Denver Summit FC Is Back: New Facility & Kansas City Preview (BONUS)

Kate Hanson: Ten years ago, Janine Saunis was a rookie in Houston. No locker room, no field, no space of her own. She'd drive to training, park on the street, walk onto a youth field, and when practice was over, she'd leave her kit with the equipment manager and drive on home. She didn't even know where her stuff was being washed, and the press had the opportunity to ask her about it this week, and she didn't even flinch in telling the story. That was 10 years ago. Professional athletes in the top women's sports league in this country, I'm Kate Hansen. ⁓ This is the 5280 Pitch, Women's Soccer at Altitude. and last week, Denver Summit FC opened the Common Spirit Health Performance Center in Centennial. And I've been to a lot of facilities. As you know, I have a background in radio. I've been to the Broncos training facility. I've been to Pepsi Cent, well, it Pepsi Center now, Ball Arena. I've been in the Nuggets facilities. I've been in the Avalanche facilities. I've seen what teams work out of this. I've seen what teams work out of in this league. I've seen what teams work out of at the professional level. This is incredible. This is something different. Rob Cohen, the owner of Denver Summit FC, said from the very beginning that he wanted this place designed by, built by, and for women. Not borrowed, not adapted. Built specifically for women. They started that design process before they even had players on the roster. The architecture firm behind all of this is a company called Populous. And what they told me about how they approach this, the research that went into it, it goes so much deeper than you'd expect. So think about the weight room. Most facilities, when budgets get tight, well, honestly, that's the first thing that gets trimmed. Populous refused to let that happen here. Specifically because female athletes build confidence through community, through training together, through being in the same space. Cut the weight room and you cut something that actually matters with how this team functions on the field. And the locker room, which holy cow is absolutely incredible. The chain the locker room here converts to a mother's room, one space, two functions, depending on what you need. Someone thought about that, designed it, built it. And even the kitchen placement. It turns out female athletes need carbohydrates and protein within 30 minutes of a workout. Men can go up to 60. I don't know that. So Where you physically put the nutrition station in the building matters. The kitchen here is positioned so the players can grab and go something straight off the pitch. That is the level of detail and attention that we are talking about here. And Valerie, the lead architect at Populous, the firm behind this project, said something that when 5280 Pitch had the opportunity to talk to her, I think it captures the whole philosophy ⁓ of this design. That's what this place is. A facility where the athletes walk in and feel like someone was thinking about them specifically, not an afterthought, not adapted from something that was built for someone else. Rob Cohen set one bar early and didn't move off it. The first team locker room would meet the same standard as the Broncos, the Rockies, the Avalanche Nuggets, the Rapids, same quality, not close to the same. And Janine, ten years in this league, has seen what facilities look like at every level. She walked in and felt it. has seen what facilities look like at every level, not just on the national on the NWSL level, but on the na on the un on the international level as well. She walked in and felt it immediately. I love what she said there. She didn't know she would experience something like this in her career. She's been in the league for 10 years. Let that sit. A lot of these veterans on the team have seen a lot happen over their time in the league. Carson Pickett, when she was on the podcast, talked about how some of the facilities at her college when she was playing were better than the NWSL facilities. Janine listed Janine even talked about the recovery suite. An athlete Wonderland from the woman who spent her rookie year not knowing where her kit was being washed. I want to zoom out because this isn't just about the players who are here right now. Jen Millet, the club president, has been watching something happen with this fan base all season that honestly even surprised her. She came into women's sports assuming that the audience was mostly female fans. Obviously, Colorado blew up that perception. Colorado, yeah, we showed up in a way that surprised people inside of the building. And Janine, she called it before the season even started. And then there's what this building says to a kid in Centennial who's watching all of this happen right before their eyes. Valerie from Populous shared a stat that I keep coming back to, because you know me and my stats. She said 64% of girls drop out of sports during adolescence. Well, that's it. 64%. And part of what changes that number is a