There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from being the constant—the one who texts a welcome message to every new signing before they ever step on the pitch, mentors rookies through anxiety as they step into the pros, and holds space for her teammates when things get hard. Lauren (“Lu”) Barnes has been that person for 13 years.
Steve Voght
When the NWSL launched in 2013, Laura Harvey called Barnes with a vision for Seattle, and something clicked. She took a chance on a league that felt fragile, on minimum salaries of $6,000, on the uncertainty of it all. That first season was rough, but Harvey, owners Bill and Teresa Predmore, and a core group of players built something anyway.
And Barnes never stopped building.
Not through four home stadiums, from Starfire to Memorial Stadium to a converted baseball field in Tacoma and now the bright lights of Lumen Field. Not through three ownership changes. Not through league scandals or years when players worked side jobs to make ends meet.
She showed up. She led. She defined what it meant to play for Seattle—to be excellent as a player and a person.
Barnes is the only player in NWSL history to reach 250 regular-season matches played, the only one to surpass 20,000 minutes, and the first to earn 100 regular-season wins. These aren't just records. They're a testament to consistency, to durability, to taking care of yourself year after year in a league that didn't always show the same care for its players.
You don't set records like this in the NWSL—the most competitive league in the world—without being good. Really, consistently good. Barnes' signature chop turns in the defensive box make you exhale in relief as she calmly evades pressure like she's got all the time in the world. She can slide tackle with precision despite not having the same blazing speed as the forwards sprinting at her. She can pass better with her left foot than almost any other defender in the league. In the 2023 playoff match against Angel City, Barnes went a perfect 53 for 53 on passing—a first in league history for passes at that volume.
A 2016 Defender of the Year and four-time Best XI or Second XI honoree, she helped lead the Reign to three NWSL Shields—quietly stacking a resume that rivals any U.S. national team star.
But here’s what these stats and awards can’t capture: Barnes is who made Seattle the kind of place where everyone wants to come and play.
Teammate Jess Fishlock, the only other player to spend all 13 NWSL seasons with one club, put it plainly. “Lu has been, in my eyes, underrated by almost everybody in the world. In my eyes, she’s been one of the best players for the last decade.”
Think about what it takes to be that person. To set the culture. To welcome the 200th new signing with the same genuine warmth you gave the first. To show up consistently at training, at matches, in team meetings, and in August when everyone's exhausted and the playoffs still feel impossibly far away. To spend just as much energy bringing joy and lightness to her teammates as she spends fighting behind the scenes for better conditions and for sustainability—all while never letting anyone see how tired you are.
And she’s been a trailblazer off the field, too. In 2021, Barnes launched MAD (Make a Difference) Travel Kits, the NWSL’s first player-led sustainability initiative, after tracking her carbon footprint during the 2020 Challenge Cup. She sourced eco-friendly essentials from sustainable brands and partnered with Lonely Whale on a #PlayItForward pledge to reduce single-use plastics league-wide.
“As a professional athlete,” she wrote in a 2021 Just Women's Sports column, “it’s my responsibility to spread awareness. I want people to know that they can, in fact, change the world. They just have to start with themselves.”
She’s since pledged part of her salary to Common Goal to fund Football For Her, a nonprofit providing safe spaces for female or nonbinary youth. She helped the Reign transition away from single-use plastics at their training facilities and became co-owner of Salmon Bay FC to support the development of the next generation of women's players.
Steve Voght
Friday night at Lumen Field, the Reign will celebrate Barnes in her final regular-season home match. She is one of only four players from the inaugural 2013 season still playing in the NWSL. She's been there through minimum wage seasons, pandemic bubbles, and the slow, grinding work of building a league that, finally, is starting to invest in its players the way they've always deserved.
For 13 years, through everything the NWSL and the Reign endured, Lu Barnes was the constant who showed up and made everyone around her better. She fought for progress without letting the struggle diminish her excellence. I'm not sure any of us can truly grasp or understand just how exhausting and difficult that must be.
Barnes turned Seattle into a destination simply by being the kind of teammate everyone wanted to play alongside. And honestly? That's arguably the most impressive legacy she’ll leave behind.
