Sydney Leroux has been the target of abuse from Canadian soccer fans ever since she chose to play for the U.S.; now, her family opens up about the experience
Canadian-born soccer star Sydney Leroux target of abuse simply for opting to play for the U.S.
It’s completely feasible that the Americans could win the Women’s World Cup finale on July 5 at B.C. Place, and Surrey kid Sydney Leroux could be their star that day.
How exactly might that be received by the crowd?
You’ve heard at least some of the story on Leroux, 25, by now. Mom was skilled enough with a bat and a glove that she made the Canadian national women’s softball team, highlighted by representing this country at 1987 Pan Am Games. Dad’s ability to confound hitters got him to a major-league mound in 1986 with the California Angels.
Sandi Leroux and Ray Chadwick met when Chadwick, a North Carolina native, was coming through Vancouver as a triple-A player. The relationship didn’t last.
Sydney played various sports growing up. One of her first soccer coaches, Sebastian (Chico) Munoz, found out that she had dual citizenship, and first presented her the idea of playing for the Americans one day. It took on even more life when, at age nine, she became caught up in the 1999 World Cup, the one remembered for Brandi Chastain’s goal celebration.
Sydney still lined up for Canadian teams at various levels, including playing in the 2004 Under-19 Women’s World Cup as a 14-year-old.
Suiting up for the Americans remained her goal. She would eventually move to the U.S., living with host families in first the Seattle area and then Scottsdale, Ariz., as she finished her high school.
When Sydney made the U.S. national program in 2008, she began taking heat from some Canadian fans.
There were chants of “Judas,” aimed at her during an Olympic qualifying tournament at B.C. Place in January 2012, and she complained about racist and sexist tweets in the days following an American win in a friendly at Toronto’s BMO Field in June 2013.
Sandi Leroux sat down at her Surrey home with the Province earlier this week and talked about her own feelings going into this World Cup.
Leroux, who works for a grocery story chain, spoke, too, about her daughter’s friends on the Canadian team, but also admitted that some players didn’t make her feel welcome, particularly during that Under-19 tournament.
Leroux talked about her daughter’s mindset going into this event as well.
Chadwick still lives in B.C. He’s the head coach with the Thompson Rivers University baseball team in Kamloops.
Q We will start simple enough — what don’t we understand about your daughter that we should?
A Everyone thinks she’s this tough, aggressive, has-no-feelings type of girl, but she’s got more emotion than anyone I know.
Where does that come from?
I don’t know. People think I’m so strong, but I’m not. I’m strong in certain ways.
You raised her largely on your own. It was just the two of you for the longest time. What was that like?
It was fun. She was crazy. I wish I could go back and do it again and
again and again. That doesn’t happen. She was wild. I’m not kidding. That kid would climb over this. (Points to roof covering her porch.)
When di dyou sense she may have had something special athletically?
Probably when she was two. She could take the golf club and hit balls. She would hit the baseball off the tee. She never stopped. She wanted to play all the time. She would kick the soccer ball against the couch all day. I tried to put her in everything. I tried to wear her out.
Are you surprised at the reaction from some of the Canadian fans?
Yeah.
Because?
I just didn’t think it was so important to so many fans that she left. They didn’t even know who she was when
she left. She was a little kid. And, you know, when she made the Canadian (Under-19) team, people complained that she was too young to make the Canadian team anyway.
How hard has that reaction been on you?
It has calmed down now, but, at the time, you should have interviewed me, because I would have been bawling.
Was it hard to be in B.C. Place watching then?
It was horrible. Here wasn’t as bad as Toronto, though.
Really?
There were nasty things said here, but in Toronto it all built up. After that, she probably cried for three days and didn’t leave her room.
You were an international-level athlete for Canada. How would you have felt if one of your teammates took advantage of dual citizenship and went and played for the U. S.?
Good for them. Just like the (Americanborn) girls that play for Canada. Those girls may have never gotten a chance. They went to where they could make it work. That was their dream. Good for them. The same goes for Teresa Noyola. She played all through the U.S. with Sydney as 15-, 16-year-olds. She went to Mexico. No one says anything.
Are you worried about the reaction Sydney will get from fans at this World Cup?
TSN came to Los Angeles and did interviews with us (Sydney and Sandi). We were sitting with some of the other American players afterwards and they said, “It’s not going to make a difference.” TSN will try to tell the story, or you will. They don’t think it’s going to make a difference.
Do you find that frustrating?
It’s sad. She took the hardest route. There are so many athletes in the U.S., so many great players.
People can be funny.
I take some abuse at work. I heard about it from customers when I came back from the Olympics. Customers will say different things to me. I have a lot of customers who are very positive. They’re always so good. But you remember the other ones, too.
And you and your daughter are still friendly with several of the Canadian players, aren’t you?
Yeah. (Laughs). I gave Carmelina Moscato her dog. Mickey (a chihuahua that’s a staple of Moscato’s instragram page) was one of mine. (Sandi has several dogs.) Carm was in Sydney’s wedding party. Sydney’s good friends with Kaylyn Kyle. All these fans are thinking that they hate her. They don’t hate her. They like her. Erin McLeod, I had stored her stuff here at the house for a time. They came and picked it up and she brought me a nice picture. She said she had no clue how Sydney was treated with the Under-19s by some of the players. She no clue.
Sydney had issues with the Under-19 experience?
Ian Bridge and Even Pellerud (Canadian coaches) were really good with Sydney. It was just how some of the players treated her. She was young. Maybe they shouldn’t have picked such a young player? Maybe they tried grooming too young?
Would you give her different advice if we could turn back the clock, knowing the negatives now? Would you back her going to the States again?
Yes. It was her dream. It’s a good dream.