Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio previously on Payback. The female athletes are using their platforms in ways that we have never seen before. The players Union, demanding an into what it calls systemic abuse plaguing the NWSL, was like, I have my dignity and I'm tired of the bullshit. He would be like, why are you playing like Crafts days? Because your son was up all night. We won that year. We had no business learning what we did, and I think it's because of like the joy of the game. She breaks a scoring record. She's an olden boot champion. She's working below minimum wage and hopes to make that national team. Growing up, I wanted dissembling. Whenever I'd blow out candles on my birthday, write a letter to stand up for Christmas, or throw a penny in a fountain. I would always wish for a brother or sister. Isabelle Rockaway is eighteen years old and has been fine tuning. Her essay is for college applications. Here she's reading me one of her admissions essays. This wish soon became a reality and my life change forever. Jessica and Jeremiah weren't my biological siblings or even adopted siblings. There were simply a single young mother and her six year old boy who were seeking a place to sit. At the start of the season, so much in soccer seemed to be going right for Jess. She'd added an NWSL title to her championship resume, and she earned a little playing time for the U S women's national team. In Jessic's life, however, the difficulties have rarely seemed to come on the soccer field. At home, the challenges of being an overworked and underpaid single mom. We're catching up with her. She started coaching Isabel, and that's how we met Isabel's father, Dan Rockaway. As we get to know Jess, we got to know her story as well, and it was a sad story. I just felt like, if this were my daughter, I would want to be there for her. So we try to provide, you know, of the best support system that someone like her could have in a career of off seasons filled with second jobs. It was the connection Jess found with one particular teenager and her parents that would alter the trajectory of all their lives. Dan and Marta Rockaway I called in my North Carolina family literally like a mom and dad to me. And they have a daughter, Isabelle, who I called my sister. I was coaching there for a while and we just got like super close. We just became one big family. By the time she met the rock Ways, Jesse's career arc had been a case study in perseverance over trauma and adversity. McDonald got it behind and the soccer world was about to see what a difference a little stability could make. Definite again from The Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News, An Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I Heart Radio. This is Payback. I'm alexandreav and this is part seven. Smooth as Butter. I mean, the war between the sexes could become an armor gandon if we don't get on with our revolution. During dress McDonald's trial with the U S women's national team, the question of equality was once again on players minds, as late feminist Betty for Dan put it more than forty years prior. But if we do get on with it, and we restructures deciety to make equality really possible, that I think the war between the sexes will end. After years of battling the US Soccer Federation largely behind the scenes for what they believed was fair compensation, The women's national team players launched an aggressive news stand Today, five of America's top athletes filed a federal complaint charging that soccer pays women a pittance to win world championships while it pays big to the men who lose them. Alex Morrigan, Harley Lloyd, Megan Rippino, Becky Sauerbrun and Hope Solo collectively filed their federal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was a landmark moment in the modern iteration of the U S women's teams fight for equal pay. Currently, when athletes play in World Cup Games, qualifiers, and non competitive friendly matches, they're paid a base annual salary and if they make the World Cup roster, female players received of what their male counterparts earned. Lloyd spoke on the Today Show. We've proven our worth over the years, and we want to continue to fight. The generation of players before us fought and now it's our job to keep on fighting. Their federal complaint would have limited financial impact on National Women's Soccer League players like Jess who are just trying to make the national team at all, but the ripple effects had the potential to be substantial for nws L management and its players. When US Soccer agreed to subsidize the formation of the NWSL, it created in fact, demanded the league act as a pipeline for current and future national team players. US Soccer agreed to allocate national team players to nws L teams and pay their salaries. In return, the vast majority of those players were mandated to be part of the league. Having those big names on the field obviously benefited the n b s L team owners, but it also set up an uneasy control structure in which those national team players were employees of US Soccer, not their nws L teams. They were not part of the nbs L Players Association, and any sort of disputes or work stoppages those national team players had with US Soccer were entirely outside the control of their nbs L teams. Meanwhile, their nws L teammates closely watched for whatever concessions national team players could extract from US Soccer. The rest of those nbs L players were pushing for their first collective bargaining agreement exactly as the U S women had first done in nineteen ninety nine, and moves at the highest level of the sport had the potential to cascade down. I've played this kind of trivia game with folks to kind of orient where women's soccer has been and where it is now. We met Megan Burke last episode. She was one of the old guard players who was part of the first two failed women's professional soccer leagues. She finally hung up her cleats and went to law school. Today she's returned to the game as the executive director of that NWSL Players Association. Do you know what the league minimum was that the veterans in two thousand three in the ws A. I'm going to say it was pretty low. I mean, was it under ten thousand? This is the interesting part of the history of women's soccer. It was twenty five thousand dollars in two thousand three. Do you know what the league minimum is in nws L eighteen years later? Twenty two? Right? That's wild. That's what I talked about with our players is we need to know our history. We need to know who we come from, where we come from, where we've been, and where we want to go. The NWSL, players like Jess certainly wanted to increased pay as part of a collective bargaining agreement with the league, but they also wanted to increased protection and control over the kinds of trades. That's all. Jess play in Chicago and Seattle and Portland and Houston and Western New