In July 2019, Carolyn Needles was faced with one difficult decision in a pair of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
Her hometown Cleveland Indians were hosting the Major League Baseball All-Star Game for the first time in 22 years and she could get tickets to attend the July 9 game.
Only a day later, some 470 miles to the east, a ticker-tape parade was planned in New York City for her favorite team, the U.S. Women's National Team, which had just captured its fourth FIFA Women's World Cup.
There wasn't much time between the two events.
Watching the Tuesday night game and then flying to New York the next morning to catch the parade in time would have been next to impossible.
A tough decision indeed for Needles who, along with her father, Tim, is a founding member of U.S. Soccer’s National Women’s Network.
As it turned out, Needles was able to have her cake and eat it some of it, too. She was able to watch the Home Run Derby at Progressive Field in Cleveland that Monday night, giving her and her father plenty of time to fly to New York City on Tuesday to enjoy Wednesday's festivities and celebration.
"My dad was skeptical at first, but we ended up going [to the parade]," the 22-year-old Needles said. "It was so fun."
The Needles stayed in a hotel close to the parade route, which was held down the Canyon of Heroines on Broadway on a hot summer day.
"We got there pretty early," Needles said. "We got right in the middle of the parade route. It was great.”
Not surprisingly, she took plenty of photos.
"It inspired me to want to go out and actually watch them win a World Cup,” she said. “So hopefully when 2023 comes around and COVID is [gone] in Australia, I can be down there."
In the last five years, Needles has become a huge fan of women’s soccer, and not just the USWNT. She also is an avid follower of several teams in the National Women's Soccer League - NJ/NY Gotham FC and Orlando Pride. Needles also is looking forward to rooting for Angel City FC, which will make its NWSL debut next year.
Her love of the game stretches far beyond that, too. Thanks to streaming, Needles also watches games in the FA Women's Super League from England, particularly American internationals such as Tobin Heath, and Liga MX Femenil in Mexico.
Before she became a soccer fan five years ago, Needles considered herself “the biggest basketball fan.”
But while she was the manager of her high school girls' basketball team, Needles experienced years of harassment that heavily impacted her.
"I went through that for a long time, and it was very difficult,” said Needles. “I didn't feel like I could tell anybody, even the people that are closest to me just because, in a way, it made me feel like I was weak by opening up. I just closed myself down for the longest time."
For Needles, that was where the U.S. Women’s National Team came in.
"It was a very difficult time in my life and seeing women be able to not only fight for equity and inclusion but -- when on the scale they've been winning -- really inspired me to keep going and learn about sport," she said.
