Utah Royals FC forward Katie Stengel experienced a bit of a whirlwind throughout the last ten months. From Washington, D.C. to Boston to Newcastle, Australia, and now to Sandy, Utah, the 26-year old has packed up her entire life into her jeep more than a few times since the start of the last NWSL season. Despite all the change and the seemingly constant state of transition, the Florida native is so happy with where she’s landed, not to mention playing in front of 9,000+ fans at Orlando City stadium last Saturday night in what was a historic first-ever game for a new club was also pretty cool too. I talked to Stengel after Week 1 of the 2018 NWSL season about where she’s been, how she got here, and where she’s headed.
Hannah Kronick: Let’s start with the brand new NWSL team for the 2018 season, Utah Royals FC — tell me about it. How has it been so far?
Katie Stengel: Utah has been great, even from the first day that I got here, it was just incredible. Our owner, Dell Loy [Hansen] has been great. He definitely takes care of us and then some. We have a locker room, which is a big step up from most of the other clubs that everyone has come from. All of the things you could possibly think of that you would need off the field are totally taken care of, so then on the field, we’ve been able to focus on working hard and training. It’s been incredible to train under Laura [Harvey], Scott [Parkinson] and the whole coaching staff.
HK: How is the soccer market there? As part of an organization that not only owns the NWSL club, but also the MLS club there in Real Salt Lake, what has that been like?
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