Spokane Zephyr’s Taryn Ries excited to grow women’s game in U.S. after playing overseas

Taryn Ries was the Washington State 2A Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016 while playing for the Ridgefield Spudders .

She then was a three-time All-West Coast Conference selection with the Portland Pilots.

After graduating in 2021, she found herself in a position that hundreds of women face every year – a position that for a player as decorated as Ries is all too common.

What’s next?

Most women go abroad due to the lack of opportunity and roster constraints in the United States.

Prior to the formation of the USL Super League, the National Women’s Soccer League had 12 teams with an average of 21 players per roster. That amounts to approximately 252 players on active rosters.

In 2023, the NCAA said 6,658 women were draft eligible.

According to the NCAA in 2020, it is two times as likely a men’s Division I soccer play goes pro in the United States compared to women.

Ries found herself in a situation in which her talent said she could play pro, but the lack of options pushed her to the international scene. Thankfully, she loves to travel, so going overseas gave her that experience.

Had the USL Super League been an option at the time, Ries isn’t sure she would have made the move, depending on the situation, due to the risks of joining a new league.

Ries said she and her friends had conversations – and still do – about the USL Super League and the Zephyr and she feels confident the rewards outweigh any potential risks.

“Obviously, now that it’s up and running, I think it’s a lot easier for people to see how professional it is and how things are going,” she said. “But yeah, of course, a new league, so many unknowns that we’re all still just figuring out as we go.”

But knowing what she knows now, specifically about USL Spokane as an organization, she believes opportunities given to women coming out of college are expanding.

Ries said the core values that were explained to her by Spokane’s franchise made her decision easier.

That and feeling the passion from the top down .

“I know every day I’m going to be surrounded by a good group of people who are all here just working their butts off, trying to get the job done,” Ries said. “And that was really something that I wanted to be a part of.”

In 2009, when Spokane Zephyr head coach Jo Johnson was looking to make her next move after an impressive career at the University of Texas-El Paso, racking up all-conference and national accolades, she also felt stuck.

The NWSL hadn’t been formed and the previous league, the Women’s Professional Soccer, was ripe with internal issues and lack of financial security.

Johnson took the coaching route as she traversed the South, gaining knowledge and skills that made her the perfect fit for Spokane.

But if there’d been an option to play professionally, she would have without a doubt.

“They don’t have to just quit the sport that they love, but they can also use it to make money, to feed families, to learn, to continue to grow the sport,” Johnson said.

“It’s cool to be able to come back and represent communities, like Taryn.”

Ries, who took part in the U-15 and U-17 U.S. Women’s National team, decided to go the international route.

She played in Sweden for IK Uppsala in the Elitettan – The Elite First in English – the second-highest league in Sweden.

After two years, she headed to Germany to play for MSV Duisburg in the Frauen-Bundesliga, the top tier of Germany.

IK Uppsala now has all Swedes and two players from Finland. MSV Duisburg has four Americans this season, including Natalie Muth, who Ries played with at Portland for two years.

“It really pulled me out of my comfort zone,” Ries said. “Obviously, going to the University of Portland, being from Ridgefield, I was in the same area for a long time, so it was nice for me to get out, even though it was challenging at times. It really did help me grow as a player, but also, I think the even bigger thing was growing more as a person. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything, because it was so valuable for my life in so many ways.”

The Frauen-Bundesliga is on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association – or FIFA – calendar as the USL Super League, so it allowed her to transfer to Spokane without a hitch.

Leagues have freedom to pick what their seasons are. For example, the Elitettan plays a similar schedule to the NWSL and Major League Soccer because of the weather.

When Ries was done in May, she started receiving interest from Spokane. She went home to Ridgefield in June and after more conversations was introduced as one of the new players for the expansion side.

Ries and Johnson have the same opinion of international leagues, that promotion and regulation of the teams is the key to a successful soccer structure, and one that can promote growth.

The teams that do well on a year-to-year basis often stay in the higher leagues, and the teams that falter drop into lower leagues.

Ries said Sweden has seven or eight leagues that all use the promotion and regulation system.

That structure would be hard to implement in the U.S. for many reasons, including less profit for owners who get relegated. It is a younger league compared to the rest of the world and would differ from other professional leagues in the U.S.

But the international leagues have shown it can be done – and have for more than a century – and Ries and Johnson would love to see more women’s teams in a multitude of leagues.

“I think it’s so important for growth and especially in the U.S. – after going abroad to countries like Sweden, Germany, who are a fraction of the size of the U.S. – I think that really opened my eyes even more to the (lack) of professional teams that we have in the U.S.,” Ries said.

She said the start of the USL Super League will show the rest of the country that interest will grow, with expansion to Spokane leading the way.

But for now, Ries is focused on this season and what she can do every game to help Zephyr FC win.

Ries has athleticism that coaches covet, and Johnson knows she can use it to outplay opponents down the left side.

Last week against Brooklyn FC, Johnson noticed Ries was exploiting the Brooklyn right back, so she wanted Ries to be fed the ball.

“I love her confidence in those wide areas, being able to take people on, win her matchups out there,” Johnson said. “We always talk about winning the competitive plays, and I think she does that. And so, she just brings that level where we can she can combine in tight spaces, or she can isolate you.”

The more touches Ries received, the more her confidence grew.

That move led to the first goal of the game, the first for Ries and the second for the new franchise.

“I can’t totally describe it, just nice to be at home in front of our home fans and just have that first-goal moment,” Ries said. “Obviously, very exciting, we’ve put in so much work these past few months.”

For the first time, her 2½-year-old niece Athena will see her play Sunday when the Zephyr host Carolina Ascent FC at 6 p.m. at ONE Spokane Stadium.

“Obviously, in college she wasn’t a part of the picture, and then the past couple of years I’ve been abroad,” Ries said. “They were able to come visit, but they weren’t able to go to a game.”

Being stateside – and so close to home – has allowed her family and friends to experience her play for the Zephyr and to feel their energy.

Although she is playing in her home state – which has been a perfect experience for her – Ries knows opportunities can come from places she might not expect. That’s how she ended up overseas and how she might end up there again someday.

“It’s easier in regards to feeling comfortable just being around everyone that’s speaking English, and I can call my family at any time of the day, rather than I need to wait until the afternoon, when they’ll be awake,” Ries said.

“I feel like this is definitely where I am supposed to be.”