facility like this existing where girls can see it, touch it. Train on it. Know that someone built l something like this because they believed it was worth building. And Janine said it clearer than any stack could. And Janine had and Janine, who parked on the street in Houston over a decade ago, had one more thing to say that I think is the whole story of Training Center ⁓ in two sentences. ⁓ And she's not the only one that feels it. Kayleigh Kurtz has two championships and a hundred and fourteen straight starts. Long enough to have a real reference point for what this league used to look like. Okay, and I want you guys to think about who said that. Kaylee Kurtz, Iron Woman. The possibility to potentially play longer than she thought. That's not a throwaway line. That is a veteran telling you that the building is changing the math on her career. This facility is going to make some of the top athletes want to be here. And Coach Cushing, who has coached at some of the best facilities in all of football throughout the world, including Manchester City women, put it the simplest way. I hope that that statement gives you chills, because it gives me chills. A no-excuse culture. That's what a facility like this actually does. It removes every variable a team could point to for lack of success. No borrowed gym, no youth fields, no kit disappearing into the unknown. Just everything you need right there every day. And now they've had the opportunity to use it. It's been five weeks. Thirty it's been five weeks, friends. Five whole weeks. Thirty-five days since this team played a game that counted. And they're walking back into it against a team that just traded away one of their top playmakers. They can't settle on a goalkeeper ⁓ And is coming off a challenge cut That is Friday. Yes, today. If you're depending on when you're listening to the podcast, that is today. That is the reintroduction that Denver Summit FC has before they face the Kansas City current July 3rd tonight at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Denver's back. Kansas City is here. I've got tape from Nick Cushing and Kaylee Kurtz. straight from practice this week that tells you a lot more about how Denver's approaching this than any injury report does. Here is the thing about midseason breaks. It sounds like Russ. It should sound like Russ, right? But it doesn't hit this team the way that it hits everybody else because of where they were when it started. When we went into the break, we were sitting at ninth in the table. Power ranking said said otherwise, but we were sitting at ninth. We had a lot of road travel, right? Don't get me wrong. It's been it was a it was a rough start to an inaugural season. Four wins, four losses, three draws, fifteen points through eleven matches. And for an expansion team, that's not survival mode. That is a team that is building something. And they they weren't limping into this break. We didn't have any major injuries. Yes, Tosh was on the injured lit on the injury list, but she's back. Hooray. But that was really our only injury. And we still were able to walk away with a W before we went into the break. We had that one win at Houston, a 3-1 win over Orlando, two of their best performances of the season, back to back right before everything stopped. In addition, and when we were on break, we were so fortunate that we had eight players that were out on international duty. So a good chunk of the summit were out training and practicing and playing. Five weeks off doesn't feel like a time that we have to brush things off. It feels like a pause button hit in the middle of a good sentence. N and now they've got to pick that sentence back up. We had the comma, let's keep on going. We had that short pause. It wasn't a period. They have that comma, it's not a period, and they're facing a team that is not in the best of shape. Not physical shape, of course they are, but they did have because but things for Kansas City did not get easier over this break. If anything, six months into the Armas area, the questions around this Kansas City current team got a lot louder. So Armist has had this team since January, a full preseason, 12 league matches, a challenge cup run, and he still hasn't found the balance between his high pressed and a defense that used to be the best in the league. They did trade away Ali Sentinor before the break. Their starting keeper, Lorena, is out injured and they've signed a short term replacement. They lost to Gotham in the Challenge Cup in their first professional women's game ever in the first ever professional women's game played in the state of Ohio. By every surface level measure, this should be the softest matchup Denver has had all year. I don't however, Nick and the Summit are not treating it that way. And he told the and he told the room something this week, knowing exactly who he is up against, that I don't think a lot of people caught. So, fun fact, I don't know if you knew that, but Nick Cushing coached against Chris Armas when Armis had the rapids and Cushing had NY