did in the Middle East to try and empower women. So the last 20 years in Afghanistan, we've done everything that we can to empower women and create opportunities for them and chances for them and, as a result, the Afghan women's national team was born and they were able to live out their dreams and compete and play international soccer. And now that the Taliban is back, those, all of that work and all of that investment and all of those dreams have just been shattered overnight. And with the Afghan Football Federation being allowed to continue to sanction men's friendlies while prohibiting women from playing is a direct violation of FIFA's own policy. So you know it's something that's frustrating for me to see and for others that FIFA has the opportunity to make the right statement here and hold the Afghan Football Federation accountable. But it's not like there's other countries around who just haven't invested in women's football. This is a country that is expressly prohibiting women from participating in these things. So you know there's a lot of work that's happening behind the scenes, trying to get the athletes, trying to give them a way to be able to sanction so that they can compete internationally again.
Haley:And, being that they're in Australia right, and we just completed the women's World Cup in Australia a couple of weeks ago it's really important that we continue to keep visibility and awareness of the fight that they're still fighting to be able to play the game. And it's always interesting to me because we talk about sports and you know, when you start comparing being in the Marine Corps and working in professional sports, professional sports are not life and death. The Marine Corps life or death decisions, professional sports not so much. But for these women, playing the game of soccer was very much a life or death decision and you know it really is something that kind of puts things in perspective for you. In the big scheme of things like that, this is a game, but they were willing to risk their lives to be able to play it. They're separated from their families, who are still in Afghanistan, all because they, you know, kick a ball around.
Haley:So, yeah, I would just encourage everyone to look up their story and, you know, be aware that this game means so much more to so many people around the world.
Karl:Wow, pretty compelling story. I really appreciate you sharing that with us All. Right now let's talk a little bit about what you're up to these days. As I mentioned, on the lead in you are the vice president of soccer operations and the general manager of the Orlando Pride. Can you talk a little bit about how long the National Women's Soccer League has been around, how many teams you know? That sort of thing.
Haley:Yeah, so the National Women's Soccer League was established in 2013. That was its first season and right now we currently have 12 teams, but we've got two more expansion teams that have come on board. This season will compete as 14 teams and then we have additional expansion teams that are looking to come on before 2026. But it's grown quite a bit since its its infancy in terms of investment and interest and, yeah, it's good things are happening. It's the third iteration of professional women's soccer in the United States. The first was WUSA and the second was WPS Women's Professional Soccer and now the third is the NWSL, and prior to the NWSL, no league had survived into its, you know, sort of third season and beyond, and so when the NWSL successfully completed its third season and rolled into its fourth season, that was a big accomplishment. And now here we are in 2023 competing.
Karl:So there you go.
Haley:Good stuff yeah.
Karl:All right. So now I'd like to focus on your team here and talk a little bit about goals. You took over the job in January. What would you say the primary goal is for you over the next one to two years when it comes to putting the team on your desired path to success?
Haley:Yeah, so the Orlando Pride was established in 2016, 2015, 2016. So what I can tell you is there has been a significant amount of churn in our club, whether it's been front office churn, head coaching churn, ownership, changes in churn. And so you know, one of our biggest goals, one of the things I was hired to do, or head coach he's a first year head coach as well is to really sort of lay a foundation that can be built, that is going to create sustainable success over the long term. You know, obviously we're in it to win. We need to win and get as many points as we can right now and perform, because that's the nature of professional sports. So that's really the focus of our coach and our technical staff.
Haley:But my focus has to be bigger than that, Right, my focus is much more strategic. And so you know how are we creating an environment, a high performance environment and a culture where the best players in the world want to come and play here and the staff wants to come and work here, and everybody is excited to come to work and to thrive and to be the best that they can be for their teammates and for the club. And I'm excited. I think in this initial first season, we've implemented some things that I think, as we start to get into the next couple of seasons, we're are going to start to pay off.
Karl:So Okay, all right. Now you spoke a little bit about the coach and just following sports for as long as I have, there's a few franchises that really kind of stick out to me on a professional level. Most specifically, you know the San Antonio Spurs basketball team, and one of the reasons is because of that strong relationship between the general manager and the coach, right? So what do you think are some of the critical elements that go into making sure that your connection with your coach is as strong as it can be?
Haley:So I'll tell you we.
Haley:So Sub Hines is our head coach and I would tell you that we have a phenomenal relationship not just with him, but also with assistant coaches and the entire technical staff. For me, you know, sub obviously reports to me, but we very much make decisions in collaboration with each other and we're very serious about fostering an environment of professional disagreement. I think you need to surround yourself with people who are comfortable disagreeing with you and talking through things and working through things, and I can tell you that when we make decisions, you know he, anything that happens on the field he owns that. That's his responsibility and and I give him the space to make those decisions and when he makes those decisions, that's what the staff goes with right Like, that's his job. So, and I make it abundantly clear that the expectation is that the staff will support the team, that the staff will support those decisions and but, that being said, those decisions come with significant communication and discussion beforehand, and that's really, I think, how we get by in right Is, everybody in the technical staff will contribute and then you know it's sub prerogative to make the decisions.
