This KC Current player helps coach the Comets men’s team. That’s a 1st for their league

Nestled in a sea of industrial warehouses just east of downtown Kansas City is the KC Soccer Dome, an indoor facility the Kansas City Comets team uses for midweek training sessions.

As the Comets indoor-soccer squad gets deeper into its training exercises, players start rotating on and off the field of play in small groups, sort of like line changes in hockey.

A couple of minutes pass and then one player runs to the side and jumps over the boards. In his place, on comes a young woman with a ponytail and green headband ... and if you paid close attention to the KC Current this year, the headband might give away her identity.

Jenna Winebrenner’s first touch is sharp and intentional, opening up space to split two pressing defenders with a perfect pass. She immediately shouts where the ball is going next and points to the spot where she wants a teammate to be in order to open up another angle.

Winebrenner, a KC Current defender and graduate of Park Hill High School, is doubling this offseason as an assistant coach with the Comets.

Her duties with the Comets make her the first female coach in the history of the league in which the Comets play: the Major Arena Soccer League, or MASL, which was founded in 2008.

“I had no clue. I assumed there was already a female in the spot because of all the women that have paved a way before me,” Winebrenner told The Star. “I’m happy I can do that for people to come behind me.”

She’s breaking a barrier, to be sure, but just as important to Winebrenner is that this opportunity enables her to learn more about the sport she loves and plays for a living.

“Doing what I love doesn’t really feel like a job,” she said. “It just feels like I get to come here and spend time with the guys and learn from so many different backgrounds. These guys have a lot to teach me, as well, so I’m just trying to soak it all in.”

Winebrenner will be on the bench when the Comets return home Sunday to play the Milwaukee Wave at 4:05 p.m. at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence.

Part of her role involves analyzing video of opponents and providing the Comets certain data-points.

“She’s been very helpful,” Comets player/coach Leo Gibson said, “working hard for us to make sure we get the right things we need to see and watch so that the guys can understand their roles and responsibilities.”

Gibson and assistant coach Stefan Stokic have been fixtures around the Kansas City soccer scene for quite some time. Both played a role in technical training with Winebrenner when she was a youngster, and she attended some Comets matches as a kid.

“She’s still the same individual,” Gibson said. “She’s an incredible individual that works hard. What she’s bringing to us is the same thing.”

Winebrenner’s quality of play showed throughout the training session Tuesday, but one moment stood out during the Comets’ extra-attacker drills: As time ran down, the ball fell to Winebrenner’s feet — and she unleashed a curling rocket of a shot into the top corner of the goal.

When the Current convene for their own preseason workouts in a little less than two months, seeking a return to the NWSL Championship Game, Winebrenner will join them having spend most of her offseason immersed in scenarios that give her less time to think.

That’s a good thing, too.

“They just play a lot faster,” Winebrenner said of the indoor men’s game. “Decision-making will be a lot faster, and I think that’s something I can grow in the outdoor game.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2022 at 7:00 AM.