Chicago Red Stars

In 2006, it was announced that Chicago would have a team in a new league being developed for women's professional soccer. It would eventually join six other teams, Washington Freedom, Boston Breakers, Los Angeles Sol, FC Gold Pride, Sky Blue FC, and Saint Louis Athletica in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) for the league's inaugural season in 2009.[2][3]

Marcia McDermott, a former head coach of the Northwestern University women's soccer team and WUSA team Carolina Courage, was named as the Red Stars' general manager.[4]

On June 3, 2008, the "Red Stars" name was announced in a ceremony at Toyota Park. The name refers to the four six-pointed red stars on the municipal flag of Chicago. Each star represents a landmark event in Chicago history: Fort Dearborn, the Great Chicago Fire, the 1893 World's Fair, and the 1933 World's Fair. Other names considered were Progress, Towers, Union, Blues, 1871 and Wind.[5] "Red Stars" was chosen by popular vote in a two-month fan ballot.[6]

2016 Red Stars line up

The Chicago Red Stars won their first game of the season, 1–0, at Saint Louis Athletica, and followed with two ties (1–1 at Washington Freedom and 0–0 hosting Sky Blue FC) and a 4–0 thrashing of Boston Breakers at Toyota Park. This gave the team the best starting record of any team in the league besides eventual season champions Los Angeles Sol, seeming to live up to preseason expectations based on the strong core of USWNT and international players on the Red Stars roster.

Despite their strong start, the Red Stars then went winless for their next nine games, only getting three away draws in that streak, which included a 451-minute-long scoring drought. Their opponents, the Washington Freedom scored first in the next game and it appeared the streak would continue. However, the Red Stars made WPS history by becoming the first team to successfully come from behind, to win 2–1. They also beat cellar-dwellers FC Gold Pride in their next game 3–1, but then lost four of their last five games, eliminating them from the playoffs as they ended the season in sixth place. The Red Stars finished second in attendance in the league in 2009 behind the LA Sol.

True to his agreement to see the Red Stars organization through its first season, Peter Wilt chose to step down as team CEO at the end of 2009, moving on to become general manager of the Milwaukee Wave, the NISL team in his hometown. General Manager, Marcia McDermott, took on many of his responsibilities at the Red Stars, although he continued to support the team as one of its representatives on the Women's Professional Soccer Board of Governors and as President of the Chicago Red Stars Charitable Foundation.[7]

The Red Stars opened up their second season with high hopes and many new faces.[8] In their first game, the Red Stars lost 1–0 at Sky Blue FC despite dominating much of the game. A 1–1 home tie in their second game earned the Stars their first point of the 2010 season.

After a successful 2010, the team left WPS on December 13; unable to meet the league's funding requirements for the 2011 season, and the league subsequently folded in 2011 for financial and legal reasons.[9][10]

The Red Stars joined the Women's Premier Soccer League for 2011.[11][12] They played their home games at Village of Lisle-Benedictine University Sports Complex[13] in west suburban Chicago.

The new roster consisted of players from the WNT U-20 and U-23 pools, as well as collegiate stars. The first players announced included three players with WPS experience, including two from the Red Stars' 2010 squad.[14] It was coached by Rory Dames, a Chicago native. Red Stars also continued their activity in the Chicago soccer community through their soccer camp programs.[15]

Red Stars finished the regular season with a 10–1 record, and hosted the playoff semifinals and championship matches.[16] While they beat Tampa Bay Hellenic 2–1 in their semifinal, they lost in overtime by the same score in the final to the Orange County Waves, another WPSL team that has past WPS connections (Brittany Klein Red Stars Player from 2009 and 2010 was on the Waves).

In 2012, the Red Stars joined two other former WPS clubs, Boston Breakers and Western New York Flash, in founding the new WPSL Elite League. Five other former WPSL teams joined the league, including ASA Chesapeake Charge, FC Indiana, New England Mutiny, New York Fury, and Philadelphia Fever.[17]

The Red Stars finished fourth in the league, making the playoffs and advanced to the final, where they lost to Flash in a 2–4 penalty shootout, after a 1–1 draw at the end of extra time. Notably in that game stars Ella Masar and Lori Chalupny were injured on the same play in the 33rd minute. WNY scored the equalizer in regulation with a 40 yard wonder strike in the 97th minute to get to overtime. Impressively, the Red Stars also won the 2012 National Women's Cup with just half the roster, as the Cup final occurred at the same time as their final WPSL Elite regular season match against eventual third-placed New York Fury.

In November 2012, the Red Stars co-founded and were one of the original eight teams in a new women's professional soccer league, then yet to be named, in concert with United States Soccer Federation, the Canadian Soccer Association and the Mexican Football Federation.[18][19] The league started competition in Spring of 2013.

All teams in the NWSL received an initial allocation of USWNT players and the Red Stars were named for Shannon Boxx, Amy LePeilbet, and Keelin Winters. Only Shannon Boxx saw limited minutes for the Red Stars in 2013. In the inaugural season of NWSL, Red Stars started with 2 draws and 4 losses. The mid-season arrival of 2 Germans, Sonja Fuss and Inka Grings, from Europe revived the team somewhat, but not enough to qualify for the post-season playoffs. Red Stars played 22 matches with 8 wins, 6 draws, and 8 losses to finish the season at sixth place in an eight team league.

