So much of life is like that Robert Frost poem, of two roads diverging. We muse about what might’ve happened by taking an alternate path; what would have “made all the difference.”

In our local soccer sphere, one particular path not taken was on Montlake. Where the world’s game was initially embraced by one University of Washington athletics administration, it was ignored by the next. Because of that neglect – or outright opposition – some observers contend Husky soccer has never achieved the heights for a school from a region so rich in natural resources.

If ever there was a golden era of girls and women in Washington state amateur soccer, it was the Eighties. Puget Sound was prolifically producing exceptional players who would go on to earn national and international recognition. Yet almost all would do so without ever matriculating through the university which might have offered the biggest mutual benefit for both player and school.

Whereas some athletic directors across America saw the future, others clung to the past or their personal favorite. At Chapel Hill, the North Carolina athletic director, Bill Cobey, chose to start a varsity women’s soccer program in 1979. Cobey believed that by getting out in front of the sport, UNC could become a juggernaut. He hired one coach to cover both men and women. That coach, Anson Dorrance, made history and the Tar Heels’ legacy is unrivaled.