Behind the Stripes: Kate Parker

The following year she joined the first all-girls team in her league, and that became a core group she played with until college, when Kate got a Division 1 soccer scholarship at Wake Forest University. But before all of that – before teammates became sisters and before she was playing for college titles – back on those muddy rec league fields, she found something more important: a place to be who she was.

“Young girls are brought up to go along with things, to not make waves,” she says. “Then I got into soccer and all the things I liked: being loud or aggressive, even using my temper to really fuel me sometimes, they were good things. And just as importantly, I was surrounded by other girls…