What The Heart Wants

Tell Me Something Good

The defenders gathered in Emily and Lindsey's room. The seven of them (Steph Ochs, Liz, Emily, Cari, Cami, Morgan Reid, and Ali) went around first giving short bios of how they got to where they are now. Following that, Ali moved onto a topic the group would see from many different points of view.

Ali: The seven of us run the gamut in terms of relationships. Emily and I are both with other members of the Hearts and Steph and Liz are with local guys. As for the other three of you, anything you wish to bring up before I get into the main topic I want to discuss?

Cami: I'm currently not with anyone. Haven't been in Philly long enough to start looking for a good Jewish boy and the options back home haven't appealed to me.

Cari: When I was traded to the Hearts, I was sort of dabbling in a relationship in Houston with a former classmate from Notre Dame. Nothing really serious, but something I could say existed to keep others at arm's length. When that member of the Flyers hit on me on St. Patrick's Day and I told him I didn't date athletes, it was because I had been pondering something that Moe said to me the night before her called-off wedding, that I had let two great potential partners slip away from me because I was too unwilling to let either of them know what I thought of them or how I swung, not knowing if they went that way or not. One for sure I lost, that being Mo who has Sammy Jo. The other plays for the Red Stars, so distance would be a big factor in whether we would be able to start something. The story that Mo told about the three of us at the preseason event at Lucky Strike also stirred something in me to maybe go after it.

Morgan: One of my classmates from Duke is going to medical school in Philadelphia and we ran into each other at Reading Terminal Market a couple of weeks ago. Ali, you met him at Franklin Fountain and he was on the pub crawl with us on the 17th. We're going to see what might come to pass once this trip is over.

Emily: Cari, you know if you need any help in that department, there are several of us that would be willing to get involved on your behalf. Lindsey, Jen, Danny Colaprico, Sam.

Cari: Let's take this up after sectional. Don't want to bore the rest of the group with my five-plus year mental chase of her.

Ali: Onto the topic that's on my mind. With us hosting another public event next Monday, the possibility exists for attendees to try and get too close for comfort either with questions or with actions. How do each of you handle the public nature of being a professional female athlete with the desire to maybe not let the whole world know everything about you? I want to hear from a couple of you before I jump in with my thoughts.

Steph: Being one of the few players on the Hearts who has been in the league since its start, I have seen the difference in how we as players are regarded from when I played with Ali and Diana in Washington in 2013 to the aftermath of Sam and Abby's coming-out at the NWSL final last October. Back then, we were still seen as role models for tween and teenage girls and what we did away from the field wasn't really anyone's concern. Now that we are attracting young professionals and college students to games, the atmosphere is better in the stands, but that comes at a bit of a price. Fans now want to know more about you, and I don't mean what your favorite ice cream flavor is or how you did on the beep test. Some are very interested in who you're with, or if you're with anyone, never mind that few if any would take the next step and actually approach you, and the ones that do are just so overaggressive.

Emily: In Portland, we had a good relationship with the Rose City Riveters. They were respectful of our privacy if they would happen to see us away from Providence Park. Some from the Timbers Army were less-so, intruding upon or being judgmental about what we did outside of our job. The reaction we saw in the four friendlies following the NWSL final, ranging from enthusiastic support to head-shaking vitriol, was something that I didn't think we'd experience. Ash, Sam, and Abby got the worst of it, and Lindsey was willing to fight back against it, but I felt like our supporters were casting aspersions on our choices of who to love.