How 14-year-old Mak Whitham and a growing class of teens adapt to life in NWSL

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Mckenna “Mak” Whitham has been here before. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with head coach Juan Carlos Amoros on the sideline of a pitch, the 14-year-old was readying to sprint onto Lumen Field. This time, though, the stoppage time sub for NJ/NY Gotham FC was destined to make NWSL history.

When Whitham subbed on for Esther Gonzales in the 93rd minute against the Seattle Reign two weeks ago, earning her first regular season minutes since signing with Gotham last year, she became the youngest player to debut in an NWSL regular season match.

“Sure, it was an amazing moment,” Whitham told The Athletic. “But I’ve already had games, so it was no different than the ones before.”

In February of last year, Whitham’s lone goal in the semifinals of the Women’s Cup punched Gotham’s ticket to the tournament’s final. In July, she celebrated her 14th birthday with a Gotham debut at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, during the NWSL’s international break.

And last month, Whitham enjoyed her first professional brace during a closed-door preseason exhibition match against Danish side FC Nordsjaelland in Spain.

The teen’s rise to the NWSL has been years in the making, and it didn’t happen by accident.

Gotham FC forward Mckenna Whitham is the youngest player in NWSL. (Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)

Gotham found Whitham when the team began keeping tabs on promising young talent in 2022 after the NWSL established a pathway for underage players to enter the league. The California native was already a rising talent in competitive youth systems and had her eyes set on becoming the youngest player in the league.

The pathway, established through the under-18 entry mechanism, was modified last year to allow each club up to four players younger than 18-years-old between a private entry list and their roster. Any player signed through the system must be signed to a contract that runs through the season of their 18th birthday. For Whitham, that meant a four-year contract that runs through 2028.

Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West has been outspoken about Whitham’s ability to compete at the highest level with Gotham since the teen became a regular at team training. In addition to safeguarding policies set by the league, the team established its own best practices.

The goal is to make sure “Mak feels safe and has the appropriate spaces to operate for an athlete of her age,” Averbuch West said. “But also, that we tailor her development for something appropriate for someone of her age — meaning everything from her on-field development to the physical side of things, to her social development.”

League rules require that Whitham have dedicated space for her own locker room. The team also ensures the teen has a dedicated chaperone for away travel, and that she is provided with a player mentor, Averbuch West said.

“There’s a whole list of all of the things that we do by the policies and the rules,” Averbuch West continued. “Additionally, we’ve put a lot of thought into how to tailor an appropriate development environment for someone of Mak’s age, and to help her not just reach her potential on the field, but to be well-balanced, happy and supported all along the way.”

This past preseason with Gotham felt like Whitham’s official start of her career, the 14-year-old says.

It was during preseason, she says, when she bonded with her teammates, visiting restaurants, cafes and even a local castle together. While she has been around the team for more than 12 months, this year is already different.

Mckenna Whitham says she bonded with her teammates during the 2025 offseason. (Vincent Carchietta / USA TODAY Sports)

“The season so far has been great,” Whitham says. “(I’ve) been working really hard in the training to grow on and off the field and just learn from my teammates and just trying to build those relationships with them. The coaches have been very supportive and have just been very focused on my development, on how to be a better player and person.

“I think — no, I know that’s why I chose Gotham because I feel like since day one, they’ve just always cared about my development.”

To join Gotham, Whitham and her family relocated to New Jersey. She has since transitioned to homeschooling, balancing her dual lives as an average 14-year-old and professional soccer player.

“I think that lots of players or athletes don’t have families that would make the sacrifice to move across the country,” Whitham says, “and I’m just really grateful to have family willing to do that. Just super, super grateful.”

Whitham’s family has adjusted to Garden State living, she says. They’ve been shopping in New York City and have plans to see the Jersey Shore for the first time. The basement in her new family home has been transformed to feature an indoor soccer field, where she kicks the ball around with her eight-year-old sister, who Whitham shares a “special bond” with.

“She’s very competitive,” Whitham says. “She wants to be a professional, too. Sometimes she’s like, ‘Oh, I want to do what you do.’ I think just having that person look up to me, is just so special.”

By all accounts, Whitham is an average teenager. She likes to read and draw, and enjoys spending time alone in her room when “school can be a bit much”. She is learning geography and poetry, and reading “Romeo and Juliet”.

Her days, though, start at 7 o’clock with meditation and breakfast, before heading to training by 8:30. She then has team meetings, activations and two-hour training sessions, before working out, recovering and having lunch. When she’s back home, she shifts to her homeschooling. That’s if she’s not also juggling any call-ups with the U.S. youth national team.

