This soccer-mad L.A. Latina has attended seven World Cups. Qatar will make it eight for her when the 2022 FIFA World Cup is played there next summer. And she hopes to make it nine by traveling to the 2022 World Cup during the Games of the XXX Olympiad in Tokyo.
The U.S. women’s national team coach has another task in store for her when the 2022 FIFA World Cup is played in Qatar.
And it’s not something she’ll be able to say publicly.
“I am not going to do a press release talking about it,” said Coach Jill Ellis. “People have enough on their plate. I don’t need to add to it.”
Ellis isn’t the first American sports coach to decline to publicize travel details, even though there’s a simple reason for doing otherwise: She’s never had to do so.
It’s a rarity for a national team coach, and the reason is understandable.
“I don’t believe it is fair to anyone who has done the hard work, to be able to stand up and talk. I understand the concerns,” said Ellis of her decision to keep her plan to the shadows. “It’s a unique situation and I understand that. A lot of coaches are able to say things about their players, but not when it’s something with which they’re involved.”
On July 7, 2017, Ellis announced in a letter to the soccer media, in advance of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, that she planned to take her five-year-old daughter to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The timing was especially tough, with the 2015 soccer program having a drought of national team competitions for three consecutive years. But Ellis had been working with some of the most popular young female soccer players on earth for years in a bid to find the next great soccer player.
A former U.S. national teamer herself, Ellis made this decision after some encouragement from former U.S. coach Tom Sermanni, who has mentored some of the world’s best female football players. Ellis had the backing of former U.S. national team coaches
