Soccer moms: How KC women’s pro soccer players with kids balance duties of life, work

Sitting in the driver’s seat of her car, Michele Vasconcelos was attempting to do two jobs at once.

In front of her, she held her phone open to a Zoom call, answering questions to an interview for the story you’re reading right now.

Behind Vasconcelos, in the back seat, her daughter Scarlett chatted and laughed to herself as she played with her notebook. Occasionally she would reach over the seat and lightly pull on her mother’s hair to ask her a question.

At 4 p.m. on a Tuesday, when the interview took place, most professional soccer players are finished with work for the afternoon. Vasconcelos’ soccer duties for Kansas City NWSL were indeed done for the day, but now she had to get ready for a night of being a mom.

“I’ve not gotten the balance yet,” Vasconcelos half-laughed as her 3-year-old daughter squirmed in the back seat.

This is the reality of life for a small handful of players in the National Women’s Soccer League who are both pro soccer players and moms.

Two play for Kansas City: Vasconcelos and team captain Amy Rodriguez.

“It’s so hard,” said Rodriguez, who has a pair of boys, ages 8 and 5.

The NWSL has made steps in recent years to help working mothers. At the start of the 2021 season, the league introduced a $750 monthly stipend for childcare expenses up to age 13, with a $5,000 annual cap per household.

“It’s nice to kind of see that money, because I can use it on school,” Vasconcelos said. “So we paid for her (Scarlett) to go to preschool and things like that.”

But the pair believe there still isn’t enough being done by the league, or its clubs, to help working moms.

Rodriguez and Vasconcelos must often bring their children to practice, especially during the summer months (when school is out until fall). Scarlett and Rodriguez’s boys, Ryan and Luke, are often on the sideline during soccer practices.

“I’ll bring them to my work, which is the soccer field, which is a really fun place for them, obviously,” Rodriguez said. “But it’s also a very much so a place of seriousness and intensity, all of which require my focus and full attention.

“I can’t be telling Ryan not to throw his crayons while running out on the soccer field.”

The situation gets even tougher for Rodriguez, whose husband lives full-time in California while she plays here in KC. That means she’s effectively a single mother for large chunks of the season.

Rodriguez will often bring her sons with her on the team bus or pay for their flights to road games. The alternative is leaving them with a nanny, which gets expensive, or a teammate who isn’t traveling.

But sometimes those flights are too expensive, too.

She’d like to see the club improve in this area.

“The club has not always been accommodating me in bringing the kids on the road,” Rogriguez said. “I think that’s one area that the working moms need to get ironed out, because I’m a single mom here — I can’t leave my kids in Kansas. Who am I going to leave them with? No one.”

Vasconcelos’ old club, the Chicago Red Stars, hires a club nanny. During Chicago’s most recent trip to Kansas City last week, a nanny even traveled with the team.

Vasconcelos and Rodriguez would like Kansas City hire a nanny, too.

“To be honest with you, I would be absolutely thrilled to provide them with whatever they need,” KC coach Huw Williams said when told of the mothers’ request. “I’m pretty sure that the team would be behind that. I just didn’t know that there were other things that they needed.”

In the absence of a nanny, some KC players without kids have become de facto babysitters for Rodriguez and Vasconcelos. As Williams sees it, that’s simply part of being a good teammate.

Midfielder Ashley Nick has been taking care of Scarlett recently. The youngster has also begun giving nicknames to several of the players on the team: “Taylor Tiger” (Taylor Leach), “Desi Dolphin” (Desiree Scott) and “Michelle Money” (Michelle Maemone), to name a few.

Vasconcelos’ husband, Pedro, has also helped with babysitting duties for both players. When Kansas City played in Chicago, Pedro shuttled all three children to the game.

On the way, they argued about whose mom was going to score (Ryan and Luke’s mom did that day).

“It’s a tough balance,” Rodriguez said. “I have to depend on a lot of help from people, babysitters, teammates, some of the staff.

“I’m very grateful that I’ve got a good village around me.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Soccer moms: How KC women’s pro soccer players with kids balance duties of life, work."