York, all in her first five years in the league. That weighed on Jess's mind through early I make the She Believes Cup roster, so my first tournament with the US team, and we won the tournament, which is really awesome, and I didn't get a call back. Unfortunately, those national team camps that spring didn't lead to the big break Jess had hoped for. I think we show a lot of really good things. It's too early for me just to look at relationships and who this pairing is going to be. Publicly. Coach Joe Ellis said there was plenty of time before she would finalize the U S roster for the upcoming World Cup. Here she is speaking at a press conference that summer. I gave myself nine months and we'll come out of the back end of this and then have a pretty good idea in terms of how we start to formulate how this team looks. But privately, Jess was preparing to close the book on that world kept dream. I've been back in camps and so I was satisfied enough at that point because I got my chance. It didn't work out, okay, at least you know, I took my chance and I tried. I did everything I could. At this point, I've accepted it. There was so much to be said about Jess as a trailblazing journeywoman and American soccer, even if that was ultimately her legacy in the game. So Jess told me, she once again became determined to make the most of her time in the end of b s L. The upcoming season, it's going to be the first time she'd been with the same team for more than a year. But that's not to say the same city. Despite winning the league championship in twenty the Flash had struggled to grow attendance since the launch. At the end of BSL, so in a stroke of luck for Jess, the team was sold to an ownership group outside Raleigh and relocated to the tar Heel state. The Western New York Flash would become the North Carolina Courage. Our team. I got and I'm like, Okay, We're going to North Carolina. This time before the season, Jess couldn't wait to relocate this time. She felt like she was going home biagone anywhere else in the United States. To be honest, I don't even know if I would still be playing because I have a support system here. This is my second home. Playing it from my alma mater. Doesn't get any better than that. We'll tell you about that after the break. M long Cross headed back to the Middle Palm and a Way by Harris Chance for McDonald g scores. The North Carolina Courage arrived in Carolina just weeks before the start of the seventeen season. Jess McDonald's her first that included Jess teammate Lynn Williams, and head coach Paul Riley. Late my reporting for this podcast, in an explosive report by Meglenahan of The Athletic, two former players of Riley's on the Portland Thorns alleged that Riley had verbally and emotionally abused them in Portland. The Courage released a statement that said, quote, when we hired Paul, we made perfectly clear the expectations of the job and the values of our club and from what we know, he has lived up to those expectations. End quote. The courage said that if anyone had information about Riley behaving otherwise during his time with the team, they were encouraged to come forward. No one has, at least not that the public has been made aware of. Dall kept ferst delivery headed by her set hits off the cross bar and it's buried by Jess McDonald's. Jess maintained to me that Riley's coaching letter to further improvement as a player. Once the team arrived in North Carolina. Jess McDonald had the opener last week. She gives the courage of what death you lead In this match up against the Boston Breakers, just scored the only goal and simultaneously broke the end of us HOW scoring record with thirty three career goals. Well. She is now number one on the n wus so All Todd gold was a championship Lastern and Western New York and now her second goal this season. But as much success as Jess was finding in the league, her primary motivation came at home. My son is sad in my training sessions as a baby, like an hist roller. By himself. He was never a crier in anything like that. He slept twelve hours a night, which is you know, really if he still does to this day. Man, Thankfully, I have such an easy going kid. When Williams again, when he was younger, he used to travel with the team a lot, which was pretty cool. I think it's definitely a unique way to grow up around a bunch of women soccer players. But I think that it just shows respecting women, and you can tell that he does, and I think we need more little boys like that. When things are working for me as a mom, I'm like, okay, thanks, are mere working for me on the OCCA fille as well? All right, here we Golhan. But he's just smooth is butter. And the reason why I have fun and I want to perform at high levels because I need to show an example for my son. That's my motivation. That's what inspires me day in and day out. I think that society has made people feel like being vulnerable about being a mom is bad when it it shouldn't be that way at all. Jeremiah also inspired a reunion with Jesse's mom, Tracy McDonald. By the middle of Seen Jeremiah was five, and nothing brings a family together like a grandchild. Besides, Jess could use some help at home here. I am this new like single parent pretty much trying to figure it out. And so I called my mom because I'm like, she's a grandma now, you know, And I didn't want to keep that from Jeremiah. For Jess, everything had changed for the worst that day, she says, Tracy hit her back in high school. Even twenty years later, Jess said their relationship had never really gotten better, but she was ready to move on from the past, and there was enough room in the modest department Jess was renting with her monthly housing stipend from the Courage, so the timing felt right to reconnect. She came in the middle of the seventeen season, and whenever I traveled, you know, she stayed here with Jeremiah and took him to school and you know, took care of him while I was gone, and Jeremiah loves her. They were super close. McDonald was there again and if it's our second of the game that seen season, McDonald and the Courage made believers of their new hometown fans. Jess McDonald finishes on the doorstep three one courage in control, maybe none more so than people. Jess would come to call the closest family she's ever had, in many ways, the immediate family she never had. My name is Dan Rockaway. I consider myself Jessic's North Carolina father. I'm Isabel Rockaway, and I would consider myself Jessica's sister. I am Marca Rockaway, and I am her Columbian mom. In Isabel Rockaway was bit by the soccer bug. The courage game at weak Med Soccer Park seemed to Dan like a great father daughter experience, even if the father wasn't entirely sold yet. I was like, I'm gonna go because and taking my daughter. And then we had these seats by the goal, and I remember they were warming up and they missed the goal and the ball team flying by us and hit the seats where we're