“What’s really great about homeschooling is that I’m able to not feel stressed to turn in a certain assignment at a certain time or day,” Whitham says. “That’s why I chose to do homeschool, because I wanted to be able to do this lifestyle. I also feel like homeschooling has helped a lot in being more independent by setting my schedule or making routines and habits.”

While Whitham may be the youngest player in the NWSL, she is far from the only teen currently competing in the league. There is a bubbling youth movement in the league that has been years in the making, kickstarted by now-19-year-old Olivia Moultrie.

In 2021, Moultrie filed a lawsuit against the NWSL for her right to play in the league. As a teen, she trained regularly with the Portland Thorns. But at the time, anyone under 18 was banned from competing in the NWSL, which was the sole Division 1 women’s soccer league in the United States at the time.

Olivia Moultrie changed the NWSL when she filed a lawsuit against the league for her right to play. (Troy Wayrynen / Imagn Images)

Moultrie’s legal challenge paved the way for the league’s under-18 entry mechanism, opening the floodgates for teens to enter the league. It fundamentally changed the pathway for young girls aspiring to become professional soccer players, with some teens skipping college and high school soccer altogether.

One of the teams that embraced the youth movement has been Angel City FC, which features rising stars like Kennedy Fuller, 18, and Casey Yu-jin Phair, 17. The team is also bustling with other young talent, like the Thompson sisters, 20-year-old Alyssa and 19-year-old Gisele.

Phair, who was born in South Korea and raised in New Jersey, signed with Angel City in January 2024, following her international debut at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. She was the youngest player to compete in a World Cup when she entered the pitch for South Korea against Colombia, aged 16 and 26 days. Her contract with Angel City runs through 2026.

Phair told The Athletic she always pictured college soccer being part of her career trajectory, especially when she was playing at the club level only a few years ago. However, she only played one season of high school soccer before debuting on the international stage.

“It’s so special. It’s so rare,” Phair says. “When I was playing club, I always thought you had to go to college to be a pro or there wasn’t that opportunity. But ever since I started with the national team, and then visited NWSL clubs, I realized how much better the environment here is.

Since going pro, Phair says her development has grown in a way that is only possible inside a professional setting.

“My life has completely changed,” she says. “Being at Angel City and having the older players that we have, and just the environment that I’m in every day, I feel like I’m learning so much and developing at such a faster rate, both as a soccer player, but as a person as well.”

When Phair signed with Angel City, she and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she lives in the same apartment building as some of her teammates. Her father and younger brothers have since moved to New Hampshire, where they also play soccer. Phair has her own locker room, but she is counting down the days to her birthday in three months so she can join her teammates.

Angel City FC forward Casey Phair became the youngest player to feature in the Women’s World Cup in 2023. (Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)

Phair spends most of her days balancing training and online schooling. As a junior, she has one more year of high school. Her parents have stressed the importance of a college education, so she plans to eventually make that happen. “Maybe a gap year and then college,” she says, but she’s unsure.

Phair has connected with other teens in the league like San Diego Wave’s Melanie Barcenas, 17, and Kansas City Current’s Claire Hutton, 19, as well as her teammate Fuller, who has played with most of the rising stars in the league through the U.S. national team system. For these players, this has been an invaluable asset.

“It makes it so much easier to have open conversations because we’re all doing the same stuff,” Phair says.

While Phair and others were entering the league, Whitham was closely paying attention.

“Seeing that it is possible for those players (helped), but I also wanted it,” Whitham says. “It was my goal to be one of the youngest. I was just working really hard to make that happen.”

Amoros has spoken highly of Whitham’s ability to contribute on the pitch.

“With her, it’s football. She has no fear. She’s an extremely mature person for that age,” Amoros said. “At the end of the day, this is football. It’s just a game. It’s a very important one, but it’s just a game. So, we try to focus on her having fun, understanding what she needs to do, and hopefully (she) helps the team to win.”

Whitham, like many competitive athletes, has a long list of superstitions that dictate what she does in the lead-up to games, typically starting the night before. One of the vital steps of her pregame ritual is to listen to a certain section of her playlist while in the solitude of her locker room. It’s a mix featuring Rihanna, Paramore and Jessie J’s “Domino”.  She’s learned to focus on the music the same way she focuses on her ambitions.

And while Whitham has accomplished a major goal of hers by becoming the youngest NWSL player in league history, she remains focused on what’s next.

“Competing in World Cups and the Olympics for my national team,” she says, without hesitation, “and also winning a few championships with Gotham.”

(Top photo: Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images) 

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