USA reaps benefits of Ellis’ move
LYON, France – For all the time spent planning, so much of life comes down to happenstance.
Had Jill Ellis stayed in England, the country where she was born and spent her first 14 years, she might never have played organized soccer. Almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten into coaching.
And she definitely wouldn’t be coaching the U.S. women, who play England on Tuesday in a World Cup semifinal that brings Ellis’ life full circle.
“At the time, (coaching) was not even a career path. It was a rare career path in the States, but it wasn’t a career path for sure” in England, Ellis said earlier this month. “What America gave me was the dream and the opportunity and the ability to follow that path, which I really had never dreamed about.”
Ellis was born in 1966, when women were still effectively banned from playing soccer in England. It wasn’t until 1971 that the ban was lifted, and it was years more before there was anything resembling a structured system for girls.
That Ellis would grow up loving the game was no surprise.
Her father, John, was an ambassador for England’s Football Association, and Ellis swore her allegiance to Manchester United when she was just 7. But her only opportunities to play were in the backyard with her brother or on the playground with her male classmates.
Only when the Ellis family moved to the United States did she finally get the chance to play on an organized team.
“That’s really what America gave me,” Ellis said Sunday, “is an environment to put on my first-ever team uniform.”
Ellis played first for the Braddock Road Bluebelles, a top club team in northern Virginia that won the Under-19 national championship in 1984. She then played at William & Mary, where she’s still in the top 10 for career goals.
“She was sort of ahead of her time,” Marsha Lycan, one of Ellis’ teammates who is now an assistant coach there, told The Virginian-pilot. “In terms of her soccer IQ, her brain, how she read the game and how she played the game.”
Ellis hadn’t intended to get into coaching – her degree from William & Mary is in English literature and composition – but she wasn’t ready to give up the game, yet, either.
She worked her way up the college ranks, eventually spending 12 years as the coach at UCLA.
She also began working with U.S. Soccer, coaching some of the youth teams and serving as an assistant to Pia Sundhage at the 2008 Olympics, where the Americans won a second consecutive gold medal. Three years later, she became the U.S. women’s Development Director.
“I never thought I’d end up coaching. It wasn’t the plan,” Ellis said. “The passion – you find out if you love what you do, and that’s what I decided to do in terms of shifting careers.”
Ellis was interim coach for the U.S. women after Sundhage went back to Sweden and again after her successor, Tom Sermanni, was fired. Ellis was hired permanently in May 2014, just 13 months before the World Cup.
There are those who have criticized her coaching acumen, saying the Americans lucked into the title in 2015 because Ellis was forced to change tactics when Lauren Holiday and Megan Rapinoe were suspended for the quarterfinal because of an accumulation of yellow cards. Others have said that with the Americans’ collection of talent, pretty much anyone could coach the team.
But that does a disservice to Ellis. As anyone who has watched teams laden with stars underachieve, it is not easy managing competing psyches and egos. Take this World Cup. Carli Lloyd has been one of the most important, and most productive, players in U.S. history, and believes she is still capable of being a starter. Ellis, however, is bringing her off the bench.
While it’s a credit to Lloyd for not sulking or creating a divide, so, too, is it a credit to Ellis for managing the situation in a way that prevented it from becoming a problem.
And as the gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world continues to narrow, Ellis has made sure the Americans are being tested on a regular basis. The U.S. now hosts the She Believes Cup and the Tournament of Nations, which feature three other top-10 teams.
In the leadup to the World Cup, she insisted on an exhibition with Spain, a rising team that plays a style unlike almost anyone else. Sure enough, the United States got Spain in the round of 16.
“When I was newer on the team, I remember Jill saying she wanted to bring really high-level soccer to the United States so our fans, and America in general, could see women playing soccer at such a high level,” Sam Mewis said.
“I credit Jill a lot for wanting to do that and then actually making it happen. She’s pushed this team a lot and she has really high expectations for us and that’s an exciting thing for her and for the team.”
The quarterfinal win was Ellis’ 100th as head coach, second only to Tony Dicicco. It also was her 125th game as the U.S. women’s coach, more than anyone else.
And should the U.S. women repeat as World Cup champions, Ellis would become the first coach to win two since 1938. All because she left England. “My whole British culture in growing up is still with me for sure. I’m very grateful for that,” said Ellis, who became a U.S. citizen years ago. “Had I grown up in another country, maybe that passion for football would (not) be where it is and where it was.”
England got Ellis started. The U.S. women have reaped the benefits.