TUKWILA – Wednesday’s Seattle Reign training brought a lot more attention than usual, with crews from several local news stations in attendance, hoping to speak with forward Jordyn Huitema about her ordeal last month which Ride of the Valkyries first detailed this morning.
Susie Rantz
On the field, the team drilled under sunny skies in preparation for a trip to Chicago this weekend to face the last-place Stars. After a hectic two weeks where half the squad was absent for international duty followed by a very short turnaround to a match in San Diego, having a full week to recuperate and prepare for their next match was a welcome change for Reign head coach Laura Harvey. In comments to the assembled media, she noted that nearly everyone is once again healthy and in full training, with only goalkeeper Cassie Miller still dealing with a leg injury among the active players.
Jess Fishlock also only participated in a portion of training, but Harvey indicated that was precautionary after she was kneed in the quad near the end of the San Diego match, with the team wanting to carefully manage her fitness during these final few weeks of club play ahead of the Euros.
Among the players who was fully involved in training was fullback Ryanne Brown, who is in the final stages of recovery from an ACL tear suffered last summer. With Brown on schedule to return to the active roster after the summer break, Sofia Huerta returning from loan, and Cassie Miller expected to be fit by the end of summer, the Reign find themselves in the difficult position of needing to make other arrangements for some players before August in order to keep their active roster to a maximum of 26 players. Harvey indicated that the team expects to make some loans out and potentially a transfer out, as well as looking at some possible inbound moves after the NWSL transfer window opens in July.
“We’ve got to get through these two games and then we can evaluate where we’re at,” she commented. “Some players might need to go out on loan and get more minutes that we hadn’t necessarily planned for – last summer we did a similar thing, we brought in some new faces, and I feel we’re in a different spot than we were a year ago to really bring in a ton of new faces, but I think that whether it be Sally [Menti] or Neeku [Purcell] or both, I always say to them ‘You’re on these short-term contracts, it’s up for you to change the plan’, and I think Sally done a great job to put herself into a position to potentially do that.
“We’ve just go to get through these two games and then myself, Lesle [Reign GM Lesle Gallimore] and Adrian [Reign co-owner Adrian Hanauer] can sit down and decide what’s right for the team today and also what’s right for players long-term, whether it’s get minutes somewhere else right now and come back – we’ve got the Sam Meza story which worked out brilliantly but we’ve had a couple of them over the years… Ryanne Brown’s another one that we sent out on loan and came back and was great.”
Other notes:
- Menti and Purcell are currently under contract through the end of June, but their short-term deals could be extended in order to facilitate loans out, to sign them to full contracts, or to participate in the club’s July friendlies. A July 20 home game against Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds was announced last week, and although not yet officially announced, the club appears to be visiting the Portland Thorns the following week for another friendly, with tickets for that match recently appearing in Thorns season ticket holder accounts.
- After taking some time away from the team to process her traumatic experience, Huitema was back in training and looking forward to returning her focus to the club and matches ahead.
- Sofia Huerta is currently enjoying some well-earned offseason recovery time after completing her season-long loan to Olympique Lyonnais. She will return to Reign training after the CBA-mandated break at the end of June, and is eligible to play again after the transfer window opens on July 1.
- There was no sign of the Reign’s other loanee, Lily Woodham, or any mention of her future with the club. She is currently under contract with the Reign through the end of the 2025 season, but could be transferred abroad or loaned out again.
