It took until 2022 for Karla Thompson to feel like she might be able to make a career out of soccer.

By that point, she had already built a resume that most would be envious of: the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association, the Arizona Soccer Association, and U.S. Soccer. It wasn’t until she started her role as the Executive Director of Performance and Development for the (at the time) newly founded San Diego Wave, that Thompson even believed it was a viable career.

“I never did. I played soccer because it was fun,” Thompson said. “I was a three-sport athlete in high school and had scholarships for both basketball and soccer. I was like, ‘Well, I’m a little bit further along in soccer.’ That was literally it.”

Thompson is now the NWSL’s Director of Youth Development, a role she took on in 2024 after her time with the Wave, and one that places her at the center of shaping what the league’s future can look like at its foundation. She steps into that role as a Black woman whose perspective has been shaped by a lived experience and a deep understanding of what access and opportunity can mean for young players from all walks of life.

At its core, Thompson’s role goes beyond oversight. It’s about mentorship, developing the sport, and building a meaningful future for both the game and the women who play it.

That future, Thompson knows, doesn’t get built by accident. At every turn, Thompson lifts others up with her.

But that sense of responsibility didn’t come out of nowhere. Thompson’s father grew up in Birmingham, Alabama during segregation. His father was killed when he was a child and Thompson’s family never got answers – or justice. Her father was the oldest of seven children and went to work early to support them, eventually joining the Air Force because college wasn’t financially possible. From there, he earned his way into the Air Force Academy, flew B-52s in Vietnam, became a lawyer, and eventually returned to the National Guard as a JAG officer and commander.

Thompson didn’t understand the magnitude of that history until she was older but once she did, it shaped how she moved through the world. It also created an urgency to develop access, stability, and opportunity inside women’s soccer.

Take the inaugural NWSL Combine for example. Every coach for both the youth and adult sessions was female, a decision made deliberately by Thompson and her staff.

“I intentionally said we need to create opportunities for more women because it’s very important for young players to understand that there are some very good women coaches,” Thompson said at the time. “There are some advantages to being coached by women. I was never coached by a female, and I would have loved to be. We understand physically, mentally, cognitively, emotionally, what the players are going through, which I think can help in their development.”

The decision was less about optics and more about exposure, showing young players what is possible simply by letting them see it in action.

“The really cool thing about Karla is she’s gonna push you 10 times harder because you have to work 10 times harder to be half as good,” Leigh Jakes, the Youth Development Director for Atlanta United FC and one of the NWSL Combine coaches, said. “She brings people up. She’ll challenge you, but she’ll fight for you.”

“Karla drives standards. She drives excellence,” Katie Richie, Director of Soccer for Legends FC San Diego and NWSL Combine Coach, added. “Her passion for kicking down as many doors for as many people as possible, it’s infectious.”

For Thompson, that work is inseparable from who she is and the history she carries. As a Black woman in a sport that has long struggled with representation at every level, her very presence is itself an impact. Not just in being in the room, but in reshaping who gets invited into it next.

Thompson entered into the soccer world at six years old, and as she started to stand out on the pitch, she earned invitations to youth national team camps without fully understanding what that meant.

“Back then you had no idea what the heck you were doing,” she said. “You just got an invitation so you went and tried out for a camp. Next thing you know, you’re on a state team.”

That state team camp turned into an invitation to a regional team, a stepping stone to the national team. Instead of excitement, Thompson burst into tears.

“I’m with my friends who are on my state team. I was the only one that got called up,” Thompson said. “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to do this. I don’t know these people. Why do I want to play with these people?”

These people, her new teammates, included Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm.

But while Foudy and Hamm went on to become the faces of the national team, Thompson chased a different dream – flying. The daughter of an Air Force pilot, Thompson saw aviation as a chance for career stability.

“I grew up making model planes,” Thompson said. “This was a way that I could have a security blanket because I am always going to be a pilot.”

She turned down offers for West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy when choosing college; with either no women’s soccer program or less competitive ones at the time, Thompson instead chose Colorado College, keeping her close to her native Denver. Her junior year, Thompson was a second-team All-American selection.

But when a spot opened up in officer school before she graduated, she leapt at the opportunity to get her wings.

All the while, though, she never walked away from coaching soccer.

“Soccer for me, back then, was just something to do,” she said. “It wasn’t something that I aspired to do at a high level. I just enjoyed playing it.”

During Black History Month, stories are often framed around record breakers and pioneers. The first Black woman to score 50 goals in the NWSL, the highest scoring Black woman in USWNT history, and so on. Thompson’s story fits that lineage, even if she would never describe it that way. Her impact lives less in headlines and more in the systems she’s helping to build and in the quiet, daily work of creating space where there once was none.

In essence, her fingerprints are on the very foundation of the sport. And for a league that is still growing, she represents something steady: intention, care, and the belief that progress has to start somewhere.

The game’s future will be defined by the stars on the field. It will also be defined by people like Karla Thompson, the ones quietly making sure there is a field to step onto at all.