Haley:That's not a democracy. He's the head coach and when it comes to the two of us and making those decisions. We tend not to make a decision on a player, for instance, unless we both get to yes. So if I'm a no, the answer is no, and if he's a no, the answer is no. Both of us have to be yes. So we work to get the other two yes, and sometimes we are able to and sometimes we're not. But what we found is if we can't get each other both to yes, then whatever we're trying to implement or whatever trial player we're trying to bring in, or whatever we're going to set that player or initiative up for failure right off the bat, because it's something that we both have to be on board with.
Haley:So I think, having an open relationship and creating, like I said, the environment for professional disagreement and constructive criticism and growth you know, having a growth mindset, like everybody here checks their egos at the door, and we're all learning together and we're navigating things together and we do that as a team. And you know we talk about everything that happens on the field being his responsibility, right, everything that happens Elsewise ultimately is my responsibility. So knowing that we're accountable to those things, but also being accountable to each other for our performances, you know, it's just really created a positive environment. We, you know, we love working together. It's criminal, probably, how much fun we have working with each other, but it's it's.
Haley:I would agree with you. It's such an important relationship and it's something where we have to be in alignment on on things and, you know, just being professionally considerate of where someone's at and getting to know them well enough to know and hey, you know you responded this way to this but I don't think that's really what's bothering you, what's going on and being comfortable enough to have those conversations and, again, I think, to be reflective and to get feedback on your performance and being willing to take that feedback and change to be better, I think is really important. So, like I said, everybody here checks their egos at the door and it's always about the club and about the team. It doesn't matter who you are Like. No one here is more important than the club itself and the club success. Right right.
Haley:Because it's our responsibility to set that tone and set that example. If we don't do it, we can't expect the players to do it.
Karl:Yeah, that is so true. Okay, so we're just about wrapped up here, but I did want to get your take on one more question related to your current position. In the last several years, we've seen a significant increase in the number of women selected to lead professional sports franchises at the executive level. So what advice would you give to young women who would like to work in sports management in that capacity?
Haley:You know, I had a really non-traditional path. I was really fortunate when I was playing pro soccer. I had a full-time job the whole time I was playing, which is like unheard of now. But I had a mortgage and two car payments and I hosted like nine different teammates in my house. So I had had my MBA. When I got out of the Marine Corps I'd already had it and I've risen in corporate position since then. I used my GI bill to go to law school because it drives me crazy when veterans don't use their benefits and so I used my GI bill and I woke up one day in law school and did that. That was great. So I had for the bar and did all of that stuff.
Haley:But every decision that I made, I think from the time that I got out of the Marine Corps and was playing professional soccer, I coached, I played, and not everybody's going to have the opportunity to play. So I want to make it clear that just because you play doesn't mean you're going to be good at other things, and just because you didn't play doesn't mean you're not going to be good at other things. So I think even and I tell this to people all the time, because we tend to hire former players into positions and for me it has to be the right former player. There have to be qualifications and life experiences that would qualify that individual to be in a certain position. And oh, they just happen to be a former player. So that helps them in understanding the context and how to lead and things like that. But I think for me, I really thought about what are the things that I can put on my resume that are going to get me into a position where I can influence the game at a high level for good? And this position was the first time that my everything I'd done in my personal life and everything I'd done in my professional life my soccer life, my corporate life sort of came and married together into a place where I could influence the game for better, and that for me has been a big driver.
Haley:Like I am obviously very passionate about the league. I want to create a club that can win, but my biggest passion is growing the women's game and creating a league. We've got leaders in this league right now who obviously we want to do well for our clubs. We compete for the same pool of players with each other, but for us we make decisions collectively as a group that are going to benefit the entirety of the league, and so I just was really fortunate to be able to combine the leadership experience that I have the coaching experience, the playing experience, the educational qualifications that I have into this role. And so for anybody looking to get into this role, I would say, like get your MBA, get a master's in sports management, put yourself out there, get into leadership positions that may seem untraditional.
Haley:Go out and coach. Coaching will change your perspective on the game completely. I became a better player when I started coaching because I had a better understanding of the game when I was coaching and I also had a better understanding of what my coaches were navigating. So I probably was more fun to be around from a coach's standpoint when I started coaching myself.
