Players’ Florida ties expected to be beneficial to team

This season, many Orlando Pride players represent Central Florida on and off the field.

More than a third of the Pride roster holds personal ties to the area. Marc Skinner said an emphasis on local talent provides an extra level of investment from new and returning players alike.

“As a coach, I try to connect with what it means to be from Florida, what it means to play for Orlando, what it means to be from the city,”

Skinner said. “If you don’t do that, you’re not really working for the people. I think it’s so important we put everything into loving where we are. Even through the trials and tribulations that we faced in the last two years, that love has never doused.”

Three returning players grew up in the Orlando area — defender Carrie Lawrence in Orlando, captain Ashlyn Harris in nearby Cocoa Beach and veteran Toni Pressley half an hour south of that in Melbourne.

Jamaican defender Konya Plummer played four years for UCF alongside Lawrence while Canadian midfielder Jordyn Listro attended the University of South Florida in Tampa.

New midfielders Erika Tymrak

and Meggie Dougherty Howard both grew up in the Tampa area, then went on to play for the University of Florida.

Even Icelandic midfielder Gunny Jónsdóttir saw her trade to Orlando as a homecoming.

Her mother started a new job with Nemours Children’s Hospital in 2012 and raised Jónsdóttir’s younger siblings in Orlando, where two of her sisters still live.

“This has become a second home for me,” Jónsdóttir said.

For many Pride players, the pandemic caused a major shift in priorities. Jónsdóttir found herself valuing proximity to family over anything else, spending the latter half of 2020 playing at home in the Icelandic league with her partner, Orlando keeper Erin McLeod.

Jónsdóttir’s first NWSL match took place at Exploria Stadium and her entire family attended. For the midfielder, the prospect of sharing the next season of her career with her family makes an impact on and off the pitch.

“When this pandemic is over and we can get fans, it would mean so much to have them in the stands at every game,” Jónsdóttir said. “That’s a big, huge thing for me. ... The happier you are, the better you’re gonna play, so I wanted to be in an environment where I knew I could be happy.”

Skinner also believes players’ happiness in Orlando will translate onto the pitch.

Even during the pandemic, Skinner encouraged players to invest locally by supporting local youth soccer teams and visiting the Pulse memorial. He believes this continued investment will create a more cohesive team and club culture for the Pride.

“Football can be a job, but what it needs to be is a life,” Skinner said. “You want to connect it to something that inspires you, that creates something new and that’s driving you every day. Already being part of something because you are from the area, it’s almost that natural connection.”

Although local Pride players feel invigorated to represent their hometown team, negotiating a move home isn’t a simple process.

Dougherty Howard said she never felt like it was possible to set a goal for herself to play in Orlando.

“It’s always something I would love to have done, being close to family and friends here,” Dougherty Howard said. “But this league is a little unpredictable at times. Players don’t always have a lot of control, necessarily, of where they go.”

It can be difficult for players to negotiate trades and moves to new teams in the league. Without a true free-agency structure, many players struggle to dictate where they spend the bulk of their careers.

“I always wanted to end up in Orlando because it is home, but it’s tough with our league,” Tymrak said. “There’s no free agency, so it’s a little more difficult to go to a team that you actually want to strategically be on.”

For Skinner, investment in the soccer talent of Central Florida extends beyond current players.

In future years, the coach hopes to build a talent pipeline to benefit and support the club’s development. Although an academy system remains a far-off plan for the club, it will be a focus for general manager Ian Fleming in his new position.

In the short term, Skinner hopes the roster’s wealth of athletes from the region will encourage young local talent to pursue the game at the next level.

“I want young female players that are coming through and going through to college systems to want to come back and play here,” Skinner said. “I want people from this area to know they have a real chance to come and play with that extra 10% because they love where they’re from.”