Last week I was invited to a St Louis City SC event and got to listen to three women who are definitely going for broke in the soccer world.

To give some context to non-STL folks, St Louis has a rich soccer history and in 2019 we were f-i-n-a-l-l-y awarded an MLS expansion team. The ownership group consists of Enterprise Holdings Foundation president, Carolyn Kindle Betz, as well as female members of the Taylor family, making it the first female majority-owned team in MLS! Very cool. It doesn’t stop at ownership for female presence though, it is living and breathing that culture throughout the organization. How? By having women as coaches, club owners, being visible in the community, in leadership and not only invites, but shows, women and men how to say yes to opportunities. In my humble opinion, it will make the industry better for it. Below is a photo taken from where the event was held.

While we have awesome seats, I wouldn’t say no to this opportunity to watch a match if it came my way!

For this event, Kristen Carver, CITY correspondent, interviewed three leaders from the organization: Maritza Martinez, Assistant Director of Groundskeeping (Turf Manager, as she calls herself), Megan McCormick, U14 + U16 Head Coach, and Kelly Roderick, Head of Sports Science. Some of the things we learned were what lead these women to be in the industry, how they were sought out to join the organization, what they do day-to-day in their roles, and what they love about their job with City SC. Below is a photo taken during the Q&A.

From left to right, Kelly Roderick, Megan McCormick, Maritza Martinez, and Kristen Carver.

They also shared key ways to pushing boundaries in a new area, a few were:

- owning that confidence

- riding the wave

- going for what you can and reaching for more

Megan told the story from her prior job where they got off the bus for and the opposing coach walked up to her six-foot tall, male assistant coach to introduce himself. What did the assistant coach say after giving his name and shaking the man’s hand? “She’s the head coach and you should probably apologize.” He didn’t call the other coach out, but he didn’t let the mistaken role identity slide either. That’s respect. May we all give it, may we all receive it.

As they were sharing their insights, it dawned on me there were some commonalities with them being in a male dominated industry and John being in a female dominated industry. One thing in common is impact. Megan shared for her the measurement of her impact is years away. How will these men lead as adults? What character(s) will shape their life, their achievements? What difference will they make in the world? Powerful.

I’d say John’s impact is also years away in the sense a quilt becomes better with love and laundering. It’s all the use that makes it so special and while we send them out the door beautiful, it’s the quality of the workmanship that will show our impact in years to come as it holds up to the years of use. However, there are some examples of short-term impact though. I’ve had quilters share different projects that he did for them. For example, Kathy has a small Irish project he quilted for her and it’s in her sewing room. She says she sees it every time she enters and thinks of him. He made about 20 prayer pouches for a women’s retreat a few years ago and put each attendee’s name on it. As those are used, his work will endure the test of time. We often received photos, especially of baby quilts, with the child and parents who received it. We always wondered how the child would like and use the quilt, who they will become.

Really, we all make a difference every day if we think about it. The challenge is making it a good, positive experience in the midst of the challenges of life. The photo below shows City SC’s feelings on the matter. This statement is above the rubbish, recycle, and compost bins.

Their statement reminds us we must work together.

Another commonality is gender neutrality. Kelly, Megan, and Maritza each said their role is gender neutral and I thought to myself, so is quilting! John commented early on that the Jackman’s on Lindbergh had the cleanest men’s room every time, all the time. I’m happy to say we noticed more men quilting, have heard of guilds having male members, noticed many social media opportunities for male quilters, etc.

Having this diversity adds to the end goal (pun intended). The first time John came with Mom and me to pick out fabric, I about had a heart attack. I was completely unaware I had a “color rut” I totally stayed in until he started pulling browns and greens. Guess what - that quilt turned out so cool because it didn’t have the same color palette as my other quilts. We later took the Color Strategy class at Quilted Fox, with John was the only man and he could have cared less. He was there to learn. Consequently, my quilts became better because of what John brought to the design process and keeps me pushing myself to be better, bolder. For an example of this, see the journal entry Trip Around the World.... — The Gentleman Quilter. John took three hours to pick these fabrics and on the Australian “blue”, I hesitated, but gave in because I knew he could see the end product better than I could. It’s perfect in that Aussie piece. Have a look.

Maritza brought up how much science is involved with grass, keeping in mind player safety, etc. Her best compliment is when a player tells her the turf “played well”. In the case of quilting, it’s how much math is involved. We had a customer come in with her two young daughters and John was figuring out something on their job, and she said, “See how math is important” and inside I groaned because it’s true and I’m not good at math. Now that my mathematician is gone, I’m figuring it out (yes, sometimes using fingers and toes).

A last common “thread” (I couldn’t resist another applicable pun) is measurements and stats. Kelly shared how the athletes are monitored on the field, in the training room, through their diets, etc. This attention to detail leads to team success. She correlates outcomes to the work going into their training, diet, and workouts, and adjusts accordingly, to keep them playing at their best. In quilting, like carpentry or any other skill where you are cutting, the old adage still holds true “measure twice, cut once”. I think many quilters have a horror story from “cutting corners” (last pun, I promise) in their work. I think this attention to detail carries over into every industry. Making mistakes always causes consequences.

After the Q&A concluded with the panel, we broke into groups to discuss various questions City SC had about increasing their participation in the St Louis metro area, ways to be more inclusive, how to better reach people, and anything we wanted to share about our experiences with City SC so fa. Below you see a photo of group “Light Blue”. In my defense on names, the City SC personnel badges were harder to read than our name tags. Sorry SC friends for not knowing your names!

Top row, left to right, Mary, former high school soccer coach for many years in Afton, Leah, Office Manager at TGQ, K2, and Dan, City SC employee.
Bottom row, Charisse, who lives near the stadium and works at SIU-E, Sylvia, season ticket holder, and Kristin, City SC manager.

I was learning how City SC is bringing change to MLS as well as the St Louis metro area and it got me to thinking about how we brought change to the quilting industry from the inside. I think it is a given that quilting is thought of as a woman’s industry, as I alluded to above, but that’s been changing for some time. Men are often included in quilt guilds now and there are many online groups where men & women can share ideas, projects, etc. John was never bothered by being the only guy in a quilt shop – who was honestly looking for fabric. 😊 When did that color strategy class, John was the only man of the eight participants. Strategy was his jam, so he paid no attention to the fellow attendees, he was intent on how to mix, compliment, contrast, color and patterns. Even our name set us apart in this traditionally female industry. We often hear from a new customer how the name caught their eye and made them want to learn more about us. Change occurs in little and big ways every day. Watch for it and be a part of it.

You’ve heard of Six Degrees of Separation? In St Louis, it’s probably two degrees. Seriously. Three days after this event, in typical St Louis fashion, I ran into Sylvia from my group at a Good Friday church service! Now we just need to connect at an SC Match or quilting. 😊

Once we had our season ticket account set up, we joked we wanted to call ourselves a corporate sponsor of the new team. We knew they were looking for the big names and deep pockets like Purina, but I was pretty excited to be invited to this event, however randomly it occurred. I’ve been vested in the team since we heard we’d been awarded an expansion team, but as I learn more about the behind the scenes of the team, I’m loving them even more. Go City SC!!!!!!

I’ll close with the photo, below, for you to think about. I saw it the day after the SC session while walking the dogs a block over from our shop.

“Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Regardless of what you choose to do, I hope you make it positive and go for broke when you do it!

Goin' for Broke!