The Spokane Zephyr are the city's first top tier professional sports team of any kind. The women’s team finished their inaugural season in late spring and are getting ready for their second season that starts in September.
The Zephyr is one of the first 8 teams in the new Gainbridge Super League — formerly the United Soccer League, or USL, Super League. It’s a Division 1 league, which is the same sanctioned division of play as the National Women’s Soccer League.
The Spokane Velocity are also part of the USL, but play in League One, which is a third-tier men's league.
Getting a whole new club up and running in a brand new league is no easy feat.
But that's exactly what USL Spokane co-owner Katie Harnetiaux set out to do last year.
She sat down with SPR reporter Eliza Billingham to talk about why she is committed to creating more opportunities for women in all aspects of sport, from athletes and coaches to staff and ownership.
Case in point — Harnetiaux is one of the only female presidents of a soccer club that has both men's and women's professional teams.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
KH: 2024 was a weird year and kind of a blur when I think back to it because we launched Velocity in March and then immediately launched Zephyr in August. The launch of Zephyr was so new also because it was a brand new league. So not only were we a new team, but we were a new team in a new league that was just formed.
So, it was kind of a whirlwind. We didn't completely know what we were doing. We had a vision and a mission, and we knew that we wanted professional women's soccer in Spokane. And we knew what that meant in terms of how we could broaden pathways for athletes, how we could broaden career opportunities for folks -- but specifically women.
That drive and that mission is really what kept us going through the chaotic first year of, ‘How do we do this in a brand new league?’ Because the league couldn't really offer a ton of support either because they were also building.
The sigh of relief that I have right now going into second season -- which isn't to say that all the crazy things I'm sure are still going to happen -- but now at least I'm like, 'Oh, we got that first year out of the way.'
EB: What were some of the craziest things that happened?
KH: We finished the end of the first chunk of the season pretty much at the bottom of the table and then clawed our way to the very top.
It was such a whirlwind of emotions from, ‘Oh, my gosh, you know, this team isn't gelling. We are not sure where everything's going.’ And then up to the very, very top, and then just missing playoffs by just a tiny bit was -- it was a tough blow.
But the women are back and they're talking about how that is the driver for them this season.
EB: The Velocity — the men's third tier team — I think their average age is like 27. A lot of these players are older. They come with years of experience. That doesn't seem to be as common for the Zephyr. A lot of these players are coming direct from college. Can you talk about why that is?
KH: Yeah, so that's actually a really interesting phenomenon. And when you look at soccer globally -- Europe is a really good example -- they have pathways built from the very beginning.
Kids can, if they show a propensity towards being a strong athlete in soccer, there is a pathway for them. They can go from playing in school to then playing on their community teams. Ultimately, that's why the Premier League is set up the way it is. Community-based soccer, that is sort of what the community is built around.
With our women, the thing to keep in mind is that the U.S. has a really pretty solid structure for women's soccer.
It's not always the best and it's not the most well-funded, but the NCAA does an incredible job of giving really talented women a soccer pathway.
So when we launched Super League, it opened that up -- because previously if you wanted to play in the U.S., you were playing at NWSL or you were going to Europe.
The difference is that almost all of our women played NCAA. They played really strong college experience. They either went to the NWSL and now they're playing for us or they went abroad and they were playing in Europe and we were able to bring them home.
EB: Previous head coach Jo Johnson — she moved to Spokane, was head coach for a year, and then she left. What happened there?
KH: That's sad for all of us. Jo is an amazing coach. One thing that we have not done well for women in building a pathway to coaching is to showcase for women how the rigors and demands on a professional head coach in the women's Division I basically means you are on the road for ten and a half months straight.
Jo has young kids. She felt that she was just missing out on too much time with family. That was a hard decision for her and it was hard for us, too -- because you begin to realize that the infrastructure is wrong.
That's something that I think about a lot -- how do we change the system to allow for a woman to be a mom and be a head coach and not have to give everything up.
When we posted for Jo's position, we had 115 applicants -- this was when we found Jo. And of those, there was about seven women. And of those seven women, about five were A-licensed qualified.
So when you talk about what has to happen to push women into sports, it's that it's systemic change and it has to start at the beginning and it has to start with more coaching opportunities, more coaching licensures. And those are all on our pathway going forward.
EB: One more question about devastating loss. We lost Emina Ekic, we lost Taylor Aylmer, and a few other players as well — a lot to the Lexington Football Club. How does that affect the team?
KH: So first of all, we didn't lose anybody.
I don't call it a loss. When a player lets you know that they might have something else in their mind or their hearts about where they want to be, we take that into consideration.
I guess I will say that there was nothing in the transfers that took place that we weren't absolutely okay with.
So, I know that's hard for fans to see a beloved player leave. But we wouldn't have been able to bring in our four new NWSL players if that had been the case.
I think the thing to keep in mind is we have always said, we have been about the pathway and the player. And we've always said, if we did this right, we would find talent, we would develop talent, and ultimately, we would transfer talent.
That is part of a healthy organization. We talk about that in business all the time, the sign of a really healthy organization is one that exports talent and imports talent.
I know it's hard for fans. I read all of the feedback. Everybody had a lot to say about that. But it should be inspiring to fans as well that the talent that is being imported now into Spokane -- it will be mind blowing when people see it on the pitch.
EB: This is a bit of a zoom out question. We're coming to the end here. But I think soccer can have a white collar reputation, that it's a wealthy kids sport. Do you think that's true? Do you think that's merited?
KH: Yeah, it's so funny because if you zoom out even further, globally it's not, right? Globally, soccer is probably the easiest sport to just play. You need some tennis shoes and you need a ball and at some point someone needs to create a goal, right?
It shouldn't be pay-to-play. To that end, one of the things that we have really committed to in bringing these teams here was, What are the opportunities for us to be able to give back? Both through helping partner with some of the clubs here in town, some of the youth clubs, but also with some nonprofits who might have immigrant kids who want to go see somebody play who's from their home country, right?
So, we have a vision to democratize soccer in a way that fits for all kids. We have a foundation. As we get that stood up, the focus will be on finding kids who need support to continue to play at a really high level.
EB: Do you think the World Cup coming to North America will do anything to change soccer culture in Spokane?
KH: Absolutely. If only that it will help people realize that they love watching live soccer. And, you know, my favorite thing is to ask somebody, ‘Have you been to a game?’ And they're like, ‘Oh, no, I don't like soccer.’
And I'm like, ‘Well, yes, you do. You like live sports. You like having a beer. You like cheering for your team. And you like seeing literally professional athletes do crazy feats of athleticism.’
I always just encourage people, come watch, come see it live. And then if you really don't like it after that, then I am all in, like, okay, let's go do something else together.
But I've had people come up to me and say, ‘Well, we didn't know anything about soccer. And by the end of it, we were cheering and we were doing the chants and clapping along.’
And I'm like, that is what it feels like. Live sports is just something different.
EB: Teams like the Spokane Indians, the Spokane Chiefs, they've got mascots. I don't feel like I've ever seen soccer mascots. Is that because soccer is too posh for mascots? Or is there any chance that we would...
KH: Well, we are going to have a mascot. So, if it is too posh, then I guess we're here in Spokane. We're going to just do it differently.
EB: You heard it here!
KH: First! We haven't even announced it yet.
