When were you founded and what was the mission at the time? What's your primary goal now?
We were founded in 2016. Having 4 Daughters of my own I realized that there truly wasn't a good pathway for a woman into this game. At that moment I thought to myself that I wanted to create a true pathway. We wanted to be able to give more opportunity for those that may not live so close to the city and or players that would never even get the chance to be seen. We wanted to set the standard for women's soccer and break the glass ceiling. We are about 50 minutes away from downtown Chicago so it gives us a perfect base to be on our own marketing. Our goal is to truly create a blueprint for each individual player and help them Reach their goal and get to where they need to be. Everything needs a blueprint. My initial goal was to not only build the organization but to build the brand. By building a brand a cool logo and a great mission we would embed ourselves in the community. I feel that women's soccer is enormous but it is not marketed the same way as the men or any other sport in general yeah, they put up more numbers what's selling US national team jerseys as well as women that play for outside professional teams out selling jerseys. My main priority was to go against the grain and really create a marketing strategy and blueprint around the women's game of soccer. They will be the heroes in our town.

You play your soccer in the UWS Midwest - have you always been in that league and what makes it stand out?
Originally, we started with the UPSL League which didn’t work out. What makes UWS stand out in the TRUE nature of caring and focusing only on the woman. Stephanie Cleaves of UWS does a phenomenal job organizing and communicating. UWS wants to create a true pipeline of Women’s Soccer especially bringing in UWS 2 which we will also be a part of. That will give us the opportunity to have a 1st team and Reserve Team.

There are some really great clubs in your division, do you consider any of them rivals? Who do you most look forward to playing against when soccer resumes?
We will be playing some great teams. Win or lose it is all part of the development. Even though I would love to win championships and win every game the reality is at this level our goal mainly is to help place some of these young ladies into a professional level. That will be OUR trophy. As of now we have no rivals. I would say every team is a rival to us. I respect every single one of the organizations in our league and believe that they're doing everything they can as we are.

Women's soccer is growing quickly and soccer fans are clamoring for a US Open Cup for women - would you be able to participate? What are the obstacles and what would be the benefits?
I believe that they should start talking about a US Open Cup for women. It would give a great opportunity on a pro Rel system to give the chance for a lower league team to play a higher league team if that a professional team. This in turn gives your team a chance to be scouted more and you girls the opportunity to be seen. Win, win. The only obstacle in a lot of this is the political part of soccer.

Yosselin Alvarado showing off Ladies Steel City FC’s kits (photo: club’s Facebook)

Do you have any stand out players or alumni? Any of the women move on to the NWSL or leagues abroad?
2021 we are stacked with lots of new Talent as well as veteran talent coming back… Zoe Swift is one of our known players. Played NCAA D1 Kentucky after continued her path to West Ham and the Puerto Rico Sol. She is leading our Roster with standout player and New talent NCAA D1 South Carolina Bianca Galassini. These women are sure to make noise this season along with the rest of our talent. This season I'm looking forward to playing a preseason game against Redstars Reserve.

Many teams finance their operations through selling scarves, kits, and other merch - how do you keep the lights on? Is there any swag available for interested folks?
Our organization is funded by advertisement marketing partnership marketing ads as well as large fundraisers and merchandise sales. And of course, my own money at times... lol…

If money wasn't an option, where would you take this organization? What would be the focus and what would you add to it?
If money wasn't an option where would I take this organization? If money wasn't an option for me, I would have never gotten this far to where we are at with our organization there for to me sky's the limit our goal truthfully is to have an NWSL team Ladies Steel City Representing Joliet, Il. That is Our Goal! I am sure it will happen. 2030 will be our NWSL let us in campaign you can’t deny us… lol. I am betting on ourselves because I am confident of our structure, staff, our philosophy and where we want this to go.

Learn more about Ladies Steel City FC HERE