In the summer of 2001, Kim Wyant was working with a group of goalkeepers at Stony Brook Soccer Club on Long Island when she overheard a woman on a nearby pitch coaching a group of young children behind her. The woman’s command of the practice caught her ear, as did the fact that Wyant did not recognize her.
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Wyant, then in her late 30s, was part of the Long Island Lady Riders(now Rough Riders), a team in the previously dominant USL W-League. Like many amateur players at the time, she was also an employee of the club, responsible for overseeing the organization’s camps and clinics.
“I’m standing on the fields and I’m coaching the goalkeepers, and, over my shoulder, I could hear this woman coaching a bunch of little kids,” Wyant told The Athletic. “First of all, I know every woman on Long Island coaching because if they’re a woman coaching, I want them coaching in the Long Island Lady Rider organization. So, like, I knew everybody — and I kept saying to myself … ‘Who is this person?’”
The person in question was Emma Hayes, 24 years old and on the cusp of landing her first high-level coaching job with the Lady Riders.
The encounter was the precursor for what has since become Hayes’ accomplished 22-year span as one of soccer’s most prominent coaches. Earlier this month, Hayes’ career came full circle with her pending return to the U.S. following her formal appointment as head coach of the U.S. women’s national team.
Much has been said about Hayes’ time as manager for Chelsea Women, where she has been a force for the West London club since her appointment in 2012. She has secured six WSL titles, five FA Cups, two FA Women’s League Cups, one FA Women’s Spring Series trophy, and one Women’s Community Shield in her time there.
But Hayes’ coach journey started far from home in New York, first on Long Island in 2001 and then in New Rochelle, where, in 2003, she was appointed head coach of the women’s soccer team at Iona College.
Though the memories from two decades ago are fading, those who knew Hayes then remember her as a coach on a path to great success. They remember how her passion for the game resonated with players, despite being younger than some of them, like at the Lady Riders. At Iona, Hayes’ took a poor-performing program and turned it around. Her success even prompted one of her former bosses to later offer her another coaching job in New Jersey – which, he said, she politely declined while at Chelsea.
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“I’ve got so many fond memories of turning up in Long Island with a backpack and a thousand dollars and working for clubs across the whole of Long Island and Westchester and New York City,” Hayes said in an interview with U.S. Soccer. “I’ve experienced everything from intramural soccer, recreational Sunday soccer to the collegiate game, to USL, to the pro game, to state ODP, regionals. I’ve been a part of the entire soccer community.”
Wyant remembers Hayes saying Major League Soccer Camps brought her to the U.S. At the time, MLS partnered with a company that created MLS-branded camps across the country. Wyant didn’t offer her a job on the spot but invited Hayes to learn more about the Lady Riders, which Wyant described as a “women-first” club that focused on promoting women and girls in soccer. The club was “in its prime” when Hayes joined, she said.
The Lady Riders were a purely amateur league, meaning no one was paid to play. Players either juggled full-time jobs with practice, travel, and games or were paid through stipend or contract work with the club, like Wyant.
“She was actually hired to work in camps and clinics and get out there and do her thing in the community,” Wyant said about Hayes, “and part of her responsibilities was coaching the women’s first team, the W-League team.”
🔙 to where it all started…
Newly appointed @USWNT Head Coach Emma Hayes began her coaching career in the W League with the @LIRoughRiders 📰
➡️ https://t.co/QtS271S2M8 pic.twitter.com/SWqnfNTQEq
— USL W League (@USLWLeague) November 15, 2023
The W-League, for a time, was the highest level of women’s soccer in the United States, second only to being called up to the U.S. national team. The league offered high-level players a space to play between college and representing their country. Wyant remembers there being a significant gap between those two milestones. It wasn’t until 2001 that the first professional women’s league, Women’s United Soccer Association, had its first season. It folded two years later.
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Emphasizing the grind Hayes had during her stint in New York is important, Wyant said. “I think it sends a good message to younger coaches, that ‘Hey, you got to grind it out. You got to start somewhere. Working as a community coach in some obscure soccer program somewhere, I mean, this is how Emma started.”
In 2002, Hayes was named the sixth coach of the Lady Riders at age 25, succeeding Wyant, who returned to playing goalkeeper that season. That year, the team won the W-League Northeast Division title with an 11-3-0 record. Hayes, the youngest head coach in the league, was also voted W-League Coach of the Year.
Dina Case was Hayes’ captain that season. Case looks back at that year fondly, especially given it was her final year playing competitively. She was already a seasoned vet, having led Cornell to an Ivy League Championship in 1991. She joined the Lady Riders in 1994, in their inaugural year, and played a total of eight seasons, with a brief hiatus in 2000, when she had her first child. She juggled being a physical therapist, raising a family, and soccer. By the time Hayes took over, Case was 32.