Haley:So get out and coach and learn about the sport that you want to be involved in so that you can be conversational in it, and look for internships where you can work in the operations side or on the business side or in marketing. Find any opportunity you can to be around the sport that you're interested in working in, and even if it's not a sport you're interested in working in, but you know that you want to work in sports. If the opportunity presents itself, take it. And then I would just say don't go to law school. It's a trap Mine was free, so it's a little bit different but don't feel like you need to go to law school to be a GM because you don't. It does help when you're negotiating player contracts, but don't feel the pressure to go to law school if you don't absolutely necessarily have to or it isn't free.
Karl:That's some good advice, all right. All right, that's going to do it for the heavy duty questions. I just want to finish things up by just asking three or four fun type questions and let you get on with the rest of the day. But I like to throw these in with some guesses to kind of find a little bit more about them and that sort of thing. So the first one is what is your favorite sports themed movie Bull?
Haley:Durham.
Karl:OK.
Haley:Bull Durham. I love Bull Durham.
Karl:Yeah, that was one of my favorites as well. Ok, next Weirdest, most strange or funniest thing that's ever happened in a game where you either played or coached.
Haley:I would say I could come up with a couple of them, but they're probably not appropriate for this podcast, but the one memory that I would give, because this is a Navy woman soccer memory, and it wasn't weird or crazy. We didn't actually get to play, but we used to play in this tournament in the spring called Kicks Against Breast Cancer, and it was played at the Plex in Germantown, maryland, and we drove over to it. I forget who we were supposed to play that day. We were supposed to. I don't, it doesn't even matter but it starts blizzard like out of nowhere, just thick, fat snowflakes coming down. So there's no way we're going to be able to compete.
Haley:So North Carolina has gotten on their bus and meanwhile Karen looks at us and is like well, you can either run Fitness Now or you can run it when you get back to Annapolis. So of course, naturally, all of us are like, oh, we're going to run the Fitness Now because when 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 the parking lot and of course it's like serious snow and North Carolina is just on the bus, like those ladies are crazy. And then we like after the sprints, then we are like running around the park, like at the Germantown Plex, there's a road that goes around us. We're like running this and I remember like having to put my head down because we were running against the traffic so traffic could see us, but the snow was like in your face.
Haley:So I had to run like this so that nothing was getting in my eyes, and I just remember getting back and being like I was like getting back and getting on the bus and being like, oh my God, I've never been so cold in my life and that was ridiculous. But we get on the bus and we drive back to Annapolis and I swear it's like 40 degrees warmer in Annapolis. There's no snow anywhere. It's like a 45 minute drive.
Haley:That's hilarious, yeah. So then we get back and I'm like man, I would have much preferred to run the Fitness when we got back to Annapolis. But it was a wild story we had. Still there's a team photo floating around of all of us in the snow but it was a solid experience and I can tell you that I'm friends with players who played at UNC at the time and hearing their version of that story is very funny Because they're like those Navy ladies are crazy. Like what are they doing?
Haley:And Annson's like well, that's why they serve our country and why you don't. You can't say that is one of my craziest stories, but yeah. All right.
Karl:That's pretty good. Ok, I'm going to go ahead and finish up with this one, and it's appropriate because of the position that you played, in your opinion, the best US women's national team goalkeeper, and why.
Haley:This is going to be controversial, but I'm going to say Hope Solo, hope Solo is the best goalkeeper to play in the history of the US women's team. That's just a fact, factually speaking, yeah.
Karl:I don't doubt that, just based on my small data set and the games that I've seen, I would have to agree with that. If you just look at her performance on the field, I don't really have much of an argument against it.
Haley:Just yeah, I think, I think.
Karl:What do you think made her so good?
Haley:Her athleticism. Her athleticism, certainly I don't know if you know this about her, but she didn't really start playing in goal until she was about 16. So she actually played in the field in college. She wanted to play in both positions. She's a soccer player, but I think her athleticism and I think her like unflinchingly unapologetic approach to being herself and you know she's yeah, she's an extremely polarizing figure. You either love her or you hate her, but the reality is her performance on the pitch consistently, time after time. You know, I think we've certainly had our fair share of incredible goalkeepers. You know, you look at Bryce Curry, you look at others performance wise on the field. I don't think that anyone holds a gamble to hope in her performance over time.
Haley:So yeah, Like I said, perhaps a controversial answer, but I only call them like I see them.
Karl:That's right and I'm with you. I mean when, like I said, based on what I saw on her performance, specifically in the World Cup, I mean she showed up for those yeah.
Haley:Just an unbelievable athlete an unbelievable athlete, for sure.
Karl:All right. So, hailey, we're going to wrap things up there, listen. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I've probably taken a quantum leap in terms of my knowledge as far as professional sports go and what goes on behind the scenes, so I appreciate you educating me there.
Haley:Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on this has been fun.
