Lindsey “Linz” Huie has carved an extraordinary path in the world of soccer. From her NCAA championship victories to her inclusion on the U.S. Women’s National Team to her time as part of the LA Galaxy OC, this midfielder has earned her fair share of on-field victories. Using her knowledge and skills, Lindsey transitioned from player to mentor and founded Gritness, a business that aims to support athletes' mental and physical development.
The official partnership between Gritness and ACCESS U further highlights Lindsey’s commitment to guiding student-athletes through the intricate college recruitment process, ensuring they have the resources and knowledge to succeed both on- and off-the-field.
Q: You have had an incredible career and you have an impactful business. Can you tell us about your journey, and why you ended up founding Gritness?
A: Gritness originally started during the pandemic. It was born of this phase of – well, what we were all going through – trying to figure out how we maintain interactions without being around each other [physically]. While I was training a lot of students via Zoom, I realized most of them weren’t in a good head space: We were all still trying to wrap our heads around this abrupt disconnection. I realized, with my psych background and masters in psychological work, that us coaches and the platform as a whole cheated kids out of doing mental fitness… Which I call “gritness.” That’s how my business came to have its name and came to life.
Gritness has two-parts: One is on the individual mentorship side, where I work specifically with athletes who deal with things such as performance anxiety, a desire to maximize performance and gain more playing time, aspire to have a more impactful role [on the team], or perhaps go pro. There are all kinds of things that happen on the individual side of Gritness. And then, we have a different component that ACCESS U and I partner together on, which is the college recruiting and mentorship program.
The world of college soccer is deeply intricate. There are different divisions, each with its own rules; there are 1,616 schools across all divisions, and some-6,000 scholar athletes. So, how does a player pick their [short list of] schools? And, how do they stand out among all of the other applicants? So, we [sought to] create a smooth–notice I didn’t say, “not stressful”–but a smooth process and organized approach in matching players to schools.
I think back to my own journey as an athlete, coming from a single-parent home: Did my mom know a lot about soccer, which I’d played since I was four? No. Did she know a lot about college soccer? Also, no. So was she going to be a good person to steer the ship for me? No, because her background was very limited. Was my coach in a position to do that? In some capacities, yes. Did he have the time to work with me on a one-on-one basis? No. So, as I started building out the business, I realized there had to be a way in which we could construct a system that matched people appropriately across divisions, majors, school size, geographical preferences, socioeconomic diversity, GPAs–all of the components a player has to filter through. [...] They also need to be counseled on in-state vs. out-of-state tuition, tuition vs. room and board costs, feasibility of scholarship stacking, negotiating an offer, travel costs for family members to visit the players. . . With so many considerations, someone not well versed in this can easily feel like their head is spinning off their neck. With the overwhelm, it’s hard to feel like you’re thriving, and that’s when people say, ‘forget it; I’m just going to go with whoever offers me.’
And then, we give advice on how to work with recruiters, respond to emails, and such. It’s really more about giving them examples of how one might respond and the confidence to be authentic in their communication, and then they can start executing those pieces more on their own.
Q: Wow, college recruitment is such a process. And, you mentioned a little bit about your experiences going through that as well. Could you elaborate on what doors did or didn’t open for you, as compared to the doors that are opening for the student-athletes you work with?
A: I think I can’t compare my own history because my own story is so unique in that I didn’t have to do any recruiting at all. I was part of that top 1-5% of players across the country, so I had schools coming to me. I was very blessed in that way; you know, it was a very humbling process as I watched a lot of people try to do what I’m now creating for players who weren’t in that group. But I can tell you that I’ve had a number of clients who have come through the program and, to me, appear like they were in that top ranking, but the landscape has changed now. There’s a lot more players competing, which means the skill levels and the stakes go up. So their journey, and the journey that the business is on now is much more comparable. [...] Through this process, I’ve learned a lot about how to steer players and be a little more focused in how we do things in each strategic step.
Q: As you build that strategy and as you guide players through this process, what do you find yourself getting the most passionate about?
A: When you think about people’s investment–and this is one of the main reasons why I partnered with Brad [Rothenberg]–you can feel, see, and immediately know people’s passion. My passion and my aim in this game is to open the doors that were opened for me, you know? I would be a completely different person without having had soccer in my life. And I wasn’t financially able to afford doing almost anything on my own in the soccer world: we didn’t pay club dues because we couldn’t afford it; when I went to tournaments, I found a ride with other families; when I went to the national team, thankfully, they hosted and paid for everything. So I never forgot how blessed and gifted I was along my journey. As I grew in this game, and matured and evolved as a human being, I have sought out people like Brad who make the journeys of people like me more possible. It’s been very important to me to use this business in such a way that it’s partnered with Brad, so we can open doors for players who deserve those resources and opportunities but would otherwise not be able to access them–without ACCESS U. I’d love to do the services for free, but then I don’t have a way of feeding my own family.
Q: Can you tell me a little more about your partnership with ACCESS U, how you and Brad got connected, and where that stands now?
A: I met Brad through LaShon [Wooldridge, United SoCal club team manager]. I was connected by some kind of Facebook group through another family I’d worked with, and there was this really unique group that caught my eye. It was an all-Black, female team, which I’d never seen in my lifetime–and I’d played soccer for a long time. I was immediately intrigued, and then I became invested obviously because my background was similar in that I struggled to be able to have resources, you know, we just went over that. So I met them and thought, “Dude, this is a really high-achieving team that is lacking resources. I want to do whatever I can to help this team.” Of course, that team was Legends United–now known as United SoCal (and you can find their story here).
