For ACFC Players and Footy Friday Participants, Inspiration Goes Both Ways

Angel City players are active participants throughout the club’s impact ecosystem. One week you might catch players bagging produce at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Pride Pantry, and the next see a few working in the community garden at 24th Street Elementary. But whatever their other interests, there’s one partnership the entire team is passionate about: Football for Her.

A refresher, if you missed our profile last year: FFH is a program started by former professional Shawna Palmer, who saw a gap in the soccer landscape when it came to quality coaching and playing time aimed at girls and nonbinary youth. The US’s pay-to-play development system squeezes out kids of all genders, but it’s especially tough on girls and gender-diverse youth, who face gender discrimination and a lack of representation in addition to the economic issues their cis male counterparts contend with.

Footy Friday, Palmer’s weekly coaching and free play session, is an answer to that gap. Every Friday from six to nine, girls and nonbinary kids flock to Lab Five Soccer in Pacoima and Gardena to hone their skills under the guidance of FFH’s crew of women coaches. After an hour-long coaching session, kids get something even more crucial: a chance to actually play the game of soccer, for free, in a supportive but competitive environment.

FFH is supported in part by Cedars-Sinai through Angel City’s 10% program. “Supporting programs like Football For Her is a powerful step towards a more inclusive and equitable future for sports. We’re honored to contribute to shaping a world where every talent, regardless of gender or gender identity, is given the opportunity to shine,” says Nicole Mitchell, chief diversity and inclusion officer at Cedars-Sinai.

A handful of times this season, Footy Friday has hosted Angel City players to work on skills with the kids, play a little pickup, and participate in a Q&A session. Angelina Anderson, Clarisse Le Bihan, Lily Nabet, Ali Riley, and M.A. Vignola have all joined in already this season; most recently, Madison Hammond, Mackenzie Pluck, and Dani Weatherholt were in attendance.

“We didn't have this growing up,” said Hammond after the pickup session. “So it’s just cool to see.”

While Hammond and Pluck enjoy some carne asada from the resident taquero, kids are still playing on the field next to us, wanting to make the most of every minute of field time they get.

“The kids are so inspiring to me because they just love the game so much and they love to learn,” said Pluck. “And if you love whatever you do, if you really put your heart and passion into it, you're going to excel.”

One thing that stands out about Footy Friday is how joyful the sessions are. There’s no instruction during pickup, and kids feel free to be creative and try new skills. Some kids never stop smiling as they play.

“I love seeing kids who are excited about the game and want to try things and be challenged,” said Hammond. “It gets me excited. Especially at a low- or no-stakes event like this. There’s so much pressure now to specialize, like, straight out of the womb.”

Both players see a longer-term vision for the impact FFH could have on the youth soccer landscape in the US—and how sometimes less can be more when it comes to developing great players. “There’s kind of a gap between us and other countries in the world where soccer is number one,” said Hammond. “They have inherent environments where they can just enjoy the game. Whereas here, if you're on a really elite club team, you're probably not just having fun with it.”

Pluck echoed that sentiment. “I think the younger me just needed to be told to have fun and be creative,” she said. “And then as I got older to learn how to handle pressure. My parents did a good job with that with me, but I needed a mentor who actually played.”

For Palmer, mentorship is a huge part of the program’s importance. “We're all about providing that representation,” she said. “We do that with our coaches, and a lot of them actually do have professional experience, but for kids to see the professionals from Los Angeles who they get to watch and idolize, and maybe they go to the matches or watch on TV, it makes it all seem more realistic, for them to see those players in person.”

Even as soccer is enormously popular as a participation sport for girls in the US, there’s still a lack of role models for young players who aren’t male and cisgender. That’s changing as the professional game continues to grow, but it’s one thing for kids to see female and nonbinary pros on TV and another to get to form actual relationships with adults who look like them and play the game.

One simple reason for that is so kids can grow up feeling comfortable in their own bodies. The night Hammond, Pluck, and Weatherholt visited, Palmer led a Q&A with the players about how athletes take care of their fundamental needs. The three players talked about things like warming up, getting enough sleep, and hydrating, as well as potentially touchier subjects, including a discussion of nutrition where players emphasized the importance of getting enough carbs before a game. They also talked about their favorite treats (that one was unanimous: ice cream).

Palmer also brought up the importance of wearing comfortable clothes and equipment on the field, including a well-fitting sports bra—a topic few cis male coaches would be comfortable broaching. “It's a natural physiological thing that all of us go through,” said Palmer. “I think when it's verbalized early on, [kids] will be more confident having those conversations; they won't be shy to ask for a sports bra, because that's the only way that they'll play sports.”

Players in attendance that week got extra lucky, as everyone got a free sports bra before lining up for a meet-and-greet with the players.=

As the kids get autographs and selfies, the Angel City players’ impact—both in coming here and in playing professionally in LA, period—is obvious. And, the players say, that impact goes both ways. “It just makes me feel like I can actually give back in a way that's useful,” said Pluck. “Like I’m directly impacting the future.”