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Racing Louisville FC’s academy athletes get the opportunity each session for a professional experience, training over the same fields as the club’s first team at Champions Park.

This week, youth players also connected with the pros themselves while displaced by recent winter weather that recently hit the region. Snowed in and unable to practice, academy members connected with Racing’s roster about lessons learned along the way of their own path to pro.

All academy age groups were able to submit questions for first team coaches and players, including Emily Fox, the recent 2021 NWSL Draft’s No. 1 pick. Fox began training Thursday with Racing after a stint in camp with the U.S. Women’s National Team.

A former University of North Carolina star defender, Fox emphasized the importance of developing good habits early while also enjoying every step.

“Be in the moment,” she said. “Don’t forget where you are now.”

Racing teammates Julia Ashley, Emina Ekic, Taylor Otto along with coach Christy Holly joined this particular Zoom call with high school-aged academy players.

Ekic, the No. 5 draft pick out of the University of Louisville, drove home the importance of focusing on yourself rather than others.

“Comparisons are the thief of joy,” she said. “My teammates at Louisville all committed at different times in our high school careers, but we all ended up at the same place. Don’t get discouraged or down on yourself. Focus on yourself and your skills. Work on your weaknesses until they are your strengths.”

All four players emphasized the importance of learning from errors.

“Have confidence in yourself to know that you are going to make mistakes,” Otto said. “Those mistakes are what is going to allow you to get better.”

Ashley, who Racing acquired in the 2020 NWSL Expansion Draft, noted how she handles big situations when nerves come into play.

“Go back to the small things,” Ashley said. “I tell myself to make my next tackle hard or complete my next pass. Then from there, I slowly build.”

Academy athletes also heard from Holly some advice on defensive tactics that can be translated from the youth to first team levels.

“We can’t just talk about it and then expect to go out and do it on a Saturday,” Holly said. “We live that lifestyle. It is a very forward proactive way of living on and off the field.”

“It is a mentality,” Fox added.

Following the program, Racing’s players encouraged academy members to tune into the USWNT’s eventual 1-0 SheBelieves Cup victory over Canada. They also advised their aspiring counterparts not to be strangers around the training facility that will upon its completion this spring house operations for the club.

Players from fellow NWSL club Houston Dash are collecting funds in the wake of a winter storm that hit Texas this week, leaving thousands without electricity, heat and water.

We’re looking to send some love from Louisville, boosting the Dash’s efforts to raise money along with its MLS counterpart, the Houston Dynamo.

Those who contribute to the Dash’s Winter Relief Fund and add in the Additional Comments field the phrase “Love from Louisville” will be entered into a drawing for two Racing Louisville FC club seats to our inaugural opener along with a swag bag of goodies and gear.

• Amenities for these seats include:

• Access to the Fifth Third Club

• All-inclusive food and beverage (including beer and wine)

• VIP entrance

• Premium padded chair back seats

Proceeds to the Winter Relief Fund will benefit Kids Meals Houston and The Houston Food Bank. Additionally, Dynamo Charities is a registered nonprofit, and donations are typically tax deductible in the United States.

A date, time and opponent for Racing Louisville FC’s first NWSL home game at Lynn Family Stadium will be announced later. The league’s Challenge Cup tournament begins April 9.

As most of the region hunkered down under a Winter Weather Warning on Monday night, Racing Louisville FC’s staff put the finishing touches on a plan to ensure its preseason continued.

Players and coaches — preparing for their NWSL debut in April’s Challenge Cup — traveled north the next morning to Westfield, Ind., arriving for a stay at the Grant Park Events Center. Home to preseason camp for another top-tier team, the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, the grounds include a 300,000 square-foot indoor turf space with three full-sized soccer fields.

Racing Louisville is scheduled to train at Grand Park through Friday as its home base thaws out.

“It is so nice not to have to bundle up in like one thousand layers and try not to have our toes freeze to death,” said Brooke Hendrix, a defender from Sharpsburg, Ga. “It’s a really nice facility — great surface. I think we are going to get a lot accomplished in these short few days.”

This isn’t Racing’s first brush with winter weather since beginning training. Last Friday, the team similarly vanned east to Lexington, Ky., for training at Tower Hill Sports, another top-notch indoor facility.

Inside of two months from the NWSL Challenge Cup, players view this bit of adversity as valuable in building chemistry.

“We just want all of us to get into a groove and on the same page,” said CeCe Kizer, a forward from Overland Park, Kan.  “We are working a lot on our main principles right now because we are all new together. I think it is important to work defensively and offensively with the same standards. I think it is good to get in multiple trainings in a week because we haven’t been able to get into that rhythm yet of training”

Beyond that, Racing Louisville players are using this time to get to know one another off the pitch — at least as much as the COVID-19 pandemic will allow.

“At the apartments, you don’t always see everyone all the time even though we are living close,” Hendrix said. “I think this opportunity forces us to hang out with each other because we really don’t have anything else to do in the hotel. I think it is going to be good to get to know each other’s personalities off the field as well as on the field.”

On their way to Indianapolis, one van held a karaoke competition. Kizer described it as “just a good vibe.”

While out of town, team meetings will continue, too. There’s perhaps more time for impromptu bonding activities as well, with players mentioning rounds of Uno, Phase Ten and Bananagrams.

This is all in preparation for kickoff as soon as April 9. Following the Challenge Cup, Racing’s inaugural regular season will begin in mid-May.

The squad continues to build. Within the last week, forward Yuki Nagasato, a World Cup winner in 2011 with Japan, cleared quarantine and began training. The 2021  NWSL Draft’s No. 1 pick, defender, Emily Fox, will hit the pitch with Racing for the first time on Thursday having recently attended U.S. Women’s National Team camp.

Racing Louisville FC season ticket memberships are now on sale with more than 3,000 already claimed. To purchase your own, visit www.racingloufc.com/racingloufc/tickets or call (502) 568-2489 during regular business hours to reach our team.

It may not reflect on the scoreboard this season — such are challenges of being an expansion club — but Racing Louisville FC Head Coach Christy Holly expects to make the rest of the NWSL “uncomfortable.”

In a new story by The Athletic’s Matt Pentz, Holly talked up the facilities and culture around Racing, which will kick off its inaugural campaign this April in the NWSL’s Challenge Cup tournament.

“Our owners have shown a real desire to raise the level,” Holly told Pentz. “Sometimes you look around and get frustrated that what we’re doing (in professional women’s soccer) is not the standard. I think it will make people uncomfortable around the league, truthfully, but I think the people within this organization are going to drive continual evolution of standards within this league.”

Of course, Racing will play home games at the new Lynn Family Stadium, which can accommodate 15,304 fans and is situated just east of downtown Louisville. Players are housed in riverfront apartments, and a nearby $15 million training facility is expected to fully open this spring.

“There’s just something so exciting about this,” goalkeeper Michelle Betos said. “I’ve been around the league for a long time and just my initial impressions about the stadium and the way they presented themselves on social media and their messaging — the way they spoke about the club and what they wanted it to be — it was just an impressive thing for me. Even if I wasn’t involved with the club, I would still be grateful that Louisville is involved in this league.”

Holly also described some difficulties in assembling a roster amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, Swedish midfielder Freja Olofsson continues to await her visa. The coach hinted that other reinforcements are to come.

“Will we win the NWSL next year? Probably not,” Holly told Pentz. “Will you come here and take three points for free? I certainly hope not, or shame on me.

“…It doesn’t have to happen overnight. Make sure that we do this step-by-step, and build something that will hopefully outlast all of us.”

Read The Athletic’s full feature on Racing Louisville FC here.

Ask the mild-mannered Racing Louisville FC Academy star what’s going on in her life, and Ella Sanchez tends not to mention that she’s been called into a United States U-17 National Team Women’s Virtual Camp.

But bring up Sanchez with her coaches, and they can’t stop talking about how this was no fluke.

“I’m not surprised about Ella’s call up in the sense that she works incredibly hard behind the scenes on her own,” said Tim Nowak, director of the Racing academy. “I know how hard she works in an environment when no one is watching her to hone her craft. This is just validation for everything she does away from the team.”