sitting, and it was so loud and powerful it scared me. I was like, wow, this is some hardcore stuff. I'm like, this is a perfect example for Isabelle, our daughter, to see powerful women and on the field. Jess in particular was unmissable. Five ten signature long dread box and a canvas of tattoos with a relentlessness that kept her in the center of the action all the time. Forget simply being powerful, just being completely fearless. You know, I don't watch the men's team too much. I feel like the men they just roll around the ground, they try to get a foul, they act like they're hurt. And when I see the women fall, they hit the ground, they get up and they started running harder. The Rockaways watched has just helped Carolina win League Shield, awarded to the team with the best regular season record, and Jeremiah became a fan favorite, showing up at his mom's matches dressed however he liked, which was often like a superhero. Everyone knows that Jeremiah Jesse's son, and all that stuff there at the game. It's like he shows up in all these different costumes of like a Batman suit on or Spiderman suits. Jess helped lead the Courage to the championship game, where they lost to the Portland Thorns. The Rockaways went all in and bought season tickets in the owner's box level at WAKEMD Park. A few months later, the Courage held a small fan celebration for all the upcoming season ticket holders. Remember Jess was over in a corner and I was like, I want my picture taken with her. I was like scared to approach Jesse. She's five ten, she's got tattoos, she's built, and I remember like kind of walking over my head down, say hey, can we get your picture, and she just smile and just yeah, let's take a picture and everything. We didn't even know her. And it's kind of cool because I still have those pictures. So sunny and cool Saturday afternoon in Carrie, North Carolina, where Sky Blue FFC opens the two thousand eighteen season on the road. By the start of season, Jess helped lead her NWSL team to back to back league championship games. Jeremiah had just turned six. She felt at home there in North Carolina, and at least on the field, life was good ahead for mcdattal. Jess were her first goal of the season with this stoppage time game winner against sky Blue FC, who Carolina in the nineties second minute stunts sky Blue. I'm like, oh, I'm feeling good. I'm thirty. No injuries, you know, like nothing hurts. And so was an incredible year for the North Carolina Courage. We lost one game that whole season. That's just so unheard of in the USL McDonald in space, can't she be baked? Also? The second time she does. Just scored another game winner two matches later against Seattle, and it's McDonald with her second goal of the season to put North Carolina up. I remember in the middle of the summer, I went up to Paul Riley and I asked him. I was like, what do you think my chances are of getting back into a camp? Just felt better than ever, she was playing better than ever, and since she'd gotten a try out with the National Team of Year earlier, maybe she hoped it wasn't crazy to think she might get another shot. He was like, Jess, I just I don't see it happening. They're already stacked. They've had the same team for so many years. You know, they've got in my position, Alex Morgan, Carly Lloyd, Tobin Heath, Megan Rapino, Kristen Press, Mallory Pew. It's hard to even compete with that. I was like, dang, okay, like whatever, you know, I had my chance, and clearly I didn't make it in so went on still with my head held high. The Courage were thriving on their way to breaking the record for most schools scored in a season with fifty three. By early gulyt Justin scored six of those schools, one of the best individual marks in the league. But then she stopped Justin and scored another goal for nearly two months until the final game of the regular season. She started every match that year until July fourteen, when she suddenly didn't play at all. I remember I called her once, like what's going on? She wasn't playing too well and she was coming off the bench. I'm like, what's going on. Here's Phoenix College coach and friend Dave Cameron. She wasn't starting on her team and stuff because she was struggling at home. As Jess remembers it, Tracy had overstayed her welcome and was becoming an increasingly destabilizing force in Jess's home, and for once, adversity off the field wasn't translating to success on it. Behavior changes started with her what I would see when I was a little girl. This time it wasn't just jesseeing the mood swings in the drama, but Jeremiah too. I'm like, can you just leave, and she just refused to leave. I'm just trying to figure out, like, how can I get her out of the house. And I had to call my dad to come and save me initially, So my dad came to North Carolina while she was here, and this is his first time ever witnessing her in this state of mind. At one point that summer, just told us she had to call the police to try to force Tracy out. She told me one of the most horrible things that a parent can ever tell their child in front of my then five year old well, she told me on this evening of July two, eighteen, I will never forget this date for as long as I live. She told me she wished she had flushed me on a toilet when she had the chance. My mother told me that to my face. I just didn't want anything to do with her at that point. Throughout our reporting, we tried multiple times to get in touch with Tracy McDonald, but after a brief scheduling conversation ahead of our Arizona trip, she stopped answering our cults. Since then, the only thing we've heard of Tracy is this voicemail greeting recorded by Jeremiah likely about three years ago. You reach my agreem and she's not available. Weave for me DA fine, sorry, L box is full. But whatever anguish Tracy might have brought to Jess's life there in North Carolina, her presence also brought Jess an unexpected gift. That twenty eighteen season, Jessica's mother was visiting, so she was in the owner's box with Jeremiah. Here's Dan Rockaway. So I befriended her mother and I'm like, hey, look, my daughter plays soccer. Do you think that Jess and I had no idea if this would happen. I'm like, do you think the Jefs would coach her one on one? And She's like sure, And she looked into Jeremiah. Give her your phone number, your Mons phone number. So Jeremy rounded off his mother's phone number. I took notes and I called and she started coaching Isabel. By the fall of Tracy McDonald had left North Carolina and Jess and Jeremiah we're back to their old routine, owned over years of Jesse's side hustles for the Rockaways. They showed up at the practice field where jess would set out drills to train as well, Jeremiah brought along a snack in an iPad and quietly sat on the sideline until his mother was done working. So we would show up with this allel and then she will show up with Jeremiah. In Jeremiah, we will bring a little