Title IX • 50 Years

Goal-Oriented

UW Hall of Famer Tina Frimpong Ellertson brings her global grasp of the game every day to the Husky pitch and her players

MARK MOSCHETTI • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE

A five-year member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, with 34 caps. Valuable minutes on the field during the 2007 Women’s World Cup. An illustrious, productive career at the University of Washington, during which she racked up goal-scoring and total points records that still stand — 18 years after her final game as a Husky.

Opportunities in the soccer world have always been there for Tina Frimpong Ellertson. Doesn’t matter whether it was playing at the highest levels of the game, evaluating national- and world-caliber talent or coaching — a particular passion that she is currently pursuing as an assistant on Nicole Van Dyke’s UW staff.

Yet, during the celebration of the 50th year of Title IX, Frimpong Ellertson is fully aware that those opportunities are there for her because of trailblaz

ing women before her time: Women who didn’t have such abundant opportunities, but who worked to knock down barriers and open doors so future generations — including Frimpong Ellertson’s — would have them.

“I had my dad as a coach (in club soccer), but in high school, I had Tammy Perkins (at Hudson’s Bay in Vancouver, Washington), and then I got into UW and I had Lesle Gallimore,” Frimpong Ellertson said. “When I ask some of our players now, there’s not a lot of women who have been coached by females. In our generation (Frimpong Ellertson is now 40), it was few.

“I was actually really fortunate to have had two female coaches along the way — they’re the rea son I got into coaching,” she added. “They’re the women who showed me what it looks like.”

From the time she was a growing up in Vancouver, seeing her brother play (“I remember watching him and I was like, ‘I want to do that”) or watching her dad play pick-up games, Frimpong Ellertson has been in soccer’s grip. But as more and more choices became available for young girls to do sports her par ents, who both emigrated from Africa (dad from Gha na, mom from Nigeria), encouraged her to go for it.

“They threw us into all of it,” she recalled with a laugh. “It was, ‘Tina, do you want to play volley ball?’ ‘Tina, do you want to run track?’ Sports is a community, and my parents really pushed us to be part of a community.”

No surprise that Frimpong Ellertson became a three-sport athlete at Hudson’s Bay, with soccer, basketball, and track. Clearly, though, her future was in soccer.

“Soccer had my heart, it was in my family blood — I just kept it going,” she said.

UW Hall of Famer Tina Frimpong Ellertson

Tina Frimpong Ellertson

Lesle Gallimore

Second Chance To Be A Husky

Initially leaning toward Washington, Frimpong Ellertson changed her mind and went to Santa Clara instead. But she never took the field for the Broncos, sitting out the 2000 season while pregnant with MacKenzie, the first of her three children.

Frimpong Ellertson looked back toward home, back toward Washington, and joined legendary coach Lesle Gallimore’s squad.

“We told her, ‘Being a parent always comes first, so whatever concessions you need from us or from me, you will have,’” Gallimore recalled of a conversa tion she had with Frimpong Ellertson. “But that is knowing you have to toe the line with everything else. That just means you have to work extra hard when you are being an athlete.”

Frimpong Ellertson put in the work. As a freshman, she played all 20 games and led the Huskies with seven goals. Of those seven, three of them came in just the fourth game of her career, a 4-0 preseason rout of Idaho.

“My grandma had come from Nigeria. I remember her being in the stands and me scoring three goals – and one was a banger from outside (the penalty area),” she said. “That was a game where everything worked out and what made it so special was my grandma was there.”

The goals kept coming – seven more as a sophomore, 13 as a junior, 16 as a senior. The accolades started to come, too – Pacific-10 Player of the Year (twice) and an All-American honorable mention.

Eventually, Frimpong Ellertson’s success – her 43 goals and 99 points still sit atop their respective all-time UW lists – led to numerous opportunities af ter the Huskies. She got the chance to play professionally, earned a spot on the U.S. Women's National Team and playing time in the 2007 World Cup.

“That was a moment that was really special because I got to thank (my family) and I got to stand up at my alma mater,” she said. “Because I believe if it wasn’t for the UW, I wouldn’t be where I had gotten. There was a lot of grati tude, and that was proud (moment).”

Husky coaching legends Gallimore (left) and Amy Griffin (right) with Frimpong Ellertson.

Coach Frimpong Ellertson with Cori Sullivan (left) and Kala McDaniel (right).

‘There’s Nothing We Can’t Do’

All those accomplishments as a player give Frimpong Ellertson plenty of credibility as a coach.

“She has had a good smattering of different environments that inspired her,” Gallimore said. “I think people who got to watch her play, look at her re sume’, look at her career – that’s an inspiration also. You don’t get to be Pac-10 Player of the Year by accident. You don’t make a World Cup by accident. And she did it while being a parent.”

Van Dyke, who just completed her third year as Washington’s head coach, added, “We have someone on our staff who has lived the Husky way for many years. She got the opportunity to come here and play in the state of Washing ton, and represent the state, but also really thrive at the pro level and the na tional team level.”

Speaking of the national team, the United States women are getting ready for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, next July and August in Australia and New Zealand. Frimpong Ellertson can hardly wait for the opening kick as the fourtime defending champion Americans go for their fifth title.

“Any time it’s a World Cup, I’m the person who’s glued, sitting on my couch,” she said. “It’s a big deal because of what it takes to get there in blood, sweat, and tears – and I can relate to that.”

For Frimpong Ellertson, it’s all a matter of opportunities – those that have come her way that previous generations of girls and women didn’t have, and those she is always urging today’s generation to take advantage of every time they can – on or off the soccer field.

“We as females, Title IX has given us an opportunity to play and express ourselves,” she said. “I feel like we as women are the strongest people on the planet, and there’s nothing we can’t do.

“I believe Title IX is at the forefront of all of that, and I think that has driven the narrative that you see now, and I’m really grateful for it.”