Sanchez, who turns 16 in March, has entered the player pool for the 2022 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India as she goes through a series of video conferences with the national team that began last Friday.

“It’s everything,” Sanchez said of this opportunity. “That’s my dream, so it’s just so cool to even get called up and even have the opportunity to prove myself at that level.”

The invitation marks the first national team call up for either the Louisville City FC or Racing academies. They launched within the last year in support of the corresponding professional clubs.

Sanchez is also building on a strong family legacy in the game. Her father, Mario, is a former University of Louisville men’s assistant and SIU Edwardsville head coach who has returned to town to lead both academies. Their vision is to develop more collegiate, professional and national team athletes than any other academy in the U.S.

“We’re a new academy and we have aspirations of producing national team players on both the male and female side,” Mario Sanchez said. “So having the first official athlete called up is a huge deal for the club and for the player. We hope it inspires all the young girls in the club to aim high.

“As a dad, I’m extremely proud. I see how much work she puts in every day, and how it has paid off. It’s exciting to see because she has aspirations of playing in the youth World Cup, senior World Cup and maybe Racing Louisville FC someday.”

Ella Sanchez began her club career upon the family’s move from Louisville, first playing for one of the midwest’s most competitive youth soccer programs in St. Louis Scott Gallagher. As with Racing, it’s a member of the top youth circuit, the Elite Clubs National League.

Back here with her dad at the academy’s helm, Ella Sanchez credits the program’s competitive nature as well as a working relationship with Racing Louisville FC’s players for her motivation.

“It’s a really professional environment, especially having the first team,” she said. “You can see the level you need to be training at to get to that next level.”

Already home to the two-star USL Championship club Louisville City FC, Lynn Family Stadium is in the running to win a trophy of its own.

The venue, which celebrated its inaugural season last year and in 2021 is also becoming home to the National Women’s Soccer League expansion side Racing Louisville FC, has been nominated for Stadium Database’s 2020 Stadium of the Year competition, it was announced Monday.

The contest matches Lynn Family Stadium against other new facilities from across the globe with voting running now through March 15 at StadiumDB.com. Lynn Family Stadium is up for both the Popular Vote, decided solely upon fan selections, and Jury Vote determined by a panel of architectural experts. 

To vote, click here and select five stadiums, rating them one through five stars, to complete a ballot. Users can vote once per device.

After more than 30,000 votes were cast from 127 countries or territories, last year’s Popular Vote was headlined by Hungary’s $615.8 million Puskás Aréna with the Premier League’s $1.3 billion Tottenham Hotspur Stadium coming in second. The architectural vote, however, swung to the Japan National Stadium which was constructed in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics now rescheduled for this summer.

With a capacity of 15,304 in the Butchertown neighborhood just east of downtown Louisville, Lynn Family Stadium was intricately designed to embody the culture of the city its clubs proudly call home. 

“Featuring a bourbon barrel-inspired facade, the unique ‘eyelash’ lights and ideal sight lines from every section, we’ve added to the city’s landscape the type of venue that can put Louisville into global conversations when it comes to the international game of soccer,” said Brad Estes, President of Soccer Holdings LLC.

“We can’t wait to see Lynn Family Stadium in all her glory with 15,000 supporters cheering on our Racing Louisville FC and Louisville City FC teams.”

Lynn Family Stadium’s construction includes a number of supporter-friendly features. There’s a state-of-the-art video board — second largest in Kentucky behind Churchill Downs’ massive screen — ideal seating close to the pitch, myriad food and drink options, solar-powered charging stations, a beer garden and a 72-foot bar at the facility’s open end believed to be the longest in the state.

The $65 million project was completed in March of last year, but Lynn Family Stadium waited until July for its grand opening to 4,850 fans — roughly one-third capacity given restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With its safe-standing supporter zones providing ardent support, it still served as a solid home field advantage as LouCity took a 13-game unbeaten streak into the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference Final.

Racing Louisville will kick off its inaugural season in the NWSL Challenge Cup, which starts April 9, while LouCity’s 2021 campaign opens on or around May 1.