It was an invitation Mike Ryan could not refuse.

Wrapping up a training session in the fall of 1973, the University of Washington men’s coach was approached by a UW student, a young woman. She wanted to play soccer, and she wanted someone to coach a team of fellow Husky coeds.

Ryan was already coaching the Huskies plus youth and adult teams. He was a Dublin-born father of four and foundry worker who seemed to spend the rest of his waking hours growing the world’s game in his adopted homeland. Since arriving in Seattle in 1960, he had served as president of the Washington state men’s association and youth association. However, that addressed only half of the population.

Ryan agreed to serve as coach and his Irish brogue greeted Washington’s first female footballers. Few of them had any competitive athletic experience, let alone kicked a ball. He started them with the three-man weave drill, then another called Hit and Run. That first year the Huskies would play a jumbled schedule with such opponents as the Eastside Shamrocks, Green River Community College, Highline CC and the Capitol Hill Strikers.

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