Emily Pickering (Harner)
When preparing for the celebration weekend of the ‘85ers, I called my high school soccer coach who I knew played with and against many of these women. She mentioned Emily Pickering (Harner) as one of the best players who I have yet to hear of, but yet integral to the founding of USWNT. When Emily describes herself as a maverick for tucking in her sleeves or rolling up her socks, this is something as a player I never even considered to be weird – it was something my teammates and I did according to the weather or for fun, so thank you to Emily for being a trendsetter.
In Emily’s episode, Iconic UNC and USWNT coach Anson Dorrance weighed in on Emily as a player and person. For those in the soccer world or soccer fans this is incredibly special to hear background on the formation of the original team in the ‘Olympic Festival’. For a little more perspective – Anson has been the UNC Women’s Coach a few seasons shy of 50 years!
Emily had a great competitive spirit the whole weekend, contributing in all the games and encouraging her teammates to “make the shot on the first attempt”. It was also apparent how genuinely excited she was to be there. It’s clear how much soccer and this feature on the 85ers means to Emily, she is proudly reposting each new episode with her networks.
