When Real Salt Lake General Manager Craig Waibel talks about the newly-minted National Women’s Soccer League club, Utah Royals FC, it is with a lump in his throat. He speaks from a place of opportunity, of equality and of pride.
For years, Waibel has been supported by his wife Julie and daughter Jocelyn in his endeavors on the soccer field. That has brought his family from San Jose to Houston to Ann Arbor, Michigan and Seattle before finally landing in Utah. And while women’s soccer has always been important in his life – he served as an assistant coach at Rice University during his time with the Houston Dynamo – his connection was never as deep-seeded as it is now with Utah Royals FC.