NYCFC. That's not scouting report knowledge. That's not six hours of film. That's I've stood across from this guy on a touchline and know exactly what he's trying to do to me kind of knowledge. And what Armis wants to do is simple, even if it is hard to stop. He wants to force turnovers, go vertical, hurt you the second the ball challenges. Hurt you the second the ball changes hands. Same demand whether he's at Red Bull, at Colorado, or in Kansas City now. Different roster, same idea. So when Nick says we got to be good with the ball, that's not a throwaway line. That is the entire game plan in one sentence. Denver doesn't need to be flashy on Friday today, depending on when you're listening to the podcast. They need to be boring in the best possible way. Way. Clean in buildup, patient, refusing to hand Armus the loose touches his whole season is built to punish. And I want to just pivot for a second because this is the other thing sitting with me heading into the game that's got nothing to do with Kansas City. I don't know if you saw it, but Lindsay Heap is here, folks. She arrived in Denver very, very late on Wednesday night. A lot of the 14ers were out there to greet her with banners and signs saying, Welcome home. She's not going to be playing tonight. I There's no way she's playing on t in the game tonight. But she's close and once she's in the building, Denver's got two Denver has two international level leaders in one locker room. Janine Saunas, who's been the face of this franchise since the first whistle, and heaps walking in as a global superstar. That's the kind of dynamic that And the two of them, both local to Colorado, are going to be co-captaining this team for the remainder of the season. And we had the opportunity to talk to Nick and ask him, two national team level leaders in one locker room, how do you handle that dynamic? Real Colorado, Colorado Rush. These two grew these two grew up in the same Colorado soccer system, played against each other as kids, and apparently have been texting each other all season long waiting for this. You can't manufacture that with a locker room culture plan. We are so fortunate. And I know that I've seen a lot of the messages on social media saying this team should be Lindsay's and why should I've seen the messages on social media asking why is Lindsay going to be co captain? Janine's been here the whole time. Janine's on board. Nick's on board. Lindsay's on board. They want the best for the summit. And Nick knows how fortunate we are that Janine is doesn't have the big personality to have any sort of jealousy over having to share it. And he knows that he's lucky with Lindsay to know that she doesn't feel like she needs to be wearing the armband just because she's the US women's national team captain. Nick, listen to how he says it. He says, I'm in a luxury position here. He's not managing a conflict a conflict of big personalities. He inherited a friendship. I don't think that this is something that's going to show up on the field, ⁓ in the game today specifically, but it is the kind of thing that decides whether this team is still building something real in October or whether it cracks in July. I am choosing to believe that friendship holds. Okay, so back to the game tonight. Because whatever else is true about Kansas City right now, the coaching changes, the trades, the keeper the goal the goalkeeper situation, which If you guys didn't see my Instagram stories or the Instagram posts, we do have a new keepers. We currently, at the time of this recording, have four keepers on our roster. And Kat Asman has joined the Denver Summit. Four keepers, one roster. That's a pretty big keeper room. And it will be interesting to see if there is any movement. I anticipate that there will be movement because four keepers on a roster is is a lot. But welcome Kat Asman to the Denver Summit. She's been loaned out to us from the Orlando Pride. So it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next coming weeks. Again, back to Friday. Because whatever else is true. About Kansas City right now. None of it matters if Denver doesn't wheel, doesn't deal with Temwachewinga. Back to back golden boot, back to back league MVP, signed through 2029 because Kansas City wasn't about to let her walk anywhere. Seven goals already this season since returning from injury. She is yes, seven goal, seven goals, yeah, in eight games. So she's she's tough to stop. She is without exaggeration. the single hardest problem in this league to defend. And she's gonna be standing across from Kaylee Kurtz on Friday. We had the opportunity to talk to Kaylee Kurtz about what actually changes when you're the one tasked with marking the best transition threat in the league. Short answer, right? Almost too short. But that is Kaylee. She's not gonna give you the paragraph. She'll give you the sentence that matters. And I think it's important as a veteran response. She said, We're going to play the way we play. That's not code for anything complicated. That is a center back with an Iron