In the wake of the U.S. Women’s National Team’s gold-medal win at the Atlanta Summer Olympics, women’s soccer was enjoying rare national attention. But at ASU, the beginning of the women's soccer Division I program was far less glamorous.
In 1996, the inaugural Sun Devil team had no lights. They had no stadium. There was only a group of young, bright-eyed student-athletes ready to build a Division I program from the ground up.
“We were primarily all freshmen and one senior,” Aisha Reed (Thomas) said. “Everybody was new and having to figure it out together."
That first season wasn't glitzy.
The Sun Devils stepped directly into competition without the benefit of tradition, a roadmap or established facilities. The 1996 season ended with an overall record of 4-11-1.
But they did have a supportive coaching staff, and they were ready to put in the work. Three-a-days, pool workouts, runs up “A” Mountain. By the second season, they improved to 11-7-1.
“Our coaching staff really helped us. They were very knowledgeable but down to earth and knew how to get the best out of us without giving us that extra pressure,” said goalkeeper Erin Reinke, the program’s first in-state recruit.
“We had a very hard Head Coach in Terri Patraw. She had her goals, and we had to meet them at the end of the day.”
Reinke remembers the early years being all about buy-in, confidence, trust, and conviction. After all, they were laying the foundation of a program.
“There was belief that we actually could do well in the Pac-10 and get into the NCAA Tournament,” Reinke said. “That was the goal from Day One.”
By 2000, Reinke's senior year, the program reached the NCAA Tournament. The team advanced to the second round before falling to Portland. A monumental accomplishment by anyone's standards.
“We were the blue-collar kind of team. We didn’t always look pretty, but we did whatever it took to get the result," she said. "We just never doubted that we couldn’t win a game. We were going to make the NCAA Tournament in four years or less if we could. And we did.”
A Sun Devil family reunion
Thirty years later, the accomplishments of the inaugural Sun Devil Soccer squad are still celebrated. Members of the team who were able gathered for the Sun Devils' record-breaking 8-0 win over Grambling State and were honored on the field during halftime.
More importantly, the players were able to celebrate the friendships they built and the foundation they helped set for the future of Sun Devil Soccer.
“When you build something from the ground up, it is so impressionable,” said Julie Blagg, who joined the 1996 team as a junior transfer. “I feel like we haven’t skipped a beat. We shed a lot of sweat and a lot of tears, and we grew so much together.”
Sarah Bromenschenkel (Blaska), who came to ASU from Minnesota, said the lasting friendships are what stand out most.
“I’m most proud of the friendships we made,” she said. “My teammates, going through the trenches with them, having the stories and being able to come back and still celebrate everyone, it's an amazing experience.”
The growth of women's soccer
For many members of the inaugural team, the anniversary was not just a look back. It was a chance to see how far the program, the university and women’s sports have come.
When ASU’s first team arrived, professional opportunities for women’s soccer players were limited. Visibility was different. Facilities were different. Recruiting was different. The national conversation around women’s sports had not yet become what it is today.
Now, the players who once practiced without lights can watch current Sun Devils compete in a far more visible era, one that is setting attendance records and supporting a generation of young athletes who can see women’s sports as a future, not an exception.
“It’s phenomenal how much traction the Women’s World Cup has had, the Olympics and college sports,” Reed said. “It’s super special.”
Kim Grennan (Wagner), the program’s first out-of-state signee, has seen the sport change from multiple angles. She still plays and follows the game, but now she watches the growth of women’s sports through a parent's eyes.
“When I started, the thought of where it would be now, it’s hard to really imagine that,” Grennan said. “What people have access to is so different.”
That growth is visible in the current Sun Devil program. Today’s roster reflects a broader recruiting reach, deeper resources and a soccer landscape that extends well beyond what the inaugural team could have ever imagined.
The players who started the program take pride in that, even if they are modest about their role in it. They don't call themselves pioneers. But they were.
They were the ones who played before the stadium was built. They were the ones who endured the heat, the three-a-days and the uncertainty. They were the ones who proved ASU soccer could compete nationally within its first few years. They are the ones whose photo now hangs in the locker room, a reminder to current players that the program’s history began with a group willing to do the hard, unglamorous work first.
“I hope I paved the way,” Grennan said. “This is pretty amazing.”
Influence beyond Tempe
The legacy of the 1996 team extends beyond Tempe, reaching across the country and into the next generation of players, coaches and families.
Reinke played professionally in Denmark before becoming a college coach at Cal Poly and CSU Monterey Bay. At only 24 years old, Reed became head coach at College of Idaho and went on to win Coach of the Year before raising three children, all of whom continued in sports. Bromenschenkel coached her children’s teams, too.
That, too, is part of the legacy: Teaching young athletes what they learned at ASU, and showing them how to compete, how to endure and how to belong to something bigger than themselves.
Sun Devils for Life
Thirty years after that first season, the inaugural Sun Devil Soccer team is still connected by what it built. The players may live in different states now. Their lives have moved into careers, families and new chapters. But when they return to Tempe, the years compress. The stories come back. The laughter comes back. The pride comes back.
They were young once, standing on a field without lights, trying to figure it out together.
They did more than figure it out.
They gave Sun Devil Soccer a beginning.