Historic stadium energizes female athletes in St. Joseph

Mar. 7—Cold wind swept through the air as a dozen girls soccer players glided along the front lawn at Central High School during a February scrimmage. While still early in the young season, it's a valuable test for the athletes as they ramp up for the start of the 2024 season in mid-March.

Among the young players sporting shirts for teams and programs like Missouri and Nebraska that day, the teal and red apparel of Kansas City's upstart professional women's soccer team notably stood out among the rest.

Fifty miles to the south, just over the Missouri River, the women of the Kansas City Current are gearing up for a historic season opener, the team's third season since joining the National Women's Soccer League as an expansion franchise. Unlike the crosstown Chiefs and Royals, two teams who have resided in iconic stadiums for more than 50 years, the Current — and every professional women's sports team in the U.S. — have never had a stadium they could call their own.

When the Current women take to the field at noon on March 16 in Kansas City, all of that changes. On that day, 11,500 raucous fans sitting in the teal-colored seats at CPKC Stadium and those watching on national TV will witness a groundbreaking moment: the opening of the first stadium in the U.S. not just for professional women's soccer, but all of women's professional sports.

The $120 million stadium is a defining symbol of how far women's soccer — and women's sports as a whole — have come, from the days of outright bans on women's soccer in several European countries to two decades of U.S. women's leagues rising and falling.

"It just keeps growing ... now there's a dedicated arena for a women's team, and that's going to be the straw that broke the camel's back for not giving them the same quality," said Alan Stolfus, St. Joseph Youth Soccer Association Board vice president. "I hope it's a sign of things to come."

Unprecedented investment in women's soccer and the burgeoning success of the NWSL are inspiring a generation of fans and female athletes across the country to pursue a dream.

Women's soccer in St. Joseph has seen tremendous growth in its own right, along with a growing community of passionate coaches, athletes and supporters.

Growing the game

Among the players at Central's soccer scrimmage, no one wore the teal and red of KC Current apparel as proudly as Mia Scheidler, a junior on Central's varsity team who's played since she was 3 years old.

Scheidler competed on St. Joseph's competitive SJSC Premier Club before making the transition to high school soccer. As a central midfielder, she thrives on being able to dictate the pace and be the "game changer."

"It's just so much fun. It's a forever-changing game. You never play two games the same way," she said.

Scheidler is also a loyal member of the Current's passionate fan club called the "Blue Crew." She's been in the stands cheering at Current matches since the team was in its infancy, back when the team was playing at a baseball stadium converted into a soccer field before transitioning to Sporting KC's MLS stadium.

Scheidler has watched her beloved team flourish from humble beginnings with few fans in the stands to making history in the world of women's soccer.

"I think it's really inspiring," she said about CPKC Stadium. "It's such an amazing thing. I didn't know if it would ever happen."

She looks up to Current stars like U.S. midfielder Lo'eau LaBonta and Brazilian forward Debinha. Scheidler and her family have been season ticket holders since 2021. The chance to be front and center for the opening of the long-awaited stadium will be bigger than anything she's experienced.

"I just know I'm going to have chills," Scheidler said. "I feel like the energy is going to be so loud, so welcoming and it's going to be like the old stadium, but 10 times better because it's our own."

CPKC Stadium — and what it means for women's soccer — isn't only generating buzz among young fans and female athletes. The excitement extends to coaches and instructors, many of whom relish seeing today's young athletes grow up in a world with greater support and opportunities than previous generations.

"Now you get to see the women get the chance to shine on a different level," said Central assistant soccer coach Lydia Sarver, a Central alum and former player. "I mean, women weren't getting maybe the same amount of support or viewership. So now it's really cool to see at all levels that women are being invested in."

As a young girl, Sarver fondly remembers watching her idols Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain from the 1999 U.S. Women's National Team claim gold and the lasting impact it had on her desire to pursue soccer.

Outside of the national team — with only 23 roster spots — and collegiate soccer programs, significant gaps existed for professional women's soccer that prevented many women from making it a full-time career until now.

"I graduated about 10 years ago and, you know, we didn't really have a professional team around here," she said. "It's really cool to see all these regional teams pop up and provide opportunities for players post college."

More women's soccer players are going straight from high school to the professional ranks than ever before. Melania Bercenas of San Diego Wave FC became the youngest player in history to make her pro debut in women's soccer in April 2023 at just 15 years old.

As Sarver works with a new generation of aspiring women's soccer players, she recognizes what today's landscape means for girls and young women dreaming of making soccer a career.

"I think young women are able to see that their participation in sports matters. To see that they're being invested in and that they will continue to be invested in," Sarver said.