lunchbox with food and in an iPad. Dan and Marta Rockaway are educators by trade and on a string of child care facilities throughout North Carolina. Here's Marda. They said, okay, tour in me in this mom, And I'm like, I need to do something. And so I said, Jessica, how about if we wished changed children, You coaches a little and we take Jeremiah for a walk in Jeremiah. He's like, yeah, I want to go with them. So soon the family started grabbing dinner together after Isabel's practices. Eventually at the Rockaways house, well, you noticed that she had no support structure at all. It was just her. And I just felt like, if this were my daughter, I would want to be there for her. So we try to provide, you know, the best support system that someone like her could have. McDonald tryed the bass, and she does from the first score off the night. If she squeezes I won't pass on the outside. Justin Jeremiah had become regulars at the Rockaway Household. By the final game of that eighteen regular season. They offered a sense of familiar stability Jessa never known before McDonald can I slip it through the Williams my fun and the second goal off at night? Just recorded a goal, went to assist in that regular season finale against the Houston Dash It was one of the best for mormons Is of Jess's career. She finished the season among the league leaders and goal scored and lead the ends. I want assists, will do it for us here in North Carolina. A final score. I want Carolina Fine. He was staying zero literally after that night after my mom left, after her telling me that it was like my life just fell into place, like everything was just going great from that point on. But would be enough to get Jess at last or she'd always wanted to go. We'll be right back tonight as we come on the air. What authorities are now calling the Storm of a lifetime As impressive as the courage had been during the season, as they prepared for the postseason that September, any of their fans in North Carolina had other things on their minds. Ricane Florence prepares to hit the East coast, and the governor right here in North Carolina as Anita's warning, disaster is at the doorstep and it's coming in. As owners of the best record in the league, the Courage were scheduled to host the Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL semifinals, but Mother Nature had other plans, so Jess and Jeremiah altered their's. We invited on the comp stattas for a few days to wan Let's make Hurricane threat Dan rockaway and they went really well. And at that point she went away and we kept Jeremiah. With the storm bearing down, the NWSL relocated the semifinal game between the Courage and the Red Stars to Portland on the other side of the country. If the Courage won that game, Jess would stay there to play in the championship and could be gone for almost a week. Instead of taking Jeremiah, just entrusted him to the Rockaways and will be let go enjoy the game play, just enjoyed. I know you're going to think about Jeremiah, and I understand, but but he's going to be okay here, So just cheme on her that piece of nine, Jess McDonald dealing onto and now in the box. That it worked. That is how fast they can strike. It was than five minutes into that semifinal Jes scored for the Courage. Another goal from Sam lewis locked into two nil win for North Carolina. With Jeremiah safe with the rockaways, Jessica focus for the next four days entirely on soccer A. North Carolina's opponent in the championship, the hometown Portland Borns. The Jeames t how down to the championship is on and they're just made every moment count, cracking up scoring chance after scoring chance. Cross That is the second one that Jess McDonald probably not only could have but should have put away. Finally, in the minute, Jess broke through, catching up to a long ball by jay Lene Hankle and having it past Portland's keeper. Eight goal look God capizes, but Jess wasn't done yet. Midway through the second half, she found space in the crowd in front of Portland's goal, and Jess used her size to jump and get her head on a curling ball From there at Mathias Mathias for the shot. Jess McDonald does it again, and just like Brandy Chestain had once done in her own championship match, just were off her jersey and ran to her teammates in celebration. The tank top she revealed read, Jesus paid it all, nor Courage your two thousand n W South champions. The Courage won the championship three to zero. Jess played what might have been the most dominant game of her career. She scored two of North Carolina's three goals. And now I'd like to present our two eighteen and W as South Championship Most Valuable Player. Congratulations, Jessica McDonald. Jess capped a record breaking season with her second nd BSL championship in three seasons and the MVP of the title game. When she came home from that, it was a big deal. We hurried up and ran the staples. We had this big banner PRINTADAV saying my Mom's m v P or something like that, Dan Rockaway. We were celebrating because it was the first four or five days stay with us that Jeremiah had and everybody approached us. The coach at the time, other people thanked us for watching Jeremiah. They said this was the first time that just went away and didn't worry about him at all, and that probably, you know, helped her play better and become m v P. It was great Jess with Lynne later that the Rockaways weren't the only people paying close attention to those games. So was Joell Ellis, coach of the U S national team, scouting future talent. I get a text from Joel Ellis. She was like, you're absolutely tremendous. I remember seeing the words tremendous, like congratulations on the wind in on the award. And I know this year, in eighteen, this is the year they're prepping for the World Cup, and so you would think this team is already set in stone. But after this text, I was like, I might be going into camp like this is it. You've got to make it. And on part eight of Payback, I was shocked when I found out, you know, she's the sole provider for her child. She doesn't give any other financial help from anybody. I got invited into November camp. How to think about Jeremiah though he's in school full time, he's in the first grade. I'm like, crap. She hit so many barriers and she got through each one of them. And then went two years before that she was homeless, which is crazy. I remember us saying a prayer. She was just like, I'm proud of your daughter. I'm alexandreav Payback is a production of The Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News and Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I Heart Radio. It's produced by Cotta Stevens, Casey Tough, Julia Wall, and Davin Cockburn. The executive producer for iHeart Radio is Shawn ti Tone. For lots more on this story and to support journalism like this, visit Charlotte Observer dot com slash payback or News Observer dot com slash payback, and