Elizabeth Williams Explains Why WNBA Players Drew Line on Housing
WNBA players have secured team housing through labor negotiations, ensuring support until 2028.
Inductees of the National Soccer Hall of Fame choose presenters to introduce them during the ceremony. This year, Tobin Heath and Heather O'Reilly will be inducted, with O'Reilly selecting Gotham FC's Yael Averbuch West as her presenter.
Mentioned in this story
How National Soccer Hall of Fame inductees choose their presenters: âI didnât do this on my ownâ
Great careers rarely end in a single, cinematic moment. More often, they taper off quietly, the recognition arriving years later. Induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame is one of those rare full-circle moments. It is also a chance to choose who tells your story.Â
This year, two former U.S. womenâs national team stars Tobin Heath and Heather OâReilly, will take their place among the gameâs greats in a ceremony on May 1 in Frisco, Texas. Like all inductees past and present, they have selected someone special to introduce them at the annual ceremony. The decision is not one players take lightly when making a choice between family members, mentors and friends.
For OâReilly, that person is Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West.
âI have a lot of wonderful teammates and coaches, but at the end of the day, I really wanted a teammate to present me,â OâReilly said. âI have prided myself for so many years on being a good teammate. Obviously, people can have different interpretations of what that means, but that was just a trait that I tried to bring to every single team that Iâve been part of.â
OâReilly and Averbuch West both grew up in New Jersey, born a year apart, and developed a relationship that was competitive and close.Â
âFor whatever reason, it was decided she would move up to the â85 age group at ODP (Olympic Development Program). At first, I was a little thrown, those were my early, competitive days with Yael,â OâReilly explained. âBut I also admired the boldness of it. She basically said, âIâm not playing unless itâs a year up.â Hard to argue with that kind of confidence.â
Their paths continued to mirror one another: both played at the University of North Carolina, both reached the national team, and both played professionally for Sky Blue F.C. and won a championship in the now-defunct Womenâs Professional Soccer league.Â
âI feel as if she knows what it takes better than anybody,â OâReilly said. âYael has seen the evolution of me as a person and a player through the years, and also sheâs quite good at this kind of stuff,â referring to Averbuch Westâs ability to give powerful speeches.Â
The 2023 inductees are former U.S. women's national team stars Tobin Heath and Heather O'Reilly.
Choosing a presenter allows inductees to honor someone special who has influenced their career, making the moment more personal and meaningful.
The induction ceremony is scheduled for May 1, 2023, in Frisco, Texas.
Heather O'Reilly has chosen Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West to present her at the induction ceremony.
WNBA players have secured team housing through labor negotiations, ensuring support until 2028.

Eagles bolster roster with 8 UDFAs and Joshua Weru signing
Tyler Andrews and Karl Egloff aim for a speed record on Everest this climbing season.
Washington's running game looks uncertain for 2026 after losing key players.
Three-star WR Jamir Dean commits to Penn State over other schools
Russell Wilson may pivot to a TV career after Giants stint.
See every story in Sports â including breaking news and analysis.
â(Iâm) looking forward to it but also a little nervous for some of her stories, but Iâm sure itâll be all out of love.â
Another product of New Jersey, Heath also shared the field at North Carolina in 2006 with her induction classmate; OâReilly was a senior and Heath a freshman, helping deliver an NCAA championship. The partnership carried into the national teamâs golden era with Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and a World Cup title in 2015.
For Heath, the decision for her Hall of Fame presenter came down to two people who had been with her the longest: her mother, Cindy, and her wife, Christen Press, who retired from professional soccer at the end of the 2025 season.
âI certainly didnât do this on my own. Iâve had incredible mentors, coaches and teammates along the way. But when I really thought about it, whoâs been there across the entire arc of my career? The answer was obvious: my mom,â she said.Â
When her mom politely declined, Heath turned to Press.Â
Press and Heath were teammates on the USWNT for more than a decade, starting around 2013, and won the World Cup in 2015 and 2019. They also shared a stint at Manchester United during the 2020â21 season. Toward the end of their playing careers, they started a media company and co-host a weekly podcast, The Re-Cap Show.
âI know everybody always kind of wants to get that inside look at an athleteâs life, in the locker room, and be as close to the game as possible, as close to those moments as possible,â Heath said. âThereâs no one closer to those moments and closer to me as a human than Christen. And honestly, Iâm interested in hearing what sheâs gonna say.â
As of the 2026 class, more than 30 women have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, each with a story behind their choice of presenter.
Brandi Chastain, inducted in 2016 but honored in 2017, selected Tony DiCicco, the former U.S. coach who encouraged her to take the decisive penalty in the 1999 World Cup final with her left foot. DiCicco died a few months later from cancer. He was 68 years old.
âI asked him because he brought me back to the USWNT but in a totally different position, which extended my career and set me up for all kinds of life lessons, learnings and success in mindset, change and personal resiliency,â she told The Athletic.
Carli Lloyd chose her father, Steve. Abby Wambach selected her longtime teammate Christie Pearce. Lauren Holiday chose her mother, Rita Cheney.
For some, the way they chose their presenters became a story in itself.Â
Briana Scurry, inducted in 2017 and honored in 2018, was the first female goalkeeper and the first female player of color in the Hall. She chose her lifelong friend Naomi Gonzalez. At the time, she was still navigating the aftermath of a serious head injury sustained from a knee-to-the-head collision during a 2010 match when she was playing for the Washington Freedom, abruptly ending her career.Â
âNaomi and her partner came to D.C. to raise money for their company and met with Chryssa Zizos, who was interested in being an investor,â Scurry told The Athletic. âDuring that meeting, they went to dinner and got to know each other, where Chryssa mentioned she ran a PR firm. Naomi, equal parts healer and natural connector, used the moment. She told Chryssa about my head injury and a drawn-out battle with an insurance company, and asked if sheâd be willing to step in and help push for the care that was being denied.â
Zizos helped secure coverage for an experimental surgery and a year of therapy, while also helping Scurry rebuild her career. The professional relationship became personal; the two married in June 2018. Scurry felt like she owed her friend Gonzalez the honors.Â
âAfter everything sheâs done for me, the fact that sheâs still in my life, and someone who really understood me and was there for the triumphs and the difficulties,â Scurry said. âI wanted Naomi to present me that day.â
Another U.S. goalkeeper, Hope Solo, made a similar personal choice, asking her husband to present her. Though her path to the Hall was less straightforward. Despite holding nearly every major international goalkeeping record, she was not a first- nor second-ballot inductee.
When she was finally selected on her third ballot, Solo considered declining. She ultimately accepted for her family.
âThe induction became about legacy,â she told The Athletic. âSomething they can see and hold onto. Who better to speak to my fight and everything Iâve endured than the man who stood beside me? A strong former footballer who can speak, clearly and unapologetically, about the woman he loves. Thereâs power in that. In a room full of authority, presidents, decision-makers, the usual power structure, having a man step up and tell my story, what Iâve been through, what itâs cost, what itâs meant. It lands differently. And it mattered.â
For the inductees, the connection to their people ran deeper than trophies or timelines: each inductee chose someone who had seen the full picture, not just the player on the field, but the person behind it.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
US Women's national team, NWSL, Women's Soccer
2026 The Athletic Media Company