Brandi began playing football in 1981 at age 5, in a park near Los Angeles with her three sisters and parents. Just 20 years prior, the American Youth Soccer Association (AYSO) had been established not far away, and it had been nine years since the passage of Title IX, the landmark 1972 United States (US) civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving government funding, including sports. 

These factors in combination, the year and location, meant that she was among the first generation of women to play from a young age in organized girls' football leagues and to grow up seeing professional women's football celebrated on television from the 85ers to the 99ers and beyond. 

After some time off the pitch, Brandi began playing again in local recreational football leagues. Between 2010 and 2017, she became known in this community for printing "Soccer Women PLAY" logo shirts, creating a free directory of tournaments for women, and establishing an active social media presence. 

Brandi currently plays in age 40+ and 48+ recreational women's leagues in San Diego and travels around the world to participate in standard and walking football tournaments. She works remotely as a bookkeeper and project assistant to small businesses and non-profits. Since its founding, San Diego Soccer Women has connected more than 3,000 women with football opportunities globally.

Brandi recently took some time to share her footballing journey with me and how recreational football (soccer) is the missing piece in the women’s sports movement. 

Bonito: Tell me about your experience playing soccer as a child. How did you reconnect with the sport as an adult, and what inspired you to start San Diego Soccer Women?

Brandi: My mom and dad raised me and my three sisters to be active and adventurous. We enrolled in classes for dance, gymnastics, swimming, softball, field hockey, volleyball, track and, of course, soccer. My dad coached my older sister on a team and registered me on the same squad, even though I was two years younger. With all the choices for activities, soccer became the sport that I asked to join season after season. As my sisters found other hobbies, I stuck with soccer and was selected for more competitive teams. After years of watching their kids play and coaching their teams, both of my parents joined adult soccer leagues, and us kids sat on the sidelines. It wasn't until decades later that I realized the value in seeing my parents as athletes, especially my mom who had never had the chance to play any sports as a girl.

Bonito: How does San Diego Soccer Women compare to other women's sport initiatives, and how do you see your role in promoting inclusion in women's recreational soccer, both locally and globally?

Brandi: The leagues in Southern California have been around a long time. The idea of older women playing soccer isn't something I invented, and I'm always careful not to take credit for that. What I've done is bring visibility to something that already existed, and I think of my role as a connector, almost like a dating service for women's soccer players. Women reach out to me from all over the country, and sometimes the world, telling me where they're from and asking where they can play. I connect them to a nearby league or to someone in my network who can get them an opportunity. Within these leagues there's a huge community, so I'm not just connecting women to a place to play, I'm connecting them to everything around it. A lot of women are looking for that human connection before they even try something new, so part of what I do is bring women who've been in this network for years together with women who are brand new to it, often through partner organizations that already have events planned.

What sets this apart from other initiatives, and what I care most about, is changing how people think about women's identities in sport. This isn't a "mom league," and not every older woman on the field is a mother or a grandmother. I'm trying to create a space where women can be athletes first, which is why I use the term "soccer women" rather than framing things around motherhood or grandmotherhood, the way a lot of older women's leagues around the world do. Motherhood and grandmotherhood are culturally significant, and that's real, but I think there's a separate space for that. This is about giving women the chance to play without their identity on the field being tied to their role in the family, and that extends to language too. A professional-level woman athlete should never be called a girl, no matter how casual or playful people think that sounds.

Bonito: What are some of the challenges to expanding the growth of women's recreational soccer in the US?

Brandi: Women's recreational soccer is well-established along the coasts, but there are still significant gaps in the middle of the country. By the numbers, we should have more women playing than ever, since more girls are playing soccer now than in previous generations. But that's not how it's playing out. Over the past 10 to 15 years, we've seen a decrease in the number of teams in women's leagues.

We're also seeing shifts by age group. At our tournaments, you'll see plenty of 50+ and 55+ teams, but fewer 40+ teams. Part of that comes down to competition for women's time. Women now have more ways to stay active than ever: CrossFit, pickleball, running, softball, and field hockey. As those options multiply, it puts strain on how many times a week someone can commit to any one sport. We have women in San Diego who play soccer three or four times a week, but now they're weighing that against pickleball or a gym workout. So, even though participation numbers look fine on paper, women aren't necessarily showing up for every game. It's not that fewer women are interested in playing. It's that they must choose how they spend their time and energy, and soccer is competing with a lot more than it used to.

Bonito: Women's sports are gaining popularity in the US and globally, but not all girls will be able to play professionally. How does recreational soccer fit into that picture, and how can it expand pathways for women to stay active later in life?

Brandi: We need to show girls that women play professional sports, but just as important, we need to show them that women play recreational sports, because most girls will never go pro. Right now, there generally aren't clear pathways for women to keep playing after high school or college, to stay lifelong athletes. Why shouldn't recreational soccer be part of that timeline for a young athlete, right alongside the professional path?

It's not enough to show girls women in their 70s and 80s still playing. They also need to see women in their 30s and 40s choosing to make sport part of their weekly routine, whatever that looks like for them. That message, that sport can be a normal, ongoing part of a woman's life, is so underpromoted when we talk to girls about what's possible. On the flip side, professional women's soccer teams also have work to do here: they need to engage older demographics too, not just young families and girls.

Bonito: What inspires you most in the work you do at San Diego Soccer Women?

Brandi: I work with a lot of women who are nonprofit founders, and they're almost always doing it on their own. We talk a lot about how lonely that can be, and how slowly things move sometimes. I see so many women becoming successful in women's sports and giving so much to other women, and no matter what your goals are, there's always someone out there doing something bigger. In the moments when I'm frustrated, feeling like I haven't achieved what I set out to do, I'll usually hear from a woman within a few days who tells me, "You changed my life. You made such a difference for me. I never would have gotten involved in soccer in the first place," or "I never would have gone back," or "I never would have joined this particular team or tournament."

For example, I recently did a podcast where I talked about perimenopause, and afterward I got an email from a woman in our soccer community. She told me she's struggling with menopause and needed to hear someone talk about it openly, and that it gave her hope for what it could look like to stay in the women's soccer community through that.

That's what keeps me going: individual women making the effort to reach out and tell me that something I did mattered to them. That's enough. In that exchange, we're meeting each other's needs, and to me, that's what humanity is about. I also see many of the women that I started playing with 22 years ago in my local league on a weekly basis. They've supported San Diego Soccer Women by sharing my information with women they've met. It feels so good to be part of the community and to play; you want to spread that. There's probably 50 or so women around the country who are using my branding and name to be able to connect women to opportunities.

Bonito: How do travel tournaments give women additional opportunities to experience the sport outside of the US, and what prompted you to join the United Nations' Football for the Goals initiative?

Brandi: At age 14, my first international travel experience was traveling from Southern California to a play in youth tournament in Ottawa, Canada. The next year, I flew alone to Paris for a family homestay. After finishing my university studies in international policy and French, there was always a part of me that wanted to explore global culture, even if I wasn't working in the industry. 

Fast forward from 1998 to 2018, when I had an unexpected chat on social media with a photographer in Northern Norway. He invited me to the famous pitch in Henningsvaer, Lofoten Islands, where he lived. I sent a message to my women's soccer community letting them know that I was organizing a once-in-a-lifetime journey above the Arctic Circle. I then started coordinating the travel logistics.

We arrived in Oslo in July with a squad of 19 women, ages 41 to 72, and had an amazing adventure. We played a friendly during the Norway Cup, which is an international youth tournament, losing 12-1. I spoke at a panel about girls' equality in soccer. We met with a U.S. Embassy Oslo staff member to present the idea of older women as ambassadors in sport. I was also introduced to the prime minister of Norway (a woman). And that was all before we even arrived at the remote fishing village that was our magical, final destination.

Since then, I've organized group trips to play women's soccer in France, Iceland, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Canada. I also regularly travel solo to take part in soccer events around the world.

Travel tournament opportunities for older women started with multi-sport events organized by the International Masters Games Association in 2002. The online directory that I created to serve as a resource for players looking for competitions includes events in destinations that aren't known for soccer tournaments, such as South Africa.

It was through the planning of that 2018 Norway trip that I learned about the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the SDGs or The Global Goals, and the UN Football for the Goals initiative. I knew I wanted to make sure that a larger message was being communicated through my group travel experiences. The SDG initiatives are not well-known in the US, unless you happen to live near the UN Headquarters in New York or work in international development. 

Of the 17 SDGs, I chose four to focus on: Gender Equality, Reduced Inequalities, Good Health and Well-Being, and Partnerships for the Goals. I was fortunate to connect with Majken Gilmartin in Denmark, co-founder of the Global Goals World Cup, and with Bettina Hausmann, director of the United Nations Association-San Diego, who both welcomed me into their circles and shared their resources, contacts, and expertise. 

By partnering with organizations focused on the day-to-day ways to achieve sustainability, I was able to introduce these topics in the context of soccer. For me, these ideas include valuing women athletes first as individuals. The health and social benefits of playing recreational soccer shouldn't be limited by your family roles, gender identity, sexual orientation, or immigrant status. Having a platform like Football for the Goals gives me the tools and support to act in my community.

Bonito: In addition to recreational soccer, you mentioned you’ve been getting more involved with walking soccer initiatives. How does walking soccer expand access to additional groups of women?

Brandi: One of my goals is to increase walking soccer opportunities across the United States. Walking soccer is a great opportunity for people who haven't played before, or who have never played any sport at all. I think a low-contact format like this is going to become increasingly important. Walking soccer is a vital format for accessibility because it lets people of very different abilities participate side by side. It's also a crucial alternative for women who don't fit the traditional athletic build, or who are managing past injuries or worried about getting injured. Many women simply can't afford the financial or professional fallout of an injury, so it's essential that we balance the need for bone health and movement with game formats that are safer and less intense.

Bonito: How important are role models for older women in sport, and how did your experience playing on a community college soccer team in your 40s shape your broader outlook on life?

Brandi: One thing I'm finding, both in women's soccer growth generally and in this older recreational space specifically, is that if you can see it, you can be it. We usually talk about that concept in the context of encouraging girls to play, but the truth is, we need it as older women, too. We need to see each other doing things outside the norm. That's what inspires other women to try it in their own communities.

In 2021, I joined a soccer class at a local community college to get back in shape. I wanted a coach again, someone to tell me how to kick farther and dribble better. The coach was a woman in her early 40s, so I was a couple of years older than her, and the rest of the class was 18- and 19-year-olds. It was small, only about six people. Toward the end of the summer, she encouraged me to try out for the team. I ended up enrolling full-time just so I could play, and at 45, I played on a college soccer team for the first time in my life.

Honestly, I told myself the whole season that I could quit anytime. It was a lot to wake up and train four days a week on top of a game. But I held my own, considering the age gap. And it was so much fun, getting in the team van for away games, feeling like part of a team again in that way.

That happened to be my son's first semester at the community college, too. He was on the water polo team while I was co-captain of the soccer team, so we shared a campus and a season together. I think we forget, especially as women in our 40s and 50s, how many adventures and memorable experiences are still available to us.

Bonito: Looking ahead to the next five or 10 years, what are some of your priorities for San Diego Soccer Women and recreational women’s soccer more broadly? 

Brandi:My current project is building an online resource for women to find recreational soccer tournaments, teams, teammates, and sports travel. Right now, our community feels a little too fragmented between various apps, social media, and websites, plus messaging and email. I want to find a balance between the kind of personal, hands-on connection I currently provide and an easily accessible digital platform that can function without needing me directly involved in every interaction. I'm working with a woman-founded software company and looking for investment to develop the idea based on feedback from thousands of women players.

Collaborating to create an association that specifically serves the needs of women's recreational soccer nationwide is the direction I want to move. I've talked to a lot of league directors about what organizations need, everything from legal support to guidance on inclusion. Women's leagues and tournaments are operated by nonprofits, for-profits, parks and recreation departments, youth associations, and sports facilities. Trying to bring any uniformity to that is hard when there's no shared model or organizing body. We have the United States Adult Soccer Association, a nonprofit partner of U.S. Soccer, that offers insurance and an annual tournament, but I envision an overarching organization that surveys the landscape of women's recreational soccer and makes that information widely available so that leagues aren't making decisions in isolation; they can create new programs for women, grow existing programs, restructure the age and skill divisions, and become more visible in their communities. If you look at global soccer structures, there's usually a federation with various levels all the way down to the grassroots. In the UK, for example, when you register as a recreational women's soccer player with a club, you are part of the Football Association (FA). In the US, there's no equivalent. We're seeing participation drop, more tournaments having to close, field quality deteriorating, parks limiting adult permits, and fees increasing. I don't think the women running leagues today can fully anticipate what they're going to need in five or 10 years, as the next generation of young women become recreational players, but together we can be more responsive to the changes.

Bonito: What would your message be to women, particularly older women, who might feel they're too old to try football, or any sport, for the first time?

Brandi: One important part of returning to sport, or choosing to play for the first time, is being willing to be vulnerable about what your experience is like and what you need from the sports community. See this as an opportunity, not just for your physical and mental health, but for your connection to other women. If you have questions or need support, this community is exactly the right place to bring them. As women athletes, especially older ones, we naturally want to understand how our physical and mental health is going to affect our game. So, when you come into this community, open up and ask questions. Be open to the idea that your body isn't always going to do what you want it to do, and trust that the women around you can help answer your questions, or at least relate to what you're going through, offer advice, and point you toward what will keep you in the game. 

Bonito: Anything else you’d like to add?

Brandi: When I walked on stage to present at a TEDx Ideas Worth Spreading event in February 2026, I did not expect that telling the story of older women who play soccer would lead me to the Icelandic National Football Association's offices a few months later. I had been working with the organizers of a soccer club in Reykjavik to recruit teams for their senior-age, summer adult tournament. When they saw my TEDx presentation on YouTube, they asked me to speak at their pre-tournament conference on the theme of Football is Medicine: Active Aging Through the Beautiful Game, alongside sports science researchers, FA leadership, and the amazing Vanda Sigurgeirsdóttir, who is credited with opening the game for women in the 1980s in Iceland. 

While we were preparing for the conference, the director of the Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland asked me to help write a pitch deck to film a documentary focusing on Iceland's progress toward a gender equal society through the lens of Icelandic and American older women playing recreational soccer. So, with many headlines declaring that women's sport is (finally) seeing the attention it deserves, know that this encompasses more than just professional sport; that recreational women athletes of ALL ages and levels are being included. From Title IX in the US to the women's soccer bans lifted in the UK and Brazil to social activists shifting culture around female sport, we are seeing proof we can create more, and better, spaces for women to PLAY.