for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio previously on Payback. The female athletes are using their platforms in ways that we have never seen before. The players Union, demanding an into what it calls systemic abuse plaguing the NWSL, was like, I have my dignity and I'm tired of the bullshit. He would be like, why are you playing like Crafts days? Because your son was up all night. We won that year. We had no business learning what we did, and I think it's because of like the joy of the game. She breaks a scoring record. She's an olden boot champion. She's working below minimum wage and hopes to make that national team. Growing up, I wanted dissembling. Whenever I'd blow out candles on my birthday, write a letter to stand up for Christmas, or throw a penny in a fountain. I would always wish for a brother or sister. Isabelle Rockaway is eighteen years old and has been fine tuning. Her essay is for college applications. Here she's reading me one of her admissions essays. This wish soon became a reality and my life change forever. Jessica and Jeremiah weren't my biological siblings or even adopted siblings. There were simply a single young mother and her six year old boy who were seeking a place to sit. At the start of the season, so much in soccer seemed to be going right for Jess. She'd added an NWSL title to her championship resume, and she earned a little playing time for the U S women's national team. In Jessic's life, however, the difficulties have rarely seemed to come on the soccer field. At home, the challenges of being an overworked and underpaid single mom. We're catching up with her. She started coaching Isabel, and that's how we met Isabel's father, Dan Rockaway. As we get to know Jess, we got to know her story as well, and it was a sad story. I just felt like, if this were my daughter, I would want to be there for her. So we try to provide, you know, of the best support system that someone like her could have in a career of off seasons filled with second jobs. It was the connection Jess found with one particular teenager and her parents that would alter the trajectory of all their lives. Dan and Marta Rockaway I called in my North Carolina family literally like a mom and dad to me. And they have a daughter, Isabelle, who I called my sister. I was coaching there for a while and we just got like super close. We just became one big family. By the time she met the rock Ways, Jesse's career arc had been a case study in perseverance over trauma and adversity. McDonald got it behind and the soccer world was about to see what a difference a little stability could make. Definite again from The Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News, An Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I Heart Radio. This is Payback. I'm alexandreav and this is part seven. Smooth as Butter. I mean, the war between the sexes could become an armor gandon if we don't get on with our revolution. During dress McDonald's trial with the U S women's national team, the question of equality was once again on players minds, as late feminist Betty for Dan put it more than forty years prior. But if we do get on with it, and we restructures deciety to make equality really possible, that I think the war between the sexes will end. After years of battling the US Soccer Federation largely behind the scenes for what they believed was fair compensation, The women's national team players launched an aggressive news stand Today, five of America's top athletes filed a federal complaint charging that soccer pays women a pittance to win world championships while it pays big to the men who lose them. Alex Morrigan, Harley Lloyd, Megan Rippino, Becky Sauerbrun and Hope Solo collectively filed their federal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was a landmark moment in the modern iteration of the U S women's teams fight for equal pay. Currently, when athletes play in World Cup Games, qualifiers, and non competitive friendly matches, they're paid a base annual salary and if they make the World Cup roster, female players received of what their male counterparts earned. Lloyd spoke on the Today Show. We've proven our worth over the years, and we want to continue to fight. The generation of players before us fought and now it's our job to keep on fighting. Their federal complaint would have limited financial impact on National Women's Soccer League players like Jess who are just trying to make the national team at all, but the ripple effects had the potential to be substantial for nws L management and its players. When US Soccer agreed to subsidize the formation of the NWSL, it created in fact, demanded the league act as a pipeline for current and future national team players. US Soccer agreed to allocate national team players to nws L teams and pay their salaries. In return, the vast majority of those players were mandated to be part of the league. Having those big names on the field obviously benefited the n b s L team owners, but it also set up an uneasy control structure in which those national team players were employees of US Soccer, not their nws L teams. They were not part of the nbs L Players Association, and any sort of disputes or work stoppages those national team players had with US Soccer were entirely outside the control of their nbs L teams. Meanwhile, their nws L teammates closely watched for whatever concessions national team players could extract from US Soccer. The rest of those nbs L players were pushing for their first collective bargaining agreement exactly as the U S women had first done in nineteen ninety nine, and moves at the highest level of the sport had the potential to cascade down. I've played this kind of trivia game with folks to kind of orient where women's soccer has been and where it is now. We met Megan Burke last episode. She was one of the old guard players who was part of the first two failed women's professional soccer leagues. She finally hung up her cleats and went to law school. Today she's returned to the game as the executive director of that NWSL Players Association. Do you know what the league minimum was that the veterans in two thousand three in the ws A. I'm going to say it was pretty low. I mean, was it under ten thousand? This is the interesting part of the history of women's soccer. It was twenty five thousand dollars in two thousand three. Do you know what the league minimum is in nws L eighteen years later? Twenty two? Right? That's wild. That's what I talked about with our players is we need to know our history. We need to know who we come from, where we come from, where we've been, and where we want to go. The NWSL, players like Jess certainly wanted to increased pay as part of a collective bargaining agreement with the league, but they also wanted to increased protection and control over the kinds of trades. That's all. Jess play in Chicago and Seattle and Portland and Houston and Western New York, all in her