By Dana Armstrong | Editor-in-Chief
Originally posted in Dog Street Journal's November 2019 issue.
Once upon a July in a homely Czech restaurant in Gananoque, Canada, I witnessed American herstory. In front of me laid a bowl of borsch and, on the 28-inch TV screen, the nerve-wracking final game of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
When my parents scheduled our summer vacation to Canada in the midst of the World Cup final rounds, my one stipulation was that, wherever we were, we had to be able to watch the USA v Netherlands game. That meant abandoning our cable connection-less RV park for an 11 AM lunch in any establishment with a TV. So, on that fateful day, we went into the empty Maple Leaf Restaurant. Grillrestaurant. We requested a seat in front of a TV and asked our server if he’d be so kind as to turn on the game.
Needless to say, in a country whose team lost in the first round of the knockout phase and much prefers a hockey puck to a soccer ball, we were basically broadcasting our Americanness to anyone who entered the establishment. But this match meant more than outing my nationality and more than soccer itself. This team of American women was actively
working to change the perception of female athletics and female equity at a national level—and a William & Mary alumna was the proud leader at its helm.
If you were at W&M’s 2019 Homecoming or watched, listened to, or read anything from any major news outlet in the days surrounding July 7th, 2019, chances are you’ve probably heard of Jill Ellis. As the two-time winning head coach of the US Women’s National Soccer Team, she is practically a national hero. And, once I learned she was a W&M alumna and an English major (which is as closely related to my self-designed journalism major as it’ll ever get), Jill Ellis quickly became one of my personal heroes.
I was so thrilled to see her in person as she rode down Richmond Road during the Homecoming Parade. Though we may have not made direct eye contact, I’m so much more grateful that she enthusiastically waved to the kids from a local Williamsburg soccer team on the other side of the street. Her words during her talk with President Katherine Rowe were infinitely inspiring, so for this month’s Letter From the Editor, I’ll conclude with some of my favorite quotes from Jill Ellis’ talk:
“Kudos to you—you’ve got a [female] athletic director and president. William & Mary is where it’s at.”
“Excellence is a moving target.”
“Even if we’re on the right track, if we sit there, we’ll get run over.”