Flint Women’s Soccer’s Past and Present Unite to Inspire Future Players

As much as the second annual Empowering Women in Soccer camp on May 31 was about the future of Flint girls playing the beautiful game, there were also plenty of nods to Flint soccer’s impressive past and legacy. Carrie Taylor even remembers playing in the very same Atwood Stadium as a kid that she was now teaching a group of young people in. Well … not exactly the same venue – the turf was a little less forgiving than the modern surface that now exists for players in the historic stadium.

“I started playing soccer here when I was 12 and started out in the CANUSA and Flint Olympian games,” Taylor said. “Prior to Kettering redoing this field, I played a lot of games at the old Atwood, and have scars and bruises from the turf and I think I busted my head open here once, so it just brings back a lot of memories. That was my first introduction to soccer and I loved it, and was able to go on to Michigan and just fell in love with coaching and have been able to travel all over. So just coming back to where I started is really important to me.”

Taylor, a Flint Central graduate, played collegiately at the University of Michigan before beginning an impressive career as a coach, executive, and advocate for women’s soccer all over the world. She is currently the vice president of soccer operations for USL Spokane, an assistant coach for the Jamaica Women’s National Team, a USSF ‘A’ Licensed Coach, and a licensed talent scout. In her more than three decades in soccer leadership, she has coached college, professional, and international soccer and was the first woman to coach a men’s professional team with the San Diego Loyal SC, among many other career highlights.

She shared that expertise with dozens of girls in 1st-12th grades during the second annual camp, organized as a partnership between Flint Style Soccer, Flint City AFC, and the University of Michigan-Flint women’s soccer club team. The camp was designed for players of all skill levels, and also offered player wellness workshops for parents and coaches and a college information session for kids interested in playing college soccer.

For Taylor, the environment provides an opportunity to share life lessons, even if kids don’t ultimately pursue soccer at the college or pro level.

“The percentage that go on to play college or pro is very small, but what you can learn through playing a sport will serve you well in your life,” Taylor said. “Confidence, team-building, cooperation, collaboration, all of those things. You don’t just wake up one day with them as a young kid. We want to help kids gain confidence. You never know what type of impact you’ll have on somebody. You could say a kind word or give them encouragement, and that could change their whole perspective and their growth as a person.”

Flint’s Women’s Soccer Legacy on Display

When organizers from Flint Style Soccer put together this camp each year, they don’t have to go far to find coaches and mentors with Flint ties and significant experience teaching the game. Molly DeMarr, a Flint native and Kearsley graduate who played club soccer at Michigan State University, now is the executive director of Roaring Fork United Soccer Club and the soccer director of Elite Performance Academy in Colorado. She oversees private and group training for players of all ages and also has five years of varsity coaching experience.

Even as a player in Flint, though, the importance of giving back to younger generations of kids was always a priority for her. 

“I held a soccer clinic through my high school years at the Boys & Girls Club of Flint to give back to the local community, and my parents were always really involved in the soccer community here,” DeMarr said.

She taught goalkeeper sessions at the Flint Style camp, and noted the importance of creating a platform for young girls to play and gain confidence, even if they don’t have ambitions of playing soccer at a high level.

“I tell a lot of the people that I work with in my professional life that I’ve actually learned most of the skills that I use in my day-to-day career in the four lines of the 18-yard box as a goalkeeper,” DeMarr said. “Leadership skills, being able to communicate, being a good teammate, things like that, I just think it’s so special. This is such a global game and it’s the best game in the world for a reason. To be able to give that gift to kids of learning life skills through sport is just so, so special. I feel very grateful that I can still work in it and do it every day.”

DeMarr also enjoyed the opportunity to return to her hometown, saying “I miss the grit of this city.” She also was able to reconnect with influential mentors and friends that she played alongside or was coached by in the Flint area.

“This is my first time seeing some of these people since college or high school,” DeMarr said. “Char Farrar, she’s a legend in the Flint soccer community, and to be able to see her and hug her today was amazing. I haven’t seen her since 2009. And I grew up with Tressa Garty and playing with her, and it’s super special to be next to my best friend who I grew up playing with and now coaching next to. And Monica Perez, she’s basically an aunt to me. So being able to see this thing that she and Carrie have put together is really special.”

Mainly, DeMarr said the collection of coaches were an example of the many ways people stay engaged with soccer throughout their lives.

“I think most importantly soccer gives these kids an outlet and something to do throughout their life, whether they wanna go and play in college or they wanna have a fun activity to do when they’re 45 years old,” she said. “I think the biggest lesson today is allowing these kids to love this game as much as the rest of the coaches here do. I think just seeing the different levels in the first group, that just warms my heart to be able to see girls in middle school and girls in high school still trying and coming out for something that maybe they didn’t try at a young age, but now they do because it’s accessible to them.”

Learning From Current Players

In addition to being taught by experienced coaches from the Flint area, participants in the camp also had the chance to interact with players from Flint City AFC, a pre-professional women’s soccer team based at Atwood Stadium since 2020 that plays in the USL W League, and the UM-Flint Club Team, which was founded to create opportunities for student-athletes to compete, grow, and build community through soccer. 

Abigail Weycker, a graduate student at UM-Flint, started playing soccer when she was four in AYSO, but stopped playing around middle school. The club team at UM-Flint gave her the chance to reconnect with the game in college. 

“It’s a club sport, so a lot of people look at that as it’s not competitive, but we try to remain very competitive,” she said. “It’s nice because there’s people that haven’t even touched a soccer ball (in years). It’s amazing to see the growth from nothing to amazing.”

Team members connected with Erin Franzen, president of Flint Style Soccer, at a fundraiser and working together seemed like a natural way to help encourage more young girls to pursue the sport.

“It was an awesome opportunity for us to get involved with the Flint area and girls in general,” Weycker said. “There’s a lot of opportunity for younger boys to get involved and have role models (in sports), but a lot of girls get overlooked, so it’s nice for them to see that at a college level, even a club level, they can still be involved in soccer. They don’t have to give it up if they don’t make the team or something like that.”

The UM-Flint team also has their own youth camp coming up on June 13 for kids ages 8-14 at Bicentennial Park in Grand Blanc. Registration closed May 31, but Weycker said there’s still spots available and people interested can message their Instagram page.  

Mainly, the Empowering Women camp highlights the approach Flint Style Soccer has had for expanding the game locally since its founding in 2016. The organization is committed to eliminating barriers and creating more opportunity for kids to play soccer, but they also lean heavily on the impressive history and knowledge base of the game that exists in Flint or has ties to the city to pass that legacy on to future generations of players. 

“They (Flint Style) put a lot of time and effort and planning and organization in just to teach the game and give kids a physical activity,” Taylor said. “There are a lot of people that I grew up with that are a part of it, and I feel really strongly about continuing to support Flint Style. They do a lot of great things for the kids. Providing no barriers to entry and just getting kids involved in physical activity is really important, so I encourage people to check out Flint Style Soccer and donate, go volunteer, or get your kids out there to play.”