Bringing an NWSL team to Cleveland would mean everything. I was born and raised in Cleveland to a sports obsessed family with three brothers. My siblings and I were all multi-sport athletes, but as the only girl in the family, I rarely got the chance to see my hopes and dreams reflected back to me. Women’s sports didn’t (and still don’t) get the same attention and investment as men’s sports. My brothers not only had the ability to watch male athletes on TV 24/7, they could play as them in video games, they could readily purchase jerseys with their favorite players’ names on the back, they cou ..read more

You don’t have to be a serious runner to join a running group. I remember overhearing a conversation shortly after I graduated college where a woman was talking about a workout she did with her running group. Despite the fact that I had just finished playing Division I soccer, my first thought was “Wow, that’s pretty hardcore. No way I’d ever be able to handle a group that meets just to run. They must all be in crazy good shape.” Years passed, and I began to start running more seriously on my own. 5k’s turned into 10ks, then to 10-mile races and to half marathons. Even with my competitive n ..read more

While talking about vitamins might not sound the most interesting, I must tell this story about magnesium, because it’s fascinating both scientifically, as well as for me personally. Plus, there’s a moral to the story beyond the obvious: get the magnesium you need. For a long time, my legs have felt terrible. Not wanting to use the word pain, I ended up with a description of uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that I wasn’t sleeping well. Getting up from the couch was a strain and difficult for anyone nearby to witness. I continued to bike, run, and generally stay physically active, but great wo ..read more

Throughout the history of professional sports, athletes have utilized their platform to advocate for social change. Whether it’s Billie Jean King and Venus Williams working to close the gender pay gap in tennis, Maya Moore pausing her career to focus on criminal justice reform and the wrongful conviction of Jonathan Irons, or most recently, Simone Biles being vocal about the importance of mental health. In the social media era, their voices have the ability to reach billions around the world at the click of a button and affect people’s opinions and actions. There is no question that athlete a ..read more