first five years in the league. That weighed on Jess's mind through early I make the She Believes Cup roster, so my first tournament with the US team, and we won the tournament, which is really awesome, and I didn't get a call back. Unfortunately, those national team camps that spring didn't lead to the big break Jess had hoped for. I think we show a lot of really good things. It's too early for me just to look at relationships and who this pairing is going to be. Publicly. Coach Joe Ellis said there was plenty of time before she would finalize the U S roster for the upcoming World Cup. Here she is speaking at a press conference that summer. I gave myself nine months and we'll come out of the back end of this and then have a pretty good idea in terms of how we start to formulate how this team looks. But privately, Jess was preparing to close the book on that world kept dream. I've been back in camps and so I was satisfied enough at that point because I got my chance. It didn't work out, okay, at least you know, I took my chance and I tried. I did everything I could. At this point, I've accepted it. There was so much to be said about Jess as a trailblazing journeywoman and American soccer, even if that was ultimately her legacy in the game. So Jess told me, she once again became determined to make the most of her time in the end of b s L. The upcoming season, it's going to be the first time she'd been with the same team for more than a year. But that's not to say the same city. Despite winning the league championship in twenty the Flash had struggled to grow attendance since the launch. At the end of BSL, so in a stroke of luck for Jess, the team was sold to an ownership group outside Raleigh and relocated to the tar Heel state. The Western New York Flash would become the North Carolina Courage. Our team. I got and I'm like, Okay, We're going to North Carolina. This time before the season, Jess couldn't wait to relocate this time. She felt like she was going home biagone anywhere else in the United States. To be honest, I don't even know if I would still be playing because I have a support system here. This is my second home. Playing it from my alma mater. Doesn't get any better than that. We'll tell you about that after the break. M long Cross headed back to the Middle Palm and a Way by Harris Chance for McDonald g scores. The North Carolina Courage arrived in Carolina just weeks before the start of the seventeen season. Jess McDonald's her first that included Jess teammate Lynn Williams, and head coach Paul Riley. Late my reporting for this podcast, in an explosive report by Meglenahan of The Athletic, two former players of Riley's on the Portland Thorns alleged that Riley had verbally and emotionally abused them in Portland. The Courage released a statement that said, quote, when we hired Paul, we made perfectly clear the expectations of the job and the values of our club and from what we know, he has lived up to those expectations. End quote. The courage said that if anyone had information about Riley behaving otherwise during his time with the team, they were encouraged to come forward. No one has, at least not that the public has been made aware of. Dall kept ferst delivery headed by her set hits off the cross bar and it's buried by Jess McDonald's. Jess maintained to me that Riley's coaching letter to further improvement as a player. Once the team arrived in North Carolina. Jess McDonald had the opener last week. She gives the courage of what death you lead In this match up against the Boston Breakers, just scored the only goal and simultaneously broke the end of us HOW scoring record with thirty three career goals. Well. She is now number one on the n wus so All Todd gold was a championship Lastern and Western New York and now her second goal this season. But as much success as Jess was finding in the league, her primary motivation came at home. My son is sad in my training sessions as a baby, like an hist roller. By himself. He was never a crier in anything like that. He slept twelve hours a night, which is you know, really if he still does to this day. Man, Thankfully, I have such an easy going kid. When Williams again, when he was younger, he used to travel with the team a lot, which was pretty cool. I think it's definitely a unique way to grow up around a bunch of women soccer players. But I think that it just shows respecting women, and you can tell that he does, and I think we need more little boys like that. When things are working for me as a mom, I'm like, okay, thanks, are mere working for me on the OCCA fille as well? All right, here we Golhan. But he's just smooth is butter. And the reason why I have fun and I want to perform at high levels because I need to show an example for my son. That's my motivation. That's what inspires me day in and day out. I think that society has made people feel like being vulnerable about being a mom is bad when it it shouldn't be that way at all. Jeremiah also inspired a reunion with Jesse's mom, Tracy McDonald. By the middle of Seen Jeremiah was five, and nothing brings a family together like a grandchild. Besides, Jess could use some help at home here. I am this new like single parent pretty much trying to figure it out. And so I called my mom because I'm like, she's a grandma now, you know, And I didn't want to keep that from Jeremiah. For Jess, everything had changed for the worst that day, she says, Tracy hit her back in high school. Even twenty years later, Jess said their relationship had never really gotten better, but she was ready to move on from the past, and there was enough room in the modest department Jess was renting with her monthly housing stipend from the Courage, so the timing felt right to reconnect. She came in the middle of the seventeen season, and whenever I traveled, you know, she stayed here with Jeremiah and took him to school and you know, took care of him while I was gone, and Jeremiah loves her. They were super close. McDonald was there again and if it's our second of the game that seen season, McDonald and the Courage made believers of their new hometown fans. Jess McDonald finishes on the doorstep three one courage in control, maybe none more so than people. Jess would come to call the closest family she's ever had, in many ways, the immediate family she never had. My name is Dan Rockaway. I consider myself Jessic's North Carolina father. I'm Isabel Rockaway, and I would consider myself Jessica's sister. I am Marca Rockaway, and I am her Columbian mom. In Isabel Rockaway was bit by the soccer bug. The courage game at weak Med Soccer Park seemed to Dan like a great father daughter experience, even if the father wasn't entirely sold yet. I was like, I'm gonna go because and taking my daughter. And then we had these seats by the goal, and I remember they were warming up and they missed the goal and the ball team flying by us and hit the seats where we're sitting, and it