By the time you read this, United States Women’s National Team Coach Jill Ellis will be taking her team through the final preparations for the USWNT’s first match in Olympic group play. They’ll take on New Zealand tomorrow night at Mineirão Stadium Belo Horizonte, Brazil (7 p.m. local / 6 p.m. ET) This all hinges of course, on the reality that no more Olympic sized calamities occur in Rio between now and then, and thus cancel the games
I wish we were joking about that; we’re not.
Ellis’ team has an extremely high number of Olympic debutantes for a side that is the overwhelming favorite. We also see a very high percentage of roster changes from last summer’s World Cup winning side.
Make no mistake though, this is a reload more than it is a rebuild or a retool. The USWNT is still ranked #1 in the world, and with Japan not qualifying, it’s utterly there gold medal to lose. France and Germany pose the biggest threats.
Rebuilding, or to put it more accurately, building, is something that Jill Ellis definitely does have experience with. She built the University of Illinois Fighting Illini Women’s Soccer program from scratch.
“Champaign and the University of Illinois was a real big stepping stone for me, and that’s not lost on me,” Ellis said at Chicago’s Soldier Field, ahead of the friendly against the Republic of South Africa.
“It was my first job as a head coach, to cut my teeth, to build a program that didn’t exist, there were a lot of takeaways in my processes and learnings as a coach, so I have a fondness to it.”
Ellis did view the friendly and the week of training as a homecoming of sorts, saying that she expected a couple of her cohorts to make the approximate two hour road trip north to Chicago from Champaign for this match.
Jill Ellis, the third coach to win a World Cup, and the first female to do so, also said that passing through towns she recruited players from, seeing signs for these cities, with the town names reminded her of the salad days at U of I.
When named head coach in 2014, Ellis stepped away from her job as Development Director for the U.S. Women’s National Teams, a job to which she was appointed in January of 2011, but still consults with U.S. Women’s National Team Technical Director April Heinrichs who oversees the USA’s youth teams.
Her current contract will keep her in charge until the next World Cup in 2019.
Ellis joined U.S. Soccer full-time after a highly successful 12-year run as the head women’s soccer coach for the UCLA Bruins. Ellis led UCLA to eight NCAA Final Fours, including seven in a row from 2003-2009, and won six straight conference titles from 2003-2008. She finished her time in Westwood with a record of 229-45-14.
Jill Ellis led the Illini from 1997-1999; leading the Fighting Illini to a 12-8 record and a first Big Ten Tournament berth in her final season.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram