Play It Forward

Veronica Latsko is ready to raise the bar. With the Challenge Cup all wrapped up, we had the chance to catch up with Houston Dash forward Veronica Latsko at Agora Coffee in Houston, where she spends long nights working on her law school applications. 

After playing for the University of Virginia in college, Veronica has made 25 appearances for the Dash since 2018, and she’s also played in Australia for Adelaide United and Sydney FC during the NWSL offseason. Last year, she helped the Dash lift the 2020 Challenge Cup. 

Over a couple of cups of coffee, we discussed her ambitions to become a lawyer, her soccer career, her experience working for the NWSL Players Association, and the legal and women’s rights issues in the game that she hopes to tackle moving forward.

Veronica ordered an Americano, I ordered a Flat White, and we sat outside Agora to chat.

So you’re preparing to apply to law school these days. You don’t see that a lot with professional athletes, at least while they’re still playing. How did that come about?

I really got into the law school path since my second year in college when I got involved with sexual assault survivors and prevention programs. That kind of drove me towards having policymaking as my undergrad major. From there, I wanted to expand off of that and actually have some kind of legal credentials so that I could make effective changes.

And then I got into professional soccer. At one point, I wasn't sure if I was going to get drafted and play pro or if I was going to go to law school. I had already taken the LSAT exam, and then everything sort of happened.

How was the draft process like for you? Especially with the uncertainty of maybe going to law school. 

I cut all my hair off. Not even kidding. I was so nervous, and I didn’t think I was gonna get drafted, so I thought I’d prepare for adulthood and just cut all my hair off into a bob. So I did that, had a freak-out, didn't watch the draft, and then I was grocery store shopping and got a call from the Dash coach at the time. They were like, ‘Hey, we're about to draft you in the next 30 seconds.’ 

So they don’t give you any heads up? Just that same day you get a call and that’s it?

They just tell you 30 seconds before they draft you. They're like, ‘Houston's on the clock,’ and that's when they call you. I was like, ‘Well, I guess I'm going to Houston.’ Then I started regretting cutting my hair when they did the team photoshoots. 

Coming into the league with a policymaking background out of college, was there anything that stood out to you entering the league?

Living through the standards from my rookie year to now, whether it’s living conditions or pay, it’s a shock. And you see it across the league. It's not just one team that has these issues. I was pretty blindsided. I mean, you're making equivalent to the poverty level, and you're only making that in eight months. Then for four months out of the year, you're without housing, and you're without pay. So you have to figure it out. Do you move back with your parents? What do you do with all your stuff?

It's just so many question marks and so much uncertainty that you don't ever feel settled. In my first year, I wasn't offered a contract up until the day we had our first game, and I started that game. But then it’s like I don’t have a home or a place to feel comfortable and settled, and I'm supposed to compete at the highest level in the world. How are you supposed to be prepared and compete at the top level when you don't really have the equipment or foundation to do so? 

I was definitely blindsided.

What are some of the changes you’ve seen over the last five years? 

I think the biggest change was year-round housing. That came into play last year, I believe, and it’s huge. Being able to have a home for 12 months out of the year is something that I think we don't appreciate enough, and we should. 

Also, to be paid year-round is nice. I think that the pay definitely needs to be significantly higher, but it is good that we have the stability to be able to be paid year-round. Whereas before, I know a lot of girls, including myself, would go to Australia because it was a chance to get paid during that interim period between seasons, which is a very nice cushion to have for your livelihood. Playing there meant not going four months without pay or trying to be a waitress for four months. You're a professional athlete should be paid year-round. So I think those two are huge.

What was it like playing in Australia? You mentioned a lot of American players going over during the NWSL offseason. What was that experience like for you?

It was so nice. It's just so beautiful. You wake up every day, you train, and you go to the beach. And the beaches over there are beautiful. It's breathtaking. I was roommates with Lindsay Agnew from North Carolina Courage, and we would drive to practice or to the beach together. Every day we would pass the Sydney Opera House, and we'd drive across Harbor Bridge, and we would be like, ‘wow, this is our life, this is amazing. We're here for play, and we’re not taking a single moment of this for granted.’ It was perfect.

You mentioned earlier that going into the NWSL you didn’t feel comfortable or like you had a chance to settle. What was different about Australia? How did the clubs treat the players over there?

