Retirement looks different for different people. For Becky Sauerbrunn, Carli Lloyd and scores of others, retirement from soccer gave way to television commentary gigs. Others, like Diana Matheson, founded Canada’s pro women’s league. Whitney Engen went to law school and became a lawyer.
Lauren Barnes turned to working with young players after retiring from the Seattle Reign last year, serving as an assistant director for the elite girls of Seattle United. She also played in a few games for the local USL W team Salmon Bay.
But she missed the Reign. It’s understandable. Barnes played her entire career with Seattle. Her playing career includes a record 252 regular season appearances 21,109 minutes played.
So this week, the club announced that Barnes would return as an interim assistant coach through the rest of this season, replacing Lee Nguyen, who left the Reign to become head coach of the Dallas Trinity in the Gainbridge Super League.
Barnes, who holds a U.S. Soccer Federation B License, was frank about the emotional impact of retirement.
“I think as much as I possibly could, I did take a break when I retired, where I was like, OK, I just need to remove myself and figure it out and do whatever I needed to do to kind of, one, heal like I’m grieving,” she said. “I just finished a career that’s you know something that I’ll never be able to recreate again. So you know navigating that was difficult.”
But Barnes says she is thrilled with the new opportunity, and the launch of a new career.
“It’s been kind of yeah crazy last six months, I guess I don’t think I’ve processed everything yet, so still kind of going through all that. But I think my initial emotions were I’m just excited to be back, right? It’s obviously home. It’s been home for a really long time, so different capacity, different role, different lens, ” she said. “So super excited about that to kind of get that started and have a taste of what this side looks like.”
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Good vibes
Barnes’ return to the team was just one of the feel-good stories surrounding the Reign this week. On Saturday, Jess Fishlock scored a minute after subbing into Seattle’s game at Bay FC for a 3-2 victory. Mia Fishel and Maddie Dahlien also scored.
“When I saw the ball go over the top and Jess had got half a yard in front, I was just like, this is either a goal or a penalty, because she’s that type of player, over however many years she’s been at this club now — 14th season is it? She’s done things like that so often,” said Reign head coach Laura Harvey.
However, Harvey said Fishlock “pulled up a little bit” after the goal. “Hopefully it won’t be too bad, but we’ll have to wait and see on that.”
Fishlock has already announced that she, too, is headed for retirement after this season. She has joined Rhian Wilkinson’s staff for the Wales women’s national team as a technical assistant.
Links!
The NWSL is starting next season in February because of the Women’s World Cup
ESPN hands out midseason grades of all 16 NWSL teams
Madison Williams writes for The IX Soccer about motherhood in the NWSL
Esther Gonzalez parts ways with Gotham to attend to personal matters in Spain
Emily Sonnett is out for the season with a ruptured patellar tendon
The Deseret News had a feature on Olivia Moultrie
Nigeria chases another WAFCON title
Nigeria recovers after loss to Malawi
Meet the Chawinga sisters, from the Olympics channel
Grading the moves in the summer transfer window
The great Suzi Wrack on how women’s football was used as a pawn by FIFA
Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
