Dash assistant Twila Kaufman paving way for American women in soccer

Nearly 20 years ago, bad timing virtually ended Twila Kaufman’s chances of becoming a professional soccer player in the United States.

In 2021, good timing might eventually vault Kaufman onto the shortlist of candidates the next time an NWSL club needs a new head coach.

As she enters her second season as an assistant coach with the Houston Dash, Kaufman is enrolled in United States Soccer’s Pro License program, which was created in 2016.

The program is designed for coaches to further develop the skills and competencies necessary to work as a professional coach in a professional environment. There are a lot of broad ideas discussed, but one of the most important ones is how to tie a coach’s identity to their environment, their city and their club together into one expression.

It’s an intense, year-long course through which each coach better understands what the game means to them and how to mold that into a finished product on the pitch.

Many big names throughout U.S. leagues have graduated from the Pro License course, but only two of them have been women - Jill Ellis and Laura Harvey. This year’s class includes two more women - Kaufman and USWNT youth coach Tracey Kevins.

Because Ellis, Harvey and Kevins were born in England, Kaufman has a chance to be a pioneer of sorts as the first woman born in the United States to graduate. The importance of that is not lost on her.

“First and foremost, being a human that earns their way into the Pro License is a big deal as a football coach,” Kaufman said. “If I am the first American-born female, that is significant as well because we have a lot of women that are capable of being Pro License coaches and are coaching professionally but they maybe didn’t benefit from the same things I am benefiting from right now.

“It’s the pro league, the pro license and the little bit of culture shift and the timing of their life as well.”

Playing career cut short

After a standout playing career at the University of Arizona, Kaufman had every reason to believe she could succeed in professional soccer.

Kaufman was named the team’s rookie of the year as a freshman and ultimately became a four-year starter. When she ended her college career in 2003, she had played more matches than any player in Arizona history.

Little did she know, her playing days were already behind her. Kaufman and other top amateur players hoped to make a name for themselves in the Women’s United Soccer Association - the first women’s professional league in the United States - but the league folded after just three seasons.

Noting that she was “a little heartbroken,” Kaufman said she decided to control what she could control and got into coaching. She took her first job as a volunteer graduate assistant at Northern Arizona University. The following year she landed as a full-time assistant coach at Pepperdine.

Kaufman spent 10 years at Pepperdine before landing her first head coaching job at California-Davis. She stepped down from UC-Davis in April 2019 with her sights set on getting into professional coaching.

The importance of education

While she waited, she helped with the U.S. youth national teams in Europe. While she was there, she continued her extensive coaching education by tackling her UEFA ‘A’ coaching license.

Education always has been important for Kaufman. Her grandfather was a school principal, and her mother constantly preached learning as an important aspect of life. Kaufman said she was fortunate to attend a high school that also emphasized how to learn.

Kaufman’s undergraduate degree is in secondary education. She has a Master’s degree in athletic administration and coaching. She got her first U.S. Soccer coaching license when she was 24.

“One of my life mottos is I want to be a better 99-year-old than a 98-year-old,” she said. “The only way to do that is if you are current, you’re staying modern, you’re testing your current values and belief systems and also what you think you know in terms of the game. It’s always a win just to learn more.”

More female coaches are important

It should not be surprising, then, that one of her biggest roles with the Dash is teaching. Kaufman is in charge of the players’ Individual Development Plans.

She has been working with center back Katie Naughton on finding an outlet more quickly and efficiently so the Dash can switch fields as fast as possible. Naughton’s favorite player is Liverpool center back Virgil van Dijk, and Kaufman has spent a lot of time reviewing his game tape and sending clips to Naughton to show her what she should be working on.

Kaufman has been working with midfielder Bri Visalli this preseason about her positioning off the ball. The goal is to make Visalli more impactful in build-up play this season.

Forward Nichelle Prince has been working closely with Kaufman and said she appreciates that Kaufman challenges the players to do more than they have in the past. Every coach needs to do that, Prince noted, but having a woman do so will always be more meaningful.

“No one understands us more than a female who has played and done what we’ve done,” Prince said. “It is important that there are more female coaches in this game, who have played at this level...There are girls on our team who are going after (coaching) licenses. (Kaufman) is definitely an inspiration to other girls who want to be at that level, too.”

‘Women should be part of these things’

While more education is the biggest motivating factor for Kaufman to enroll in the Pro License course, it is not lost on her that she could play a role in helping other women do the same thing.

When her college playing career ended, and the WUSA folded, there was nothing tangible to hang onto that there would be another chance to play professionally in the United States. When Women’s Professional Soccer became the second pro league in the country, it too lasted only three years.

As the NWSL enters its ninth season there appears to be quite a bit of stability. The league is expanding, and player salaries are rising. While Kaufman has put in plenty of work to get where she is, she also recognizes the timing is virtually perfect for her.

In an ideal world, though, the NWSL keeps growing and women no longer need perfect timing to achieve something in professional soccer.

“I feel really fortunate because I am benefiting from the fact there is a Pro License right now in America, that we have a pro league, and the timing of when I took a pretty big leap of faith to leave a stable college job to find my better niche in this game, that I was hired at the Dash and the Dash had accellerated success,” Kaufman said. “We’re at a time when our culture is making a shift so that we’re recognizing that women should be part of these things.”