Karl:Thanks very much. Okay, you take care. All right, coming up. Next we have our question of the day and mid-watch segments. This is Karl Darden and you're listening to Navy Sports Central. We are back. We are back.
Karl:I'm going to get to our question of the day here in a minute, but I did want to come back to one of the things my guest, hailey Carter, spoke about earlier in the show regarding Afghanistan's women's national soccer team. I've included a video link in the show notes that tells their story. It's roughly six minutes long and well worth watching. By the way, I highly encourage you to take a look at it. These young women are truly heroic and, hailey, much respect to you and all of your colleagues who help them get relocated to Australia so they can continue their fight to represent their country on the world stage. Pretty inspiring stuff.
Karl:Now let's go ahead and get to our question of the day. First, we'll go ahead and check our responses to the question from our last show and, if you recall, here it was Navy women's triathlon coach. Billy Edwards is a Naval Academy graduate from the class of 2000. How many other sports at Annapolis 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 choosing that one. Next was C8 and 27% made that selection. After that was A5 sports. 9% of the responders picked that one. Nobody picked B, which was six sports, and that actually happened to be the correct answer.
Karl:After going through all the coaching staffs, I came up with a total of six other sports besides the Navy women's triathlon team that has at least one Naval Academy graduate, and they are Navy women's rugby. Murph McCarthy, who is from the class of 2000, is their coach. Men's Cross Country, coach Lenzel is from the class of 2003. Football has got a bunch. You've got Coach Green, class of 98, coach Akaitis, class of 2006, coach Thomas, who's coaching the slot backs, from the class of 2014, and Coach Wade, from the class of 2017. In Track and Field, we have Coach Campbell, from the class of 89, and Sprint Football, coach Matys of class of 2009. And finally, water Polo is Coach Nicolaou from the class of 92. I was pretty thorough looking at 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 up with eight or nine other sports. If you're pretty confident of your answer, let me know which ones I missed.
Karl:Now it's time for this week's question. The Navy women's soccer team won their fifth Patriot League title in the 2020 season, and Maddie Gallagher started nine out of 10 games as a freshman that year. Her goals against average during that season was a microscopic 0.80 per game. So the question is what was her save percentage over that same period? Was it A 77%, b 79%, c, 82% or D 84%? You guys can take some time to think about that one. You can answer by going to the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page and I should have that up later this evening. Okay, now I'd like to go ahead and move right into our first mid-watch segment of the year. Remember, this is where I pick one male and one female athlete to follow throughout the season to see how they're contributing to their respective teams.
Karl:This fall, I've decided that we're going to track Averi Miller from the women's volleyball team. Avery is a senior from Phoenix Arizona and she is the mid-seventh setter, and at six feet, she's taller than most, which makes her even more of an offensive threat. Miller started every game last year and finished the season with double digit assists per set. So far this year, she's posted 288 assists in over 29 sets played, which works out to a team leading 9.93 assists per set. Defensively, miller ranks fourth on the team in digs and fifth in blocks. The Mids have been playing extremely well over the last couple of weeks. They just competed in the University of California, Invitational Diego and won all three of their matches over the University of UCSD, and San Diego State. In fact, they didn't drop a single set. In those games, miller put up a total of 83 assists, including 30 against San Diego State. Now you're going to hear a lot about Jordan and Jamie Llewellyn this fall, and rightly so, and one of the reasons why is because of the teammate who will likely be setting up most of their kills during each match. As the setter, avery Miller acts as the quarterback of the Navy offense and she's got them playing at an extremely high level as they head into their patriot league schedule.
Karl:Moving on to the men, the sport is 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 his presence felt just eight games into his Navy career. So far this season he has rung up 12 goals and 18 assists for a total of 30 points. Black's best outing so far was in 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 be heavily 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 start their run for a championship, and I'll be looking forward to seeing him in action. That's going to do it for this edition of Navy Sports Central.
Karl:Thank you all so much for joining us Now. If you like what you've heard, please be sure to hit that follow button wherever you get your podcast, and remember to get the word to all the other Navy fans out there. Once again, I'd like to thank Hailey Carter from the class of 2006 for being with me today. What a great conversation, and we wish her the very best as VP of soccer operations and general manager of the Orlando Pride.
Karl:Our question of the day continues to be a show favorite. You can get in on that by joining the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page and giving your answer to this week's question. I will pin it to the top so you don't miss it. And just a quick reminder the views expressed on Navy Sports Central are my own and do not reflect those of the US Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. By the way, the music used in Navy Sports Central comes to you courtesy of Audio Jungle. This is a great site for purchasing the rights to use the music from thousands of artists around the world, and those featured in the podcast will be credited in our show notes. Talk to you soon, everybody. Until next time. This is Karl Darden. Go Navy! Beat Army!