From a legal perspective, over there there's so much more stability in terms of your contracts because they're guaranteed contracts. Whereas here in the NWSL they're semi-guaranteed, so you can be waived at any point in time during the season. You could literally go from having a stable job and being paid consistently with a home, and then all of that can be stripped away from you in 24 hours.

Why is it that the contracts are secure over there, and here they aren’t? Especially with the NWSL arguably being the best in the world.

I think in part Australia's league is a little bit older, so it's a little bit more established. I think for our league, they were trying to prevent it from folding. They were trying to make contracts a bit more flexible by adding in the semi-guaranteed clause. So for the beginning of the league, I can understand having that semi-guaranteed contract, but now with all the expansion coming up and seeing how well the league has done over the last few years, we should be evolving. 

You see the half a million viewers watching our CBS championship game, you see the exposure it's getting, you see the revenue it's bringing in, the benefits should be distributed to the players. 

In terms of Australia, I can't tell you exactly why they have guaranteed contracts. It could just be that they follow more traditional European contracts, where you don't really ever see a semi-guaranteed clause. It's kind of rare to see that around the world. It’s nice to have that guaranteed contract. You feel settled. You feel secure. Housing is already figured out by the time that you get there. All you have to do is drop your bags off, and everything's there. 

Working with the NWSL Players Association (NWSLPA), you’ve been involved with representing players to improve conditions here in the States. What has that been like?

Yeah, and I’m also part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement [CBA] Committee. With the CBA, we just lay out the players’ demands in order for the season to start and continue. That’s kind of how we build in terms of increasing revenue for players and increasing their rights and protections and other different types of conditions. We speak to team representatives from around the league, and we gather all the players' concerns, what we want to push for, and what we want to gain from the league. 

Then we put all of our terms in our standard players’ agreement. That sets the terms for what everybody's minimum contract will be, housing conditions, player safety, protocols for dealing with sexual harassment, and other things. After that, we meet with the league and negotiate and work to find common ground. 

How do you feel being part of that? Getting to represent your fellow players and moving the standards forward. 

It’s so cool, and it’s pretty fun. It's fun because you're seeing all of these rights and changes happen on a client level. You see where we started and where we are now, and it’s crazy. And I'm no veteran in the league by any means. This is only my fourth year. 

There are veterans on this committee that are telling us horror stories that they have from their very first years in the league, and then we have our own individual horror stories, and we're all just trying to figure out what we need to push more. It's a really amazing process, and I love being part of it. You can always push for more. 

Is that why you’re applying to law school now, in the middle of your soccer career?

There's no shortage of women's rights violations in this sport, so that’s definitely fuel for me. I've also gotten to reach my dream of playing pro soccer, but I've realized my LSAT exam score is about to expire, so if I don’t apply to law school now, I’ll have to start over. But also, it's been a culmination of my career. Everything I've seen and witnessed, and experienced.

I'm really grateful for all the changes that have happened during my time here, but at the same time, my expectations are still set at a high bar because, at the end of the day, we want equality. We want to be making the same as the men. We want to be at that same status.

And it’s good to see so many players using their interests and talents to push for that. Bri [Visalli] is pushing for it at a grassroots level by coaching and teaching younger girls that they can make it and that they don’t need to settle. I love that, and I want to work towards the same goal from a legal level.

Are you gonna pursue a specific branch of law to accomplish those goals?

Civil rights with a concentration on women's rights. As of right now, that's what my primary focus would be. The schools that I've been applying to have a  good civil rights basis. They have civil rights clinics that get you involved in the community so that you're not just in a classroom reading a book. It's a lot of hands-on stuff, which I feel like I'm going to need for what I plan to do. By the time I retire, I hope to have at least finished a good chunk of law school to at least have a foot in the door somewhere. 

What are some changes that you would like to see for future generations of players?

I'm just hoping that we have even more advancements in terms of our livelihood as players. You can see the growth, and you can see how the league is treating the players a bit better, whether it’s pay or housing, or working conditions. But I think it's important to acknowledge the growth and still have your expectations just as high because you shouldn't be settling for less. You should be settling for how a true professional athlete should be treated. 

I want to be able to set the stage for future generations when they get into this league and not have them be blindsided by what they find. As much as I want to help make change for our current players, I think we also need to have one foot in the future and set the standard for future generations to come. 

Photography by Diana Hernandez.