Our state recently gained another helping of a familiar (for UNC) source of pride: excellence in women’s soccer.
The North Carolina Football Club has agreed to acquire the Western New York Flash–reigning winners of the professional National Women’s Soccer League — and move them to North Carolina as the Courage.
North Carolina had a professional women’s soccer team, the Carolina Courage, but they played their last season in 2003 before their league shut down. It’s no secret that women’s professional soccer is relatively obscure because it is dwarfed by World Cup play and men’s soccer.
From a UNC perspective, however, this has given the sport an intimate accessibility; the original Courage actually played their 2001 season at UNC’s Fetzer Field, the same field where UNC’s women’s soccer team has played during its decades of remarkable success.
In April 2001, in fact, former UNC and U.S. women’s national soccer team superstar Mia Hamm (then playing for the Washington Freedom) hit a game-winning free kick against the original Courage at Fetzer. That’s like the women’s professional soccer equivalent of Michael Jordan hitting a buzzer beater against the Hornets in a pro game at the Smith Center. It fits into an incredible tapestry of N.C. athletic excellence around Fetzer Field, and it makes jogging at Belk Track (which encircles the field) seem a bit more epic.
The return of professional women’s soccer, we hope, will help inspire more moments like this for the rest of the state, while continuing a legacy of women’s soccer excellence in North Carolina.
Welcome, Courage.