A sleeping giant

in St. Joseph

In addition to high school soccer programs, women's soccer has grown leaps and bounds in St. Joseph and surrounding areas thanks to the help of the St. Joseph Youth Soccer Association.

St. Joseph club soccer coach Chad Wells remembers 200 to 300 kids regularly participating in SJYSA activities when he started coaching nearly 20 years ago.

That number has skyrocketed to more than 1,200 kids across both recreational and competitive leagues in 2024 in the SJYSA. There are more girls and women competing now, around 500, versus what the program used to see as a whole across both boys and girls teams two decades ago.

"I think it's evolved from something you're doing to something you're invested in," said Jackson Matthews, a St. Joseph soccer dad and coach with SJSC Premier, a youth competitive soccer club for kids ages 8 to 18.

Matthews, a former soccer player himself, also assists as a youth instructor with the St. Joseph Youth Soccer Association, helping young children harness their skills and enjoy the game with training activities. He cherishes the opportunity to coach his 14-year-old daughter, Madalynn, on the team as she develops as a standout goalkeeper.

"It's not just soccer on Saturday morning anymore, it's, 'Hey this is a real opportunity,' whether it's playing at the high school level or the club team," Matthews said. "Just keep working hard and if that's what they wanna do, then the only thing stopping them is themselves."

Madalynn Matthews, a player on SJSC Premier as well, has high expectations for herself. The young goalkeeper's dream is to make Central High School's varsity team as a freshman. With her dad and coach by her side, she's constantly training to make that dream a reality. After high school, she has her sights set on playing at the collegiate level.

"Our girls are starting to go to college to play college ball, and that is something that we have always been chasing with St. Joseph Youth Soccer," Stolfus said.

SJSC Premier has 60 players — boys and girls — who travel to Kansas City to compete in high-level tournaments. They're not just competing in tournaments, but winning.

"It's really great because like we have an opportunity to play teams from across anywhere really and it's just cool we get that competition instead of competition just in our town," said Emma Finnegan, Atchison middle schooler and Premier soccer player.

Playing with SJYSA gives Finnegan and others like St. Joseph Christian eighth grader Lexi Klein not only the chance to play and thrive in soccer, but build friendships at the same time. Klein and Finnegan have been with SJYSA for nearly half of their lives.

"This team that we've been on for a while, it's like being part of a family," Klein said. "Kind of just knowing each other and becoming really close so fast. And some teams that we play, we love playing and we love getting to see them again and it's really fun."

Both Klein and Finnegan have dreams of playing soccer beyond high school. They credit SJYSA with providing a foundation to make it possible.

As important as competitive soccer is to SJYSA, Stolfus is focused on giving any girl or boy the opportunity to just play the game. With numerous recreational teams and activities throughout the year, children of all ages and skill levels have the ability to get their foot in the door and possibly spark a love for the game.

The addition of new fields this past September at SJYSA's Riverside Complex — and the use of Missouri Western's indoor complex — are providing hundreds of additional soccer players the chance to play soccer year-round.

Women take

center stage

Women's soccer in 2024 is a far cry from the way women and the sport were valued for half a century. Between 1922 and 1972, women's soccer was outlawed by nearly a dozen countries for extended periods across Europe, South America and Africa, severely crippling the development of the game for women after the end of World War I.

Over the past two decades, multiple professional women's soccer leagues have tried and failed to find their footing in the U.S., a combination of financial troubles and limited interest nationwide. The Women's Professional Soccer League folded in 2012 after just five years. Before that, the Women's United Soccer Association lasted just two years from 2001 to 2003 before disbanding operations.

Women are more than making up for lost time now.

Now 12 years since its founding, the NWSL is paving a new sustainable path for women's soccer and athletes across the world. In December, the league announced a landmark $240 million media deal with ESPN, CBS and Prime Sports to provide unprecedented viewing access to professional women's soccer. The deal comes as the league shattered the season attendance record for the second consecutive year with nearly 1.2 million fans filling seats in 2023.

In just the last three years, the league has grown from 10 to 14 teams, with newly announced plans to expand to 16. The average NWSL roster size is 22 players, meaning 132 women will get a new opportunity to play professional soccer for six new teams that didn't exist in 2021. The rapid growth of professional teams is filling a void that existed for many years between collegiate and national team soccer.

"You don't just have to go straight from the collegiate level all the way to the national team," Sarver said. "There's that in between and now it's a career that you could have instead of, you know, having to do something else and play soccer at the same time."

The number of collegiate programs across all levels is rising as well. Nearly 1,500 colleges in the U.S. have a women's soccer program across all of Division I, Division II, Division III and NAIA, nearly rivaling the number of baseball programs (1,700) across the U.S.

All things considered, the future of women's soccer has arguably never been brighter.