Leaving Her Legacy

East alum Carrie Robinson broke the state record for 36 goals scored her senior year in 2001, scored a hat trick in the championship against Blue Valley Northwest and led her high school soccer team to two state titles. Robinson accomplished all of this while being taken out of the games by former varsity coach Jim Ricker, after scoring three goals, to give other players a chance.

Robinson was honored at the annual Win for KC banquet on February 8, with The Kissick Construction Game Changer Award — an award given to a female supporter of women’s sports and fitness who works behind the scenes to create opportunities for women in sports.

This award is given to a local individual or group who personifies the true spirit of sports not only as a participant, but as a supporter, promoter or champion of girl’s and women’s sports and fitness, according to Win for KC.

Robinson was nominated for this award for creating Finesse Soccer, volunteering for Global FC, playing in her mom rec league and strategy consulting on the side, all while coming home to her family every night to attend her most important job of all — a mom.

 Robinson has been playing soccer for 31 years, starting in kindergarten when she traded the gymnastic mat for the turf soccer field and continued through her high school and college career. Her passion for the game has never really stopped as she continues to score goals in a women’s rec soccer league and coach young players.

In college Robinson played Division 1 soccer for Indiana University for one year but took a break because she lost her love of the game.

Eight months later she found herself back on the field when she transitioned to club soccer at Indianna, causing her to lace up the soccer cleats she thought she wasn’t going to need again.

After graduating from Indiana University, Robinson became a club soccer coach. The club teams and private training sessions she taught led her to create something bigger, Finesse Soccer — a soccer clinic for female athletes that’s coached by an all-female coaching staff.

“I really realized we were onto something when people started coming to us just because we are female trainers and most players don’t have the opportunity to be coached by a girl,” Robinson said. “My first female coach was in college and there’s really just something different about having a girl coach even if it is just a trainer that teaches you on the side.”

Robinson started Finesse Soccer in 2010 with the goal of providing young female athletes access to a female trainer along with the mentorship and role modeling that comes along with a female coach.

The first clinic was called Inside the 18 and it was specifically geared towards goal scorers and goal keepers. Since the start of Finesse Soccer, the amount of girls attending each clinic has doubled every year, according to Robinson, reassuring her that she has created something special.

“The way she taught the people that participated and the players was really unique and special, you could tell not only did she care about making each player better, but she also cared that everyone was having fun during the session too,” junior Emma Burden, who attended Inside the 18 said.

Finesse Soccer began partnering with Global FC, an organization that provides free soccer clinics to refugee girls living in Kansas City, in 2017. Director of Global FC, Mariya Goodbrake, told Robinson that they hadn’t found any coaches for the girls yet but had been talking with the refugee families to try and get the girls out on the soccer field.

“For most of them it was the first time they had ever been able to run or play sports so it was a really cool opportunity to be the first touch point they had with soccer and the program has really grown substantially since our first clinic with them,” Robinson said.

Since that first clinic Robinson has donated balls, had T-shirts made for the girls, gone out of her way to bring other female trainers to the practices to provide more coaches and book the indoor fields on her own.

The hours Robinson puts into the community is another factor in winning The Kissick Construction Game Changer Award — whether it’s running a Finesse clinic or partnering with Global FC to provide free soccer clinics for 50 plus refugee girls in the Kansas City area.

“She’s able to coach and teach girls of all different varieties, some girls really don’t know how to play and then other girls do and she’s able to cater to each one of their needs,” Volunteer Coordinator of Global FC Ella Munthali said. “She really generally wants to make a difference.”

Finesse is unlike club sports — they focus on effort and attitude instead of wins and losses. Robinson believes that soccer teaches an athlete how to handle challenges and accept failure because you can’t win every game.

Starting Finesse Soccer and partnering with Global FC allowed Robinson to share her love for soccer with young athletes while creating a business to share her favorite sport with the community.

“I think having that mindset as an athlete moving through life is that I focus on the things that I can control and I give all of my effort and that’s good enough because that’s in my power,” Robinson said. “I’m doing my best and it might not give me the result that I wanted but at least I can walk away knowing that I did my best.”