was so loud and powerful it scared me. I was like, wow, this is some hardcore stuff. I'm like, this is a perfect example for Isabelle, our daughter, to see powerful women and on the field. Jess in particular was unmissable. Five ten signature long dread box and a canvas of tattoos with a relentlessness that kept her in the center of the action all the time. Forget simply being powerful, just being completely fearless. You know, I don't watch the men's team too much. I feel like the men they just roll around the ground, they try to get a foul, they act like they're hurt. And when I see the women fall, they hit the ground, they get up and they started running harder. The Rockaways watched has just helped Carolina win League Shield, awarded to the team with the best regular season record, and Jeremiah became a fan favorite, showing up at his mom's matches dressed however he liked, which was often like a superhero. Everyone knows that Jeremiah Jesse's son, and all that stuff there at the game. It's like he shows up in all these different costumes of like a Batman suit on or Spiderman suits. Jess helped lead the Courage to the championship game, where they lost to the Portland Thorns. The Rockaways went all in and bought season tickets in the owner's box level at WAKEMD Park. A few months later, the Courage held a small fan celebration for all the upcoming season ticket holders. Remember Jess was over in a corner and I was like, I want my picture taken with her. I was like scared to approach Jesse. She's five ten, she's got tattoos, she's built, and I remember like kind of walking over my head down, say hey, can we get your picture, and she just smile and just yeah, let's take a picture and everything. We didn't even know her. And it's kind of cool because I still have those pictures. So sunny and cool Saturday afternoon in Carrie, North Carolina, where Sky Blue FFC opens the two thousand eighteen season on the road. By the start of season, Jess helped lead her NWSL team to back to back league championship games. Jeremiah had just turned six. She felt at home there in North Carolina, and at least on the field, life was good ahead for mcdattal. Jess were her first goal of the season with this stoppage time game winner against sky Blue FC, who Carolina in the nineties second minute stunts sky Blue. I'm like, oh, I'm feeling good. I'm thirty. No injuries, you know, like nothing hurts. And so was an incredible year for the North Carolina Courage. We lost one game that whole season. That's just so unheard of in the USL McDonald in space, can't she be baked? Also? The second time she does. Just scored another game winner two matches later against Seattle, and it's McDonald with her second goal of the season to put North Carolina up. I remember in the middle of the summer, I went up to Paul Riley and I asked him. I was like, what do you think my chances are of getting back into a camp? Just felt better than ever, she was playing better than ever, and since she'd gotten a try out with the National Team of Year earlier, maybe she hoped it wasn't crazy to think she might get another shot. He was like, Jess, I just I don't see it happening. They're already stacked. They've had the same team for so many years. You know, they've got in my position, Alex Morgan, Carly Lloyd, Tobin Heath, Megan Rapino, Kristen Press, Mallory Pew. It's hard to even compete with that. I was like, dang, okay, like whatever, you know, I had my chance, and clearly I didn't make it in so went on still with my head held high. The Courage were thriving on their way to breaking the record for most schools scored in a season with fifty three. By early gulyt Justin scored six of those schools, one of the best individual marks in the league. But then she stopped Justin and scored another goal for nearly two months until the final game of the regular season. She started every match that year until July fourteen, when she suddenly didn't play at all. I remember I called her once, like what's going on? She wasn't playing too well and she was coming off the bench. I'm like, what's going on. Here's Phoenix College coach and friend Dave Cameron. She wasn't starting on her team and stuff because she was struggling at home. As Jess remembers it, Tracy had overstayed her welcome and was becoming an increasingly destabilizing force in Jess's home, and for once, adversity off the field wasn't translating to success on it. Behavior changes started with her what I would see when I was a little girl. This time it wasn't just jesseeing the mood swings in the drama, but Jeremiah too. I'm like, can you just leave, and she just refused to leave. I'm just trying to figure out, like, how can I get her out of the house. And I had to call my dad to come and save me initially, So my dad came to North Carolina while she was here, and this is his first time ever witnessing her in this state of mind. At one point that summer, just told us she had to call the police to try to force Tracy out. She told me one of the most horrible things that a parent can ever tell their child in front of my then five year old well, she told me on this evening of July two, eighteen, I will never forget this date for as long as I live. She told me she wished she had flushed me on a toilet when she had the chance. My mother told me that to my face. I just didn't want anything to do with her at that point. Throughout our reporting, we tried multiple times to get in touch with Tracy McDonald, but after a brief scheduling conversation ahead of our Arizona trip, she stopped answering our cults. Since then, the only thing we've heard of Tracy is this voicemail greeting recorded by Jeremiah likely about three years ago. You reach my agreem and she's not available. Weave for me DA fine, sorry, L box is full. But whatever anguish Tracy might have brought to Jess's life there in North Carolina, her presence also brought Jess an unexpected gift. That twenty eighteen season, Jessica's mother was visiting, so she was in the owner's box with Jeremiah. Here's Dan Rockaway. So I befriended her mother and I'm like, hey, look, my daughter plays soccer. Do you think that Jess and I had no idea if this would happen. I'm like, do you think the Jefs would coach her one on one? And She's like sure, And she looked into Jeremiah. Give her your phone number, your Mons phone number. So Jeremy rounded off his mother's phone number. I took notes and I called and she started coaching Isabel. By the fall of Tracy McDonald had left North Carolina and Jess and Jeremiah we're back to their old routine, owned over years of Jesse's side hustles for the Rockaways. They showed up at the practice field where jess would set out drills to train as well, Jeremiah brought along a snack in an iPad and quietly sat on the sideline until his mother was done working. So we would show up with this allel and then she will show up with Jeremiah. In Jeremiah, we will bring a little lunchbox with food