ST. LOUIS — St. Louis CITY SC has nailed just about every one of their hires from sporting director to head coach to starting goalie.
They work with academy teams, those coaches developing the future of CITY SC and one of those coaches has a unique story.
This is Megan McCormick, one of two female coaches in Major League Soccer.
McCormick is unique for a lot of reasons. For one, she graduated from Ball State University in Indiana with a degree in architecture. Then she had to tell her parents
"I am not going to be an architect, I want to coach soccer, I want to be a soccer coach," McCormick said. "The initial reaction was 'Is that even a thing? Is that something you can do full-time as a job?' and I said 'I think so.'"
So, she took a job in Carmel, Indiana, as a middle school special ED teacher where she coached youth soccer too.
She also played in the Women's Professional Soccer League.
McCormick became the head coach at DePauw University and worked as a coach in the U.S. Soccer Federation.
When St. Louis CITY SC was looking for a coach in their academy program, they chose McCormick. She now coaches the U-16 team and they rarely lose.
"A couple weeks ago when we were tied to this team at the half and her tactile adjustment and we ended up beating that team 4 or 5 to 1. It was just amazing to see the tactile adjustments that she had that really changed our performance," one player said.
A woman coaching the boys, it's no problem at all.
"I think at a high level, players can figure out pretty quickly who knows what they are talking about and who doesn't. So as soon as they see that, gender doesn't become part of the conversation," McCormick said.
"It's really not that different, I mean I've all had man coaches. But man, she's a great coach and basically the same," another player said.
McCormick could have had a life as an architect, and it may have been easier. But she didn't want to miss out on this.
"Being part of a team, there is something about maybe growing up as an athlete and growing up in team sports, how much formative that was for me as a person," McCormick said. "I think when you retire from playing, when you hang up your cleats or when you step away from organized sports, sometimes you lose that team identity and being part of a team. That's always something that's been core to me."
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