On average, more than 2.3 million kids sign up to play soccer from the ages of 6 to 12. At this age, children also start to create role models and form connections with older people through shared hobbies.
The Pittsburgh Riveters are the newest inspiration for the next generation of female soccer players and female athletes. Pittsburgh is home to four professional teams in men’s sports — the Penguins, Pirates, Steelers and Riverhounds — but lacks a professional women’s team in any sport.
On top of that, Western Pennsylvania has become known for producing top-tier soccer talent. Over the past decade, the WPIAL, the Pittsburgh area’s high school sports district, has been one of the best in both girls and boys soccer. In 2021, all eight PIAA state championship games featured teams from the WPIAL, with five of them securing the state title, and most years feature a handful of finalists from the WPIAL.
With that in mind, establishing the Riveters in the USL W League filled a hole in the Pittsburgh sports landscape.
The Riveters were officially founded by Pittsburgh’s professional soccer club, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, to serve as a women’s First Team opposite their men’s team in the USL Championship. Announced on April 27, 2024, the vision was to create a top-quality, pre-professional women’s team with the hope of building a fan base and enable the team to become a full professional team in years to come.
In the team’s planning, local soccer fans were given an opportunity to have a voice in selecting the team’s name and mascot. After a lengthy voting process, the Pittsburgh Riveters was the finalized name, an homage to Rosie the Riveter, a significant symbol of female strength during World War II.
Then came the process of selecting players and coaches for the newly formed team. Scott Gibson, Academy Director at the Riverhounds and the ECNL coach for the girls’ side, was chosen as the first head coach of the Riveters. When asked about why he decided to start coaching girls’ soccer, Gibson stated: “They’re so determined and responsive to what we ask them to do. It’s a joy to work with them. I didn’t see myself primarily working with girls and women, but it’s a lot of fun.”
One of the first players to accept an invitation with the Riveters was Pittsburgh native and Riverhounds Academy product Lucia Wells. Wells was a standout player at North Allegheny High School who chose to take her talents to the University of Pittsburgh, where she will be entering her junior year this upcoming fall.
“Honestly, it is such a surreal feeling being able to represent the city in so many ways, especially being with North Allegheny and winning multiple championships and then going to the University of Pittsburgh and doing really well there. We made it to the Elite Eight the other year,” Wells said. “Now, playing for the Riveters, and we just had our first win, there is just a big audience now looking into women’s sports around this area, and I think it’s a very good opportunity for the city.”
The audience for women’s sports is rapidly expanding, and this growth is profoundly influencing the younger generation of female athletes. After the first home game, players stayed on the field to sign autographs as fans piled onto the field.
“It was like a feeling you’ll never be able to describe or forget. We were on that field for about an hour signing autographs, and I don’t even think we got to everybody,” Wells said. “I’ve never experienced something like that—I’ve never had that many people at a game I’ve played in. It was just a very new experience.”
Riveters goalkeeper coach Reaghan Duval holds multiple roles within the soccer community: assistant coach at Robert Morris University, Riverhounds Academy goalkeeper coach, and previously, she was a coach and player in the USL W League with the Greenville Liberty. But first game nerves didn’t only hit players on the big stage at sold out Highmark Stadium. Coaches felt it as the momentum of the new season grew throughout the opening week.
“How we’re selling out, how there are no more tickets left, standing room only — it’s like you never know if that’s actually going to be real until you’re there standing there,” Duval said. “I thought it was pretty funny, we walked out for warm-ups, and I even got a little bit nervous, and I’m just warming up the goalkeepers.”
Duval said the Riveters opener will be hard to compare to any other atmosphere she’s been a part of, with 6,077 fans making it the fourth-largest crowd in stadium history.
“It was actually electric, that is the perfect way to describe it. I think that the fans were amazing all throughout the night,” Duval said.
The Riveters launch has been a significant step in elevating the visibility of women’s sports in the Pittsburgh area, but there is more to come. As the team continues to grow and raise its profile, there will continue to be an expansion of equitable opportunities and a chance to capture the national spotlight.
“It’s empowering a generation of players in the city, not just in our youth academy, which is a big part of this, but young girls in Pittsburgh are looking up to the Riveters players, and the players are just great role models,” Duval said.
Feature written by Riveters contributor Addy Jacoby