“I was older than her … and we used to, I remember, laugh a little bit about that,” Case said, “but I was always very impressed with what she brought in being a new coach, her knowledge of the game. I just remember that last season being very enjoyable.”
Case also remembers Hayes not being intimidated by players older than her. The team had a large range of ages between players, from 17 to 30 years old.
“Even though she was a young coach coming in, and having some players that are older, she respected that,” Case said. “What I loved about her, too, is, she would definitely look to me at times just to chat as our captain, get the pulse on the team, and really just bounce some ideas off. She wasn’t afraid to do that.”
Hayes’ successful year on Long Island propelled her to the Iona Gaels, where she was named head coach of their women’s soccer team in January 2003. A press release from that year said Hayes also previously assisted with the Columbia University soccer program.
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Pat Lyons was elevated to Athletic Director at Iona while Hayes was head coach. At the time, he was one of the youngest ADs in the country. He remembers being involved with the search committee to hire her, and her being “the total package” for a potential head coach.
“In college, the most important thing’s recruiting. She could recruit at a very high level. The kids really enjoyed playing for her,” Lyons said. “She was no-nonsense. She’s an expert in the game of soccer. She just had all the qualities.” It also helped that Hayes had an early track record of success with her time at the Lady Riders, he added.
In her time at Iona, Hayes took what university officials describe as a poor-performing program to one that won 22 games in three years – which remains the best three-year stretch in program history.
⚽️Congratulations to former @IonaWSOC head coach @emmahayes1 on being named the 10th full-time @USWNT head coach!
Emma was our coach from 2003-2005 and was the 2004 @MAACSports Coach of the Year.
𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄:https://t.co/ULCijaSe9p
#GaelNation #USWNT #MAACSoccer pic.twitter.com/tJnY18okD6— Iona Athletics (@IonaGaels) November 16, 2023
“Even back then I was, like, ‘Yeah, she’s not gonna be here long,’” Lyons said. “Sometimes, especially as an Athletic Director, you have to start with (hiring) coaches where you’re just like, ‘Wow, that person’s destined for greatness,’ and that was her. She turned that program around in a very short time.
“I always say, she’s one of the best coaches I’ve been around.”
She was so good that Lyons said he even tried to hire her again at Seton Hall in New Jersey, where he moved on to after Iona. Lyons was hired as their Athletic Director in 2011, and, in 2019, was appointed executive vice president and chief of staff. By the time he made the offer, Hayes was already at Chelsea, he said.
“I think I got her on the phone, and she was overseas,” he said, laughing. “I said, ‘Is there any chance?’ and she’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t think so.’”
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Hayes didn’t move directly to Chelsea from Iona. When she left the U.S. to return to England, she served as the first team assistant coach and academy director for Arsenal Ladies from 2006 to 2008. She eventually returned to the U.S. to join the Chicago Red Stars as their head coach in the WPS, before being fired and serving brief stints with the Western New York Flash and Washington Freedom in technical director and consulting roles, respectively. In 2012, she debuted with Chelsea.
Those who knew Hayes during her early years in New York have fondly watched her rise from afar. News of her hire with the national team prompted a flurry of texts between Lady Riders alumni and Iona alumni. Many, like Case, said they’re excited to see how she handles this next role.
“She seems to know when it’s the right time to move on to that next chapter, which is good because she’s ending on a really high note with Chelsea and, now, she’s on to the next chapter for her,” Case said. “I think that says a lot about Emma. She’s always looking for a challenge.”
This next challenge with the U.S. national team will be a big one. The team is coming off their earliest exit in a Women’s World Cup and is preparing for an Olympics run that will feature new talent. Hayes is set to start in May when Chelsea’s season concludes.
GO DEEPER
With Emma Hayes, USWNT has its coach. Now what?
For Wyant, Hayes’ appointment to the national team hits a soft spot. Wyant is a trailblazer in her own right. In 2015, she became the only female head coach of an NCAA men’s soccer team when she was hired by New York University, where she is now. Long before that, in 1985, Wyant was the goalkeeper for the first women’s national team, appearing in their inaugural U.S. game in Italy that year.
“I’m part of that sisterhood, which is something I’m super proud about, and I just really, really feel such pride when I think about that organization,” Wyant said. “For this to almost come, like, full circle, and for Emma to have this amazing career and end up as the coach of the women’s national team, arguably, the greatest job in the whole history of women’s sports is amazing. It really is just amazing.”
(Photo: Harriet Lander/Getty Images)
