Kaw Valley selected as ‘founding team’ for return of this women’s soccer league in 2022
Kansas City soccer fans will have even more opportunities to watch women’s soccer next year with the announcement this week that the United Soccer League’s W-League is returning in 2022.
The original W-League folded seven years ago.
The USL’s new league will have eight “founding members,” and one of them will be Kaw Valley FC, which is based in Lawrence, Kansas and trains at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City. Kaw Valley’s men’s team has been a member of USL League Two since 2018.
Six founding-member teams will come from ownership groups in the USL Championship and League One, and another, Minnesota Women’s Soccer, will be an independent club making its W-League debut. The W-League will be a “pre-professional” league, much like USL League Two. Players will not be paid, allowing them to retain amateur status and protect their NCAA eligibility. Many will be collegiate athletes.
Kaw Valley’s men’s team is a developmental partner with Sporting KC and serves as an amateur-level team on the pathway to professional soccer.
Sporting Kaw Valley Soccer Association is the academy affiliate of Sporting KC and trains about 2,000 athletes ages 3-19, both girls and boys. With the W-League team coming online, female soccer players here will have opportunities similar to those afforded their male counterparts.
Marcus Dudley, general manager of Kaw Valley FC and executive director for Sporting Kaw Valley, said one of the most important aspects of the W-League will be showing young girls that a path to the pro leagues exists.
“I think that sends a hugely important message to those young athletes that it’s possible, that it’s a pathway,” Dudley said. “I think that’s first and foremost a very important part of this.”
The new league will be heavily focused on player and coach development.
“Our goal for the W-League is to use women’s soccer as a force for societal good by creating a national platform to increase opportunity, gender equity and career development,” USL director of women’s soccer Betsy Haugh said in a statement.
There will also be some emphasis on career training for women in off-the-field aspects of soccer — operational and management jobs, for instance.
The W-League will be partnering with Women in Soccer, which promotes the ideal of using soccer as a “unifying force for all women involve with the beautiful game.” The goals of the collaboration will be to provide opportunities after women’s playing careers are over and help elevate the overall status of women in the American soccer system.
“The other piece that I really liked … is how do you keep female soccer players connected to the game in some way?” Dudley said. “Sometimes it’s through coaching; sometimes it’s the administrative side or referee side. Oftentimes they no longer participate in the game, although I think there’s a longing to participate in the game in some way or to give back to the game.”
With its new affiliation, Sporting Kaw Valley is now one of the only youth soccer clubs in the country offering both boys and girls a player-development track from age 3 to college and the pro level.
“It’s something that we felt very strongly needs to occur, because we want to be able to provide the same opportunities for our former female athletes and, quite frankly, any female soccer player in the region,” Dudley said. “I think it’s a perfect fit and it helps us replicate the opportunities that we’re providing a lot of our male athletes.”
Kaw Valley’s hope is to create the same sort of relationship with KC NWSL that it already enjoys with Sporting KC. The NWSL is expanding from 10 to 12 teams in 2022 with the additions of clubs in San Diego and L.A.
Kansas City was briefly involved in the first iteration of the W-League, which operated for two decades from 1995-2015. The Kansas City Mystics played in the league in 2001-02, folding after an 11-2 season.
The rest of the W-League clubs will be announced at a later date, but the seven joining Kaw Valley FC as initial clubs include Chattanooga Red Wolves SC; Greenville Triumph SC; Hartford Athletic; Minnesota Women’s Soccer; Queensboro FC; South Georgia Tormenta FC; and Washington D.C., a club led by D.C. United’s ownership.
The W-League aims to have at least 30 clubs operational in its first season. The league plans to run concurrently with the USL League 2 season, beginning in May and concluding in late July.
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.