and in an iPad. Dan and Marta Rockaway are educators by trade and on a string of child care facilities throughout North Carolina. Here's Marda. They said, okay, tour in me in this mom, And I'm like, I need to do something. And so I said, Jessica, how about if we wished changed children, You coaches a little and we take Jeremiah for a walk in Jeremiah. He's like, yeah, I want to go with them. So soon the family started grabbing dinner together after Isabel's practices. Eventually at the Rockaways house, well, you noticed that she had no support structure at all. It was just her. And I just felt like, if this were my daughter, I would want to be there for her. So we try to provide, you know, the best support system that someone like her could have. McDonald tryed the bass, and she does from the first score off the night. If she squeezes I won't pass on the outside. Justin Jeremiah had become regulars at the Rockaway Household. By the final game of that eighteen regular season. They offered a sense of familiar stability Jessa never known before McDonald can I slip it through the Williams my fun and the second goal off at night? Just recorded a goal, went to assist in that regular season finale against the Houston Dash It was one of the best for mormons Is of Jess's career. She finished the season among the league leaders and goal scored and lead the ends. I want assists, will do it for us here in North Carolina. A final score. I want Carolina Fine. He was staying zero literally after that night after my mom left, after her telling me that it was like my life just fell into place, like everything was just going great from that point on. But would be enough to get Jess at last or she'd always wanted to go. We'll be right back tonight as we come on the air. What authorities are now calling the Storm of a lifetime As impressive as the courage had been during the season, as they prepared for the postseason that September, any of their fans in North Carolina had other things on their minds. Ricane Florence prepares to hit the East coast, and the governor right here in North Carolina as Anita's warning, disaster is at the doorstep and it's coming in. As owners of the best record in the league, the Courage were scheduled to host the Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL semifinals, but Mother Nature had other plans, so Jess and Jeremiah altered their's. We invited on the comp stattas for a few days to wan Let's make Hurricane threat Dan rockaway and they went really well. And at that point she went away and we kept Jeremiah. With the storm bearing down, the NWSL relocated the semifinal game between the Courage and the Red Stars to Portland on the other side of the country. If the Courage won that game, Jess would stay there to play in the championship and could be gone for almost a week. Instead of taking Jeremiah, just entrusted him to the Rockaways and will be let go enjoy the game play, just enjoyed. I know you're going to think about Jeremiah, and I understand, but but he's going to be okay here, So just cheme on her that piece of nine, Jess McDonald dealing onto and now in the box. That it worked. That is how fast they can strike. It was than five minutes into that semifinal Jes scored for the Courage. Another goal from Sam lewis locked into two nil win for North Carolina. With Jeremiah safe with the rockaways, Jessica focus for the next four days entirely on soccer A. North Carolina's opponent in the championship, the hometown Portland Borns. The Jeames t how down to the championship is on and they're just made every moment count, cracking up scoring chance after scoring chance. Cross That is the second one that Jess McDonald probably not only could have but should have put away. Finally, in the minute, Jess broke through, catching up to a long ball by jay Lene Hankle and having it past Portland's keeper. Eight goal look God capizes, but Jess wasn't done yet. Midway through the second half, she found space in the crowd in front of Portland's goal, and Jess used her size to jump and get her head on a curling ball From there at Mathias Mathias for the shot. Jess McDonald does it again, and just like Brandy Chestain had once done in her own championship match, just were off her jersey and ran to her teammates in celebration. The tank top she revealed read, Jesus paid it all, nor Courage your two thousand n W South champions. The Courage won the championship three to zero. Jess played what might have been the most dominant game of her career. She scored two of North Carolina's three goals. And now I'd like to present our two eighteen and W as South Championship Most Valuable Player. Congratulations, Jessica McDonald. Jess capped a record breaking season with her second nd BSL championship in three seasons and the MVP of the title game. When she came home from that, it was a big deal. We hurried up and ran the staples. We had this big banner PRINTADAV saying my Mom's m v P or something like that, Dan Rockaway. We were celebrating because it was the first four or five days stay with us that Jeremiah had and everybody approached us. The coach at the time, other people thanked us for watching Jeremiah. They said this was the first time that just went away and didn't worry about him at all, and that probably, you know, helped her play better and become m v P. It was great Jess with Lynne later that the Rockaways weren't the only people paying close attention to those games. So was Joell Ellis, coach of the U S national team, scouting future talent. I get a text from Joel Ellis. She was like, you're absolutely tremendous. I remember seeing the words tremendous, like congratulations on the wind in on the award. And I know this year, in eighteen, this is the year they're prepping for the World Cup, and so you would think this team is already set in stone. But after this text, I was like, I might be going into camp like this is it. You've got to make it. And on part eight of Payback, I was shocked when I found out, you know, she's the sole provider for her child. She doesn't give any other financial help from anybody. I got invited into November camp. How to think about Jeremiah though he's in school full time, he's in the first grade. I'm like, crap. She hit so many barriers and she got through each one of them. And then went two years before that she was homeless, which is crazy. I remember us saying a prayer. She was just like, I'm proud of your daughter. I'm alexandreav Payback is a production of The Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News and Observer, McClatchy Studios, and I Heart Radio. It's produced by Cotta Stevens, Casey Tough, Julia Wall, and Davin Cockburn. The executive producer for iHeart Radio is Shawn ti Tone. For lots more on this story and to support journalism like this, visit Charlotte Observer dot com slash payback or News Observer dot com slash payback, and for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.