SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Kyndra de St. Aubin loves the game of soccer.
"Once that whistle blows and you’re in between those white lines it’s a free-thinking, solve problems on your own kind of sport, and I love that," she says.
She played the majority of her college soccer career at the University of Minnesota.
Now, Kyndra is the color analyst for Minnesota United FC's television broadcasts, alongside play-by-play commentator Callum Williams and sideline reporter Jamie Watson.
Kyndra's role is to break down what she sees unfold on the field.
"Unbridled enthusiasm and joy about the game of soccer and then it just gets to be translated into hopefully the broadcast," is how Kyndra describes it.
Currently, she is the only full-time female television analyst in Major League Soccer. "It’s really an honor to be thought of in that light, she says. "But at the same time it’s Doris Burke, it’s Jessica Mendoza – all these women that are doing men’s sports now. To me, it’s more just the fact that you are a person that is incredibly knowledgeable about the game and the sport and you’re bringing it to the audience - not whether you’re a woman or a man."
When she was 15, Kyndra was diagnosed with systemic lupus, right in the prime of her efforts to become a division one athlete. She says she drew a lot of inspiration from quotes during that time of her life. "I had one written on my wall. It was, 'Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best,'" she says. "That has stuck with me because it’s not just sports, it’s life. You knock it out of the ballpark, you crush it and you’ll be given more opportunities and it’s just about hard work."
Kyndra will be part of the broadcasts for the Women's World Cup this summer.
