“I grew up in a club where verbal and sexual abuse was prevalent, and even known. That was all I knew,” says the Gotham FC goalkeeper Michelle Betos. “So when I got to the professional ranks and those things existed, I was almost immune to them. I think that was the biggest issue in this league for so long. From youth to professional, that’s all we knew.
“To be in a room of coaches that were talking about that, that were understanding it, that were recognising how important the mental side of this game is for the development of those kids as humans, whatever they go on to do, was emotional.”
