So I am overjoyed to share that I had the opportunity this week to interview the former Jewish soccer star herself, who played for the UNC Tar Heels in college, a succession of professional clubs after graduating and the USWNT, before becoming the interim general manager of NY/NJ Gotham FC. Why should you care about my failed soccer career? It’s relevant: I have spent my years so far in Jewish journalism desperate for a Jewish angle on women’s soccer, and my searches always circled back to the one and only Yael Averbuch West. Spoiler alert: my energy remained on books, and here I am now, writing the Jewish Sport Report. “If only you spent half as much energy as you do reading as you do on soccer, you’d be great at soccer” was a familiar refrain in the car ride home. My dad, who was my coach for those nine years, loves telling a story about how when he put me in as goalie one time, I was immediately hit in the nose with the ball, and refused to go back in.

Mia Hamm was my idol growing up, and though I played soccer from kindergarten through eighth grade, I was never that good. Women’s National Team is my favorite team in any sport, hands down. Women’s National Team against New Zealand in Columbus, Ohio, Oct.