She described FIFA’s program and U.S. Soccer’s new one as important ways for women, especially coaches at the top of the game, like her, to walk the walk of supporting a new generation. “We sit on top,” she said, “and we have a responsibility here.”
Ellis knows the hurdles female coaches face: the ballooning costs of a coaching education, for one — the courses to obtain a pro license, the top level in the United States, now cost about $10,000, and the next step down is about half that — but there are also child care and family responsibilities, which regularly fall harder on women. For those reasons, many women say, their progress as coaches has lagged behind the waves of growth and investment in the women’s game over all.
The daughter of a soccer coach and the sister of another, Ellis, 54, has dedicated her professional life to teaching
