Head Coach Laura Harvey – Post-Training Press Conference • 2-3-23

Head Coach Laura Harvey

On head assistant coach Scott Parkinson:

“I think, obviously, he’s been on a journey around the league since we stopped working together in Utah. I think his understanding of the league, his understanding of the standard, his understanding of what it takes to be successful in this league has just continued to grow. We’ve always been good friends, so we’ve always spoken, pretty much daily, ever since I left Utah, so that hasn’t really changed. I think working for the Reign and being part of this club has always been something that he’s wanted to do and whether (former Reign assistant coach) Sam (Laity) stayed or not, we were always trying to work out a way, whether that could potentially happen. So yeah, just really happy that he’s been able to make the move.”

On assistant coach Kate Norton:

“I mean, honestly, both – it’s been pretty seamless with the three of us and (goalkeeper coach Ljupco Kmetovski) Raki and (assistant coach) Kate’s (Norton) obviously local, comes from Pac Northwest (Soccer Club) and it enables us with an extra pair of eyes and an extra pair of hands and someone that is comfortable going out there and working with the players, both individually and in-unit work and doing whatever it takes. I think it just adds another layer to the group of staff that we have. So, over the years, this job has become bigger and bigger with the amount of resources that we have access to – both video, data, everything that we can get. It just means, from a staff perspective, it means there’s more and more work that you can do. I think it’s been a really cool transition for us in preseason that not only is it preseason for the players to get their feet back under them and get that work in together again, but it’s a preseason for us as a staff to sort of work out how we’re going to work together and what our biggest strengths are of working with each other and so far, it’s been a great, seamless transition into that, which is great.”

On having forward Jordyn Huitema for preseason training this year:

“I think for all the new players, preseason is massive and obviously for (forward) Jordyn (Huitema), a unique situation where she came in halfway through last year and had to hit the ground running and did a great job at that. I think, now, it’s about, for Jordyn, specifically, but for all the new players, it’s just starting to understand why we want to do certain things and in the midst of the season, you don’t tend to have the time to really, really galvanize the ‘why’ we do stuff. But that’s what preseason is about, not just on the field, but how we interact off the field, what the culture is going to be that we drive at this club. So yeah, I think it’s going to be a really interesting time. It’s a long preseason this year, too, where we just drip feed in gradually, little bits of detail to what we want to do on the field and then off the field, just having time together to be able to see how the group is going to work itself out, I think, is also a really interesting part of preseason, for me, which I really enjoyed last year and again enjoying this year.”

On forward Megan Rapinoe’s status:

“She’s back to training fully, yeah. We managed her [in] January with U.S. Soccer so that she would be able to basically be fully ready to go for SheBelieves (Cup). I think that was always the plan. Yeah, she’s fully integrated with the group.”

On why the club invited forwards Mariah Lee and McKenzie Weinert to join the team for camp:

“Honestly, local. They didn’t come on the [Los Angeles] trip. They stayed back in Seattle. Just the fact that they were local and just to give them a chance to be seen in the environment and think it’s always an awesome opportunity for people and we’ve done a similar thing since we’ve been down in LA.”

On the importance of taking a preseason camp trip:

“For us, specifically, weather. Getting some nice sunshine was nice, but we did this last year, we went to Arizona and then, actually, the weather was terrible. But it just gives us a chance to be together for a long time. I look back on last year and look at the Arizona trip, I think, set the tone for that and then throughout the year, actually, we obviously went to The Women’s Cup at Louisville and all these things are just opportunities where we get to be together as a group and then when the hard times come and you need to push through some things, those moments can actually be the things that elevate the group and move them on and I think that’s something that happened to us last year – not that I would necessarily always want to replicate what we did last year when it will be different. I felt that coming away, as a collective group, when everyone was available, would be a really important part of our, sort of setting the tone for the preseason.”

On building the 2023 roster:

“I think we felt that having the group, obviously free agency, you didn’t really know what was going to happen with that, but having the group predominantly back together again was a priority. I’ve been very honest about the (defender Emily) Sonnett [trade]. I wish it was really planned out. It wasn’t. But when the opportunity arose, we snapped at it because, I think, adding someone of her quality and experience and knowing how to win in this league could be really vital for us and adding some depth in our frontline was also a priority to us and obviously (forward) Elyse (Bennett) fits that mold. So yeah, we’re constantly evaluating where we’re at. We’re constantly looking at, is this the roster that we have for the whole year? Is this something that we can take through to the World Cup and then we have to manipulate the roster a little bit during the World Cup? And then, what does it look like after the World Cup? I sort of think, in World Cup years, you’ve always got those things going around in your mind. But it all started with making sure that we kept the majority of the group together from last year.”

On former Reign midfielder Kim Little recently being appointed an MBE:

“Yeah, I mean, people get MBEs for services that they’ve done for whatever that line of work is and I think for (former Reign midfielder) Kim (Little) and for (midfielder) Jess (Fishlock) to get acknowledged for the services that they’ve provided to elevate the sport that they do, shows who they are as humans, their dedication to the sport, their dedication to their craft and yeah, we had a group text about that when it got announced because I think Jess has always had that one over Kim, so now she’s evened that up. But when (forward Megan Rapinoe) Pinoe got the Presidential Medal of [Freedom], we said that was probably the equivalent of getting a Knighthood or a Dame, as it’s called for women in the in the UK, so we feel like we’ve got an honorary one on top of them two, too.”

On Sonnett’s status:

“Yeah, she’s good to go. She’s good to go.”

Download Quote Here: Head Coach Laura Harvey – Post-Training Press Conference • 2-23-23