In a lot of ways, I scaled my business to make it affordable for them. I became ‘the ACCESS U,’ in a way, but I knew I couldn’t serve as many clients as I wanted to with that scale. So, LaShon connected me to Brad; Brad and I had a conversation, but at the time ACCESS U wasn’t in a place to bring on my services. I was bummed, but we both wanted to keep the connection alive. A couple of months down the road, he sent me a note to say he had the funds and wanted to form a partnership. Then, everyone came together–and honestly the timing was so perfect, and I couldn’t say no.
I kept the team I had already been helping, and ACCESS U covered the financial burden for them. And, this enabled the families to commit to more showcases, and use those resources on hotel, transportation, and meal costs–opening up more doors for them. ACCESS U’s funds allowed their continued services without interruption. So, that’s how we came together.
We’re continuing to work on new initiatives, and it’s really great to be official partners. We share very similar minds; we have the same drive and passion to help underserved communities. I think that’s why we are so deeply connected and equally invested in seeking out more players who will benefit from this, funds to support this, trying to continue to grow this platform that we’ve created together here.
Q: Do you have thoughts or perspectives on how access to athletic scholarship and recruitment opportunities has changed–or, how you hope it is going to change–for high school athletes and teams?
A: Well I think where I hope it would change is in opening up more resources for players to be educated in spaces like what Brad and I are doing right now. ACCESS U offers academic tutoring and college prep for the academic and educational areas. From my side, I try to encourage athletes to utilize soccer as a vehicle to accomplish higher education and future goals. For example, maybe you don’t really see yourself in New York, but it is on a temporary basis; and if you can start the first day of your adult life as debt-free as possible, wouldn’t that be something? You might have to ‘suck it up’ for a few years, but then you graduate with a manageable amount of debt, if any, and you start your adult life a little bit ahead. My hope is that the more players we bring into the program, the more we can place players into positions where they can play with the intention of driving down the cost. Ideally, that sets them up in a better situation as they become young adults and independent.
Q: When counseling people in making those decisions, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that many want to play professionally. However, there are a lot of fantastic jobs that are near to the game but not necessarily on the team. Do you talk to your clients about those alternate avenues? And, if so, how?
A: We talk a lot about majors and careers. We try to align the school of choice with whatever they intend to specialize in after graduation. All of us are going to have an ‘afterwards.’ I wound up playing my entire career, retiring in 2005, coming out of retirement 15 years later, and now I’m back in the game. There are so many different athletic spaces that you can be in! You can be a sports attorney, a physical therapist, a kinesiologist, a coach… I think we’re just very limited in what we think we’re out there. When I was little, it felt like we had three choices: teacher, doctor, lawyer. Now, as our young people are coming up, I think we owe it to them to do more than career days. We need to have consistent conversations about how many jobs exist across industries. Most people think, ‘professional athlete,’ but there are a lot of opportunities within sports that are equally gratifying–and, abuse your body less.
Q: Whether on-the-field or off-the-field, it feels like women’s sports are having a moment–and, it is Women’s History Month. Do you have thoughts on the women’s game in the U.S. with regard to where it currently is and where it’s going?
A: I mean, look at the commentating right now; it used to be male-dominated, and I just saw an all-female panel on the NWSL. I thought, ‘Yes! This is females talking about the female game. Discussing the players that they know, players they’ve interacted with, mentored, coached, have connections with. They’re all networking together. You have former players becoming managers, coaches, GMs, presidents! You know, that never existed when I was a young kid. What I love the most is you also have females crossing industries, like the NFL. Recently, the quarterback for Philly talked about his all-female staff. That has been the piece that does it for me: We’re moving away from this idea of pushing women out and excluding us from positions that we really, truly can excel in. I’m not saying it has to be all female-dominated, but we have good brains and organize things differently. We’re great problem solvers and amazing critical thinkers. When we combine those forces together, we make magic. When we cross over into industries, we can be equally as magical. I’ve enjoyed it.
You know, I have a seven-year-old who is definitely going to give this industry a run for its money. And, who knows what she’ll wind up wanting to do or be? Of course, right now, she wants to play for the national team. How exciting it would be if we could have our jerseys side-by-side. But she could also be equally excited about being a general manager, or sports marketer, or part of the web design team. She needs to know she can still be deeply involved with this game without being physically on the field.
Even female referees are more of an up-and-coming thing. That was never a reality even 10 or 12 years ago. Then, we saw the first one–and now you’re seeing female referees in the men’s game. So, we’re in a really pivotal time as women.
I would love to see more women lifting more women. I think it’s a great theory, but sometimes it gets a little claw-ey at the top. Women can be fierce in that way. It would be great to see more women opening opportunities for other women. And, it should always come down to skillset; it should not be just female versus male, that’s not what I’m talking about. I think networking more with one another, offering opportunities to other well-qualified women is important for the game.
Q: Is there anything we didn’t touch on that you wished we did?
A: I would just say that most people have this idea that you have to be a totally elite athlete to even attempt to access these kinds of services. But these services are applicable to Division III athletes, ECNL athletes, GA athletes, SoCal league athletes. We’re interested in high quality human beings–that’s number one. And people who show potential and desire. A lot of what we’re looking for are people who have components off-field and drive their ambition also into this physical environment. You don’t have to be the next U.S. National or Mexican National team player–that doesn’t have to be your journey–and you can still use these services. If you want to play soccer in college and you have decent grades, you should be looking at these resources. We can help you figure out if there’s an athletic path to tap into, an academic avenue you can to utilize more of; it’s not a Division I or bust service. Remember, there are 1,616 schools across the country: everyone should be able to find a place to land.
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