Woman center back with a whole lot of straight starts under her belt, telling you she trusts the system. She tr she's not panicking that Shawinga She's not panicking about Chewinga specifically. She's trusting that if Denver does its job collectively, stays compact, refuses to get isolated in transition, plays their possession game, Chewinga's Chewinga speed stops being a weapon and starts being a very fast player running into a wall of green shirts. I want to believe that. I also know that that is the plan every team has going into a Chewinga matchup. And most of them still get burned. But Chewinga's not walking in alone. Bethune is the one feeding her. And the player Kansas City paid a million dollars to get from Washington, the 2024 rookie of the year and midfielder of the year in just her first season. She's the one who turns a contained Chewing-Counter. Back into a dangerous one, slipping her in behind a backline that thought it had things under control. If Denver's shutting down the target, but not the supply line, Friday will go sideways very, very fast. Tonight's game is gonna go sideways really, really fast. One more thing before my prediction. Kaylee has been around long enough that I wanted to s the scouting report version on heaps, not the hype version. That is a specific analysis of how Lindsay Heaps plays. Not the whole she's a great player. Everyone says that, right? Because she is, right? Kurtz is telling you exactly where heaps hurts you. Deadballs, set pieces, the three seconds of chaos in the box where a game actually turns. Denver hasn't had it. Denver hasn't had that yet this year. Every goal they've scored has come in on the run of play. If heaps adds a real set piece threat once she's integrated, that is a second layer of attack that that simply didn't exist through the first eleven matches. We're not gonna see it tonight in Friday's game. But it's coming and it's something to get excited about. So here's where I land. Kansas City is a team in genuine in genuine disarray right now. The coach is still newer. There's a few missing pieces. A goalkeeper situation that I don't nobody really feels great about. A loss in Columbus. On paper, this is the softest matchup Denver has had all year. But again, I say that and we're going up against Choinga. And Nick Cushing isn't treating it like a soft matchup. He's treating it like a chess match against a coach that he has beaten before. With a teen that just spent five weeks getting healthy and getting it getting its rhythm back, and Kaylee Kurtz isn't talking about Chewinga like she's scared of her. She's talking about her like a problem that a system solves, not a problem that one player solves alone. And all of that gets done inside of a building that Nick himself said gives this team no excuse not to be the best that they can be. And I like my prediction, I like Denver here. Not comfortably. Chewinga can turn a boring afternoon into a bad one in about four seconds. But I like a rested, focused Denver team against a Kansas City side that is still kind of trying to figure out who it is. My my game prediction is going to be a three one summit victory. I do think that Chewinga gets on the board, but If you don't have tickets yet, well, what are you waiting for? They even have a special deal. If you go to Denversummitfc.com for $7 off tickets for the July 3rd, obviously tonight, and the July 12th match. So if you are listening to this late and you want to go to the game on the 12th, you can do that and get $7 off a ticket. There's also, if you want more tickets, check out the Denver, check out the Colorado 14ers. They have a great Discord. People in there are trading and selling tickets on a regular basis. So join the Discord if you haven't yet. I talked with the fourteeners in the last episode. Check that episode out as well. It's going to be fun to be back, folks. As you could tell ready to be back. I'm so excited to be back. There's gonna be We're in the countdown phases for Lindsay Heaps to take the pitch. She's here. She's going to be in the building for the games. Now's our chance to really show her what we've been building here in Denver prior to her arrival. Let's show up. Let's be loud. Summit. I think it's going to get a victory because we're going to be amped that she's here. This is going to be a great game. All right, that's it for today's episode. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter. If you haven't received one in a while and you are subscribed, check your spam. Gmail's tricky. Sign up at 5280pitch.com. There's blogs there. I got great merch there at the website. There is a sweet new embroidered 5280 black-on-black sweatshirt you have to check out. It is killer. And Be sure to like and subscribe. Follow along. Leave us a review because when you do that, ⁓ it helps people find the show and become not just fans of Denver Summit FC, but fans ⁓ of women's ⁓ Thank you much for being here. I'm Kate Hant. Thank you, be thank you so much for being here. This has been the 5280 Pitch, ⁓ Women's Soccer Altitude.