Women's Professional Soccer 2009

(May 16, 2008) -- Emma Hayes has spent the last two years as first assistant at Arsenal Ladies, helping the Lady Gunners to six major trophies and securing their position as one of the world’s premier women’s soccer clubs.  Now the founding head coach of the WPS Chicago entry, Hayes is hoping to achieve similar accolades at Toyota Park.

(Arsenal Ladies)

Emma Hayes, shown here with Arsenal Ladies manager Vic Akers, hopes to help Chicago WPS reach the same level of success that her former club achieved.

While the club has no players and is months away from its first match, Hayes left Thursday’s introductory news conference with little doubt as to what her club will look like come April 2009.

“We’re going to be looking at the best players across the board,” she said.  “And we’re going to look for players to play my style, which is a very attacking style.  Hopefully the players will want to be involved in this exciting and attacking brand of football.”  Hayes not only coached in England, she was born there, which explains the occasional reference to football rather than soccer.

Hayes completes a star-studded management team in Chicago.  At the top is President and CEO Peter Wilt.  As the first general manager of the Chicago Fire in MLS, Wilt put together a side that won MLS Cup and the U.S. Open Cup as a first-year expansion franchise.  The general manager of WPS Chicago is Marcia McDermott, who won Founders Cup II as head coach of the WUSA’s Carolina Courage.

“The quality of the people involved in the Chicago team, their proven success, the magnificent stadium and the tradition of soccer support here give me confidence that we will be able to create a good environment that will position us for success on and off the field,” Hayes said.

Hayes is no stranger to the United States having coached the women’s soccer team at Iona College and the W-League’s Long Island Lady Roughriders, the latter when she was just 24.  When McDermott’s Courage beat Mia Hamm’s Washington Freedom in the 2002 Founders Cup, Hayes was in the audience.  Unlike the majority of younger spectators who likely aspired to play in the WUSA, Hayes dreamed of coaching in the league.

“I hope when we play there will be another emerging coach in the crowd,” she said.

Now Hayes is taking the first steps in making her dream a reality.  She plans to assume her duties in Chicago full-time as soon as her work visa is approved, hopefully in June.

“The challenge of coming to WPS is a great one,” Hayes said.  “I believe the league is going to be the best in the world.”

If WPS is going to reach that lofty height, it will have to draw from a diverse player pool.  This is yet another area where Hayes’ international experience, which includes serving as the lead analyst for Eurosport’s coverage of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, should pay off.

“Emma’s knowledge of the entire player pool available to us will be invaluable,” McDermott said.

Hayes, who also speaks Spanish, is confident in her ability to not only find but relate to players of all backgrounds and abilities.

“I have been very actively involved with recruiting, identifying and nurturing young players, especially of the 16 to 19 years area,” she said.  “I also have good experience working with the elite.  When I coached the Lady Riders, my oldest player was 37.”

Beyond soccer, Hayes, who believes a women’s soccer league should have female coaches, wants both herself and her players to be integral parts of the community.  And she would like to take the lead of the Fire, the main tenants of Toyota Park and one of the better supported teams in MLS.

Hayes says she will look for players that “will have a very important part in making sure we’re successful on all fronts.”

Those fronts range from the soccer field to fan interaction to grassroots efforts in selling the club and WPS.

“Emma will be a great advocate in our community,” McDermott said.

So the criteria to play for Emma Hayes appear simple:  Be a good community spokesperson, and play some attacking soccer.