What The Heart Wants

Trial Run

The Philadelphia Inquirer's recap of Jonathan Tannenwald's interview with Wendy Gebauer Palladino was held until Thursday's edition of the paper, to better serve as a preview of the next day's expansion draft. Ali was reading it over while her and Carm were on their way to the Hearts' offices for today's mock expansion draft and the first run-through of the team's big board for the college draft in January.

Jonathan Tannenwald: Wendy, as a first-year NWSL team, what is your expectation for the upcoming season?

Wendy Gebauer Palladino: With Ali Krieger and our expected second selection here, we should have the backbone necessary to build a formidable defense. We believe that we can challenge for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and should be in the running for it through the end of the season.

Jonathan: Do you and your staff have an overarching philosophy for Friday's draft and future signings?

Wendy: We are working to build a family-type culture with the Hearts, so we will build the roster on Friday with an attempt to have very good chemistry between our selected players before they arrive in Philadelphia. As for our post-draft plans, they will be to fill holes that we have after selecting our first ten players on Friday. By the end of the month, I want to have a viable first XI on our roster and then use the college draft in January to search for depth at certain positions.

Jonathan: You talk about a family-like culture with the team and pre-existing chemistry among the players. Can you define that for me?

Wendy: Since we only have one player on the roster so far, let's start with Ali. We chose her as our designated player because of her connection to our assistant coach, Carm Moscato, with whom she played at Penn State. When we decided on who we wanted to take with our second choice, we looked for a player that was connected in some way to Ali or a member of the coaching staff and we found one that we feel would be an excellent vice-captain and leader on our team. So we're looking at sets of teammates, former teammates who are elsewhere currently, or those who have played under one of our coaches in the past.

Jonathan: That seems to indicate that the Hearts will have a decidedly Penn State flavor to the roster given that Erica Dambach coached there and Ali Krieger and Carm Moscato played together there.

Wendy: I won't deny that there will be some Nittany Lions in the organization, but we also plan to look for people with local ties, like our goalkeeper coach Kristin Luckenbill who grew up in Paoli, PA, 25 miles or so outside of Philly.

Jonathan: Does this family theme also include real or perceived family?

Wendy: If you're asking if I would try to draft or trade for Kristie and Sam Mewis, and/or their partners, I'd be silly not to make the attempt. Sadly, though, a lot of those combinations are players being protected by their current clubs. Another example would be if we could get Daphne Corboz from Sky Blue via trade and then are in position to select her sister Rachel in the college draft.

Ali finished the article and turned to Carm. "Wendy is REALLY playing up this family theme for the organization, not shying away one bit from the possibility of drafting a known lesbian couple on Friday or via one of the other avenues at our disposal."

Carm: Nope. I hope this being upfront about it isn't going to be a problem for you, given that you've been noncommittal to sharing that part of your life with the public.

Ali: I've got no problem with it. Maybe having that critical mass on the roster will make it easier for me to step out and not deflect questions on the subject when I get them. In fact, I think I've got a great idea for a PSA or a commercial that we should do once we have a good chunk of our roster here.