by JJ Duke
Earlier this week I had an opportunity to speak with Laura Harvey, the Head Coach of the Seattle Reign, for a feature for the March print edition of Our Game Magazine. Here is a sneak peak of what Harvey and I talked about during the interview, focusing on the off season acquisitions that the Seattle Reign have made.
OGM: What was your plan going into the off season after concluding the 2013 season because the team has departed with half of the roster that finished the season and you’ve added if my count is correct seven new players. So how was this all planned out?
Laura Harvey: I sat down with Bill [Predmore] maybe in July, and even in July we still had an outside chance of making the playoffs and we sat down and said we wanted to come up with a plan of what we wanted to do in the off season to make this club better on and off the field. That plan had about 30 points on it, whether it would be sign her or try and trade her or can we get her, etc. And on the top of that list was Kim Little. Being really truthful, having worked with her at Arsenal, she is a fantastic footballer and someone who will absolutely strive in this league. She was our number one and we had a lot of other things we needed to get her up here. For a club like us, we knew that the reason why we were able to get out of a losing streak like we did last year was the environment that we created around this club and that environment that we tried to create that allows players to flourish and it allows them to be the best that they could possibly be. And that was something that last year we could just not provide to allow that to happen. So off the field we sat down to see what we could make happen to have the players lives a bit easier: Facilities…better. Equipment…better. Training…better, etc. So that was sort of set in stone the last game of the season. When we were out of the playoffs we revisited the list, we asked has anything changed, etc. And we set about trying to achieve all of our goals. We didn’t expect the Sydney Leroux trade, that wasn’t part of our plan but we sort of accepted that greatly. And that potential opportunity arises, we took risks to make it happen. When we made that Kristie Mewis/Arod trade (off season trade that Seattle made with FC Kansas City that sent Amy Rodriguez to Kansas City for Mewis) we weren’t sure if getting Leroux would happen but we thought that might help along the way. And we gradually worked through the points and then got to about 25 of the points by the end of November/early December.
If you want to read the rest of the interview with Laura Harvey, make sure to pick up a copy of the March issue of Our Game Magazine.