For Dash Season Ticket Member Sydney Norrell, 2018 was a pivotal year. Norrell says that during that year she and her wife attended their first women’s soccer match after a friend asked if they’d be interested in attending a USWNT friendly at Shell Energy Stadium.
“Jane Campbell was in goal and I remember thinking how cool it was that she played for our local team,” Norrell said. “We went to our first Dash game pretty soon after that and haven’t stopped going since. We fell in love with the team and the game pretty quick.”
A few years later, Norrell decided to become a season ticket member thanks to how frequently they were attending matches. The price point and the ease of acquiring tickets was one of the major reasons Norrell felt it was a necessary step to make.
“Being a member has just continued to grow my love for the Dash and women’s soccer as a whole,” Norrell said.
Since that fateful day in 2018, Norrell says her love for the Dash has only grown stronger with one of her favorite memories coming in 2020 after the Dash won the 2020 Challenge Cup. The combination of the win and drive through parade held at the stadium once the team returned a tough year slightly better.
“The whole Challenge Cup that year was such a bright spot in a hard year, and being able to show the whole team how proud we were and how inspired we were by them was really awesome,” Norrell said. “I may or may not have shed a tear or two during that parade.”
Houston will be celebrating Inspiring Women’s Night on Saturday evening when the team hosts Kansas City Current for the penultimate home game of the regular season. For Norrell, the Dash provide women of all ages in the greater-Houston area with inspiration.
“Young girls and women of all ages can find inspiration from the Dash’s tenacity and hard work in a male dominated field,” Norrell said. “Whether you’re an aspiring athlete or interested in STEM (or any other male dominated fields), seeing these Dash players succeed by being unapologetically themselves is incredibly inspiring.”
