Give N’ Go Podcast Special: Youth National Team Scout Mirelle Van Rijbroek and GA Commissioner Lesle Gallimore

Every year at the United Soccer Coaches Convention, Girls Soccer Network gets a booth on Podcast Row for our podcast, Give N’ Go. It’s there we get to chat with some of the fantastic people who make soccer their life’s work in some capacity or other.

This year was no different, except that I was conducting the interviews and not one of our audio-friendly journalists. Our super-star podcaster, Rohtas Wadera, was unable to come. So, I crawled out of my comfort zone and took hold of the mic with a cautious sense of adventure and enthusiasm. 

Thankfully, every person I interviewed was not only fully capable of speaking their vision to me but also quite brilliant. 

This edition of  Give N’ Go will focus on the first two interviews from the United Coaches Convention in Kansas City this year. Girls Soccer Network’s mission at the convention is to bring you the information we collect to share that with you and continue to learn and grow your love for the game.

We are splitting up the podcasts from the convention over the next couple of weeks. So this edition will feature my first two interviewees. 

Mirelle Van Rijbroek

First up was Mirelle Van Rijbroek, the Head of Talent and Scouting for the U.S. Youth National Teams. I had only recently heard of Mirelle when I was looking through the catalog of speakers at the convention, but I knew her knowledge would greatly interest our soccer community.

When I reached out, she got right back to me and was more than happy to share the wealth of information about getting scouted for the Youth National Teams. 

I’m not sure what it’s like when she’s got her clipboard on the sidelines and is watching players perform, but I found her to be warm, generous, and excited to impart the wisdom she has about the realities of getting scouted for the Youth National Teams.

A bit of background on her: Mirelle is Dutch. She joined U.S. Soccer in the fall of 2017 after working as the Head of Talent Development and Elite Performance with the Royal Netherlands Football Association. She now oversees scouting for the entire U.S. girls soccer youth National Teams, which is no small feat.

Clubs and leagues span this country, and much of her life is on the road, going to tournaments, games, and camps wherever there may be the next potential U.S. Women’s National Team Player. 

We talked about what makes a good scout and the secret sauces a scout looks for when selecting a girl for the Youth National Team. 

Lesle Gallimore

Next, I got to it next to someone who knows more about the women’s game than anyone I know. She’s basically a walking-talking Wikipedia of women’s soccer, and her career as a player, coach, and administrator are pretty unprecedented. 

We’re talking about Lesle Gallimore, the former University of Washington Women’s head coach for 26 seasons with a record of 270 wins and a reputation as one of the most dynamic coaches in the collegiate game. As a player/team captain at Cal Berkley, she led Cal to three NCC playoff tournaments, with a third-place finish in the Final Four Tournament in ’84. 

Lesle has traveled to Morocco on behalf of the United States State Department, working for the Empowering Women and Girls through Sports Initiative. But the reason we wanted to sit down with her is because of her latest role as Commissioner of the Girls Academy League (G.A.). 

The story behind how the G.A. came to be is as fascinating as an against all odds movie with a feminist twist. With US Soccer dropping Development Academy a month before the pandemic, leaving the girls teams without a league to play in (MLS mostly brought in the boys’ teams), a group of people banded together to ensure that that didn’t happen.

With her coaching career coming to an end, Lesle was looking forward to some time off to figure out her next move, maybe as a professional coach or a coach educator, but the timing has a unique way of dictating what we do next. So when the collapse of the DA happened, and many of Lesle’s closest friends were affected by it, she faced with a choice: Do I spend some time reflecting on my next move or jump in, head first?! 

Well, guess what she did. Lesle Gallimore is the kind of person who walks the walk. But, honestly, her sense of purpose is other-level. A role model not just for girls and women, but humans who see challenges as not obstacles, but as a way to challenge and bring change. 

Have a listen on our podcast to both of these inspiring women!

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