In 2014, the Red Stars finished one place better than they had previously, fifth place in regular season. This season, the club was waiting for United States international Christen Press to join after completing her commitment to a European club, and the Canadian international Melissa Tancredi to gain full fitness after her education. In addition, the team signed 2 other internationals, Abby Erceg and Emily van Egmond in May. Despite the late arrival of international stars, at the end of May the team had 6 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses; a competitive team performance enabled by rookies Julie Johnston, Vanessa DiBernardo, Hayley Brock, young players Jen Hoy, Rachel Quon, and veteran stalwarts Lori Chalupny, Michelle Wenino, and goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc. With a mid-season slump of 1 win in 11 matches during June and July, the team eventually did not qualify for post-season playoffs; edged out by head to head results with Washington Spirit.

The Red Stars started the 2015 season with home games, a 3–2 win over previous season's Supporting Shield winner Seattle Reign FC, followed by a 2–2 draw with Portland Thorns FC, and a 1–0 win over Sky Blue FC. With Christen Press scoring 4 of the first 5 goals for Red Stars, Press was named the Player of the Month of April. With the national teams members out training for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, rookie Sofia Huerta scored multiple goals in 2 matches and was named NWSL Player of the Week for week 5, as well as week 6; and was also named NWSL Player of the Month of May.[20] The team held first place during regular season from week 4 to week 13 and finished second. However, in the playoff the team lost in the semi-final to FC Kansas City.

After a banner 2015 season, the team expected to do well again. The club ended the regular season at third place, and played the play-off semi-final at Boyds, Maryland against Washington Spirit on September 30, falling 2–1 and did not reach the championship match. This season the Red Stars returned to Toyota Park for home games, where they last played on a regular basis during their 2010 season in the Women's Professional Soccer league.

In 2017, for the third consecutive season, the Red Stars made it to the post-season playoffs and were eliminated in the semi-final; falling 1–0 to North Carolina Courage at Cary, North Carolina on an 89-minute goal.

2018 was the team's tenth season and sixth season in the NWSL. For the fourth consecutive year, the team qualified for the post-season playoffs and lost in the semi-final, as they were defeated by the North Carolina Courage 2–0.

The 2019 season saw the Red Stars appear in the finals for the first time in NWSL history. The team clinched their 5th consecutive playoff spot on September 21, 2019 after defeating the Washington Spirit 3-1. That game also saw forward Sam Kerr score her 18th goal of the season, breaking the record for most goals scored in a single NWSL season, which she had previously set playing with Sky Blue FC in 2017.[21] The Red Stars went on to defeat the Portland Thorns 1-0 in a semi-final home game, and were defeated in the final by the North Carolina Courage 4-0. They finished the season runners-up with a 14 win, 2 draw, 8 loss record.[22]

The Chicago Professional Women's Soccer, LLC investor and partner group was the owner of the Chicago Red Stars from 2009–2010 during the team's membership in Women's Professional Soccer. In April 2010, the team's management group consisted of Gary Weaver, Jim Willett, and Arnim Whisler. The Illinois Women's Soccer League (IWSL) also signed on as a partner. In addition to the IWSL, the team's leadership included shareholders John (Jack) Cummins, Robert and Susan Morrison, Jim and Kathi Willett, Dale Weaver, Gary Weaver, Pin Ni, Dong Li, Arnim Whisler, Dean Egerter, Stephen Ritchie and Peter Wilt.[32]

Arnim Whisler took over the team after the 2010 season, he decided to keep the team going for the 2011 season in the WPSL while working to help reorganize a professional women's soccer league. WPS.[33]

He remains the sole owner of the Chicago Red Stars in 2019.[34]

Where a player has not declared an international allegiance, nation is determined by place of birth. Squad correct as of January 31, 2021.[40]

No.	Position	Player	Nation
1	Goalkeeper	Alyssa Naeher	United States
2	Forward	Kealia Watt	United States
3	Defender	Arin Wright	United States
4	Forward	Alyssa Mautz	United States
5	Forward	Rachel Hill	United States
6	Defender	Casey Krueger	United States
8	Defender	Julie Ertz	United States
10	Midfielder	Vanessa DiBernardo	United States
11	Defender	Sarah Gorden	United States
13	Midfielder	Morgan Gautrat	United States
14	Defender	Zoe Morse	United States
15	Forward	Makenzy Doniak	United States
18	Midfielder	Ella Stevens	United States
19	Forward	Sarah Luebbert	United States
21	Goalkeeper	Emily Boyd	United States
24	Midfielder	Danielle Colaprico	United States
26	Defender	Tierna Davidson	United States
28	Defender	Kayla Sharples	United States
29	Defender	Bianca St. Georges	Canada
30	Defender	Hannah Davison	United States
32	Defender	Zoey Goralski	United States
33	Forward	Katie Johnson	Mexico
38	Goalkeeper	Cassie Miller	United States
—	Midfielder	Nikki Stanton	United States
—	Midfielder	Sarah Woldmoe	United States
—	Forward	Mallory Pugh	United States

As of February 10, 2020.[41]

Coaching staff
Head coach	Rory Dames
Assistant coach	Scott Parkinson
Assistant coach	Julianne Sitch
Goalkeeper Coach	Rade Tanaskovic

• Emma Hayes (2009–2010)
• Omid Namazi (2010)
• Rory Dames (2011–)

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Christen Press	35
2	Samantha Kerr	35
3	Sofia Huerta	22
4	Alyssa Mautz	13
5	Jen Hoy	12

Bold denotes player is active on Chicago Red Stars roster.

See also All-time Chicago Red Stars roster

Former members of the team who have represented a senior national team are: