"This Girl" Kathy Carter

Flashback to half a year ago and 90% of soccer fans in this country had no idea who Kathy Carter was. All that changed, however, after she announced her candidacy in the latter half of 2017 for US Soccer President and subsequent "This Girl" piece by Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl.

From that piece:

“I never saw the girl in my life [before this week]...I’m sure a lot of people are going to support us to put this girl there,” Rapaglia concluded. “If I was in the position of Sunil, I’d want a friend of mine to take my place. I’d want a guy who could do the job... She played soccer. She’s not just a housewife.”

That's 76-year-old Sal Rapaglia, a long time friend of Don Garber, Chuck Blazer and Sunil Gulati and decades-long president of the New Jersey and Eastern New York Soccer Association. The defacto birthplace of all we know about the modern soccer landscape in this country.

Now, I don't know Carter. Nor will I ever know her. But I did grow up very close in time and place to where she did.

That place would be Northern Virginia. A land that seems to separate itself from the rest of the country as far as importance, at times. For those that don't know, it's where families earn there way in government or closely affiliated via agencies like the CIA, FBI, FEMA, or your run of the mill federal government employee, senator, congressman or contractor. Not to mention the home base of the most concentrated wealth on the planet (well, one of the most).

All this is to say - it's a mostly affluent area. But I also want to say that, at least in the time she grew up in, it was a more rural, hard working and family based area (...go there now and you will find the likes of Beau Dure and Jason Davis, for example).

Soccer has been a consistent thread through every aspect of my life, from the first time I stepped onto a field. pic.twitter.com/jPY9jqFZHA

— Kathy Carter (@soccerkcarter) December 5, 2017

I know this because I grew up there. Anyone that's been to my little place here in Columbus knows that I have a picture of my father shaking hands with Ronald Reagan in the oval (he worked with all presidents - LBJ through Clinton - for vocational education programs as an alternative to college for high school age kids).

With all this - comes expectation. It's interesting because I thought of this more recently because of the LDNR Nike ad campaign where about a minute in you get a row/crew member talking about "failure" among others who we know have it much harder (I'll leave the dynamics of having a financial safety net vs. having nothing to Nike to explain). But that point I'm getting at remains, just on different levels.

Carter was expected to do well in her career and she did. All the way to the highest levels of Soccer United Marketing. The organization that controls the media rights to just about all soccer-related things in North America. That's great.

But where is she now? After being propped up by Don Garber, and the rest of the investors in MLS, she lost the election. Not only lost but saw those same people that put her in the race abandon her in the third round of voting in order to put the nail in the coffin on the "change" candidates. And, frankly, that sucks.

In the end, Kathy Carter will be fine. My understanding is that she will move back to her high ranking position with SUM and go on her merry way. But that doesn't mean that she won't feel a bit of a severe sting that those who backed her bid for President jumped ship when shit hit the fan.

Was she ever a real candidate? Was Don Garber wanting to vertically integrate everything SUM and MLS into the upper levels of the USSF?  Or was she just a small pawn. Simply used to make sure that power remained with those squatting on the soccer landscape since the 1994 World Cup.

While there are many things that will stick with me after this most recent and most contested US Soccer presidential election, it's her place in it that will remain the most interesting. Also, possibly, the most sad.

I don't think she knew anything outside of what she was trying to accomplish in this election. Whether it was due to the right place, right time or working her way to the top of soccer in this country. The fact remains, the people she likely calls friends more than co-workers dropped her.

While I don't think that SUM has the best interests of the sport of soccer for all people in this country at heart - I do know that her returning to her office in the coming weeks will be a tough one - and nobody will be shedding a tear for her. Especially those disenfranchised with the whole setup of American soccer.

Most of the other candidates that put everything into the election have communicated a lot with soccer fans one way or another since the elections. Eric Wynalda seems exhausted by the whole experience, while Kyle Martino and Hope Solo seem to want to continue the fight (be it for professional gain or personal vendetta).

Carter? She simply left an incredibly powerful quote on twitter from Nelson Mandela.

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."

Take from that what you will.

My hope is that she was able to see a whole new soccer world here in the United States. One that is inclusive and removes financial barriers to success and not one that is simply a business operating on profit for the relatively exclusive few that can afford it.

All the best to Kathy Carter.

Not sure how good the Fairfax Flyers were but I'm pretty sure the Round Hill Hobbits would have given you a good fight.