KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the referee blew the final whistle in the National Women’s Soccer League championship game between the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit on Saturday and the Pride lifted the trophy for the first time in franchise history with a 1-0 win, it was hard to know , where exactly to look when the team has crashed on the field.

Most of the team’s minions – except perhaps those aligned with the Spirit – knew the best way to give attention to Orlando Pride forward Marta, a living legend from Brazil long referred to as Rainha (queen), but never a champion until that whistle. The 38-year-old three-time Olympic silver medalist and all-time leading World Cup scorer dropped to her knees and pointed to the sky before disappearing right into a pile of dogs. Marta’s mother got here from Brazil to the United States for the first time to look at her play. Few would regret specializing in striker Barbra Banda, the prolific Zambian striker who scored the Pride’s only goal to secure the victory.

But near the sideline, Pride head coach Seb Hines, first assistant coach Giles Barnes and assistant coach Yolanda Thomas embraced, keeping off the Kansas City cold and having fun with a historic moment of Black excellence. As glitter fell to the ground inside the stadium, Hines became the first black coach to win an NWSL championship, which doubled as the first skilled title for Orlando, Florida. He is first full-time Black coach in the league. (For a short while, Hue Menzies was the coach of the Jamaica women’s national team served as interim coach at New Jersey/New York Gotham FC in 2022. In December 2023, Lorne Donaldson, the newest head coach of ReggaeGirlz, was named hired as head coach Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL league.)

“It’s huge,” Hines said of the win in his postgame press conference. “Obviously, going into this job, I did my research. I knew (I knew) that Orlando had never won a championship between (MLS) City, Pride, Orlando Magic to call a couple of, so yes, I all the time desired to have that open (parade) bus running through the streets of Orlando.

Hines had never been a head coach before taking up the Pride, and yet in lower than three seasons he transformed a team that had made only one playoff appearance in seven years into an unstoppable force and, ultimately, a champion. Hines was a full-time assistant coach for the Pride before being promoted to interim head coach. In 2024, the Orlando Pride made NWSL history as the team with the most wins (18), longest unbeaten streak (23) and longest winning streak (eight) in a season. On October 7, they won the NWSL Shield, a trophy awarded to the team with the most points in 26 games. They had 60 points, the most in league history.

And he did it with Barnes and Thomas, who’re also Black coaches. As Pride players could possibly be heard celebrating with champagne nearby, Hines made it clear he intended to assist expand opportunities for black managers.

“I want to be a role model for other people so that they can take advantage of the opportunity I have been given. It’s a big responsibility,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of fun with this opportunity, so I just want to continue to advocate for more Black coaches and (to) create a more diverse league in the NWSL.”

Hines grew up and commenced his skilled profession in England, where he was raised by a white English mother and a black American. Orlando has been his home in the US since he played for Orlando City SC in MLS in 2015. He retired two years later but remained with the club, continuing as a volunteer at youth level, before moving to Pride in 2018.

In June 2020, the Pride hired Hines as a full-time assistant coach. Two years later, he was thrust into his first head coaching position as then manager Amanda Cromwell and one other assistant were fired after a league investigation found they’d retaliated against players. Hines was promoted to interim coach on June 7 and has been confirmed as full-time coach on November 11.

“I make it through hard work,” he said at a press conference after the announcement. “I wouldn’t have gotten into this position without hard work, so I want the team to emulate my values ​​and beliefs. So next year you will find a team that will work hard and fight for every inch of the match, but will also have the freedom to play, express themselves and entertain the fans. This is a really important element because fans can come to a Pride game and have fun.”

The Pride finished tenth out of 12 teams in 2022. In January 2023, former player Haley Carter became Pride’s vp of soccer operations and general manager and focused on improving the club’s culture. With the signing of Hines Barnes as head assistant coach in February 2023 and Thomas as assistant coach in March 2023, the Pride began to take off in earnest. Still, they finished 2023 painfully short of the playoffs, and fell short on goal difference in the final game of the season.

Hines and the team continued to level up. In March, the Pride signed Banda in what was arguably their most eye-catching signing since Marta, a prolific goal scorer who barely slowed down when she arrived in the NWSL from China. She scored 17 goals in 25 regular-season games, 4 goals in three postseason games and was nominated for NWSL MVP – all in her first season. Marta talked at length about how playing alongside Banda sharpened her own game. This offensive partnership, combined with a powerful defense that led the league in stoppages, catapulted the Pride to the top of the NWSL for much of the season. At the end of the season, Marta earned a Midfielder of the Year nomination, Emily Sams was named Defender of the Year, and Hines was awarded Coach of the Year.

Pride forward Ally Watt is the team representative for the Black Women’s Player Collective, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Black girls in sports. She praised Hines’ achievements.

“I’m very proud to be part of his history,” she said in the mixed zone after the match, as tears rolled down her cheeks. “It just makes me proud to be his player because he pushes us day-after-day, but he’s also a trailblazer, inspiring future generations and he’s very humble about it, which also (is) just… he’s just an important leader on this meaning.”

Indeed, Hines exudes quiet confidence, at the very least in the eyes of the media, selecting his words fastidiously and sticking to the script as a black English-American determined to provide back to the Orlando community he has fallen in love with by winning the city a trophy.

In one season, the Pride won them two trophies.

“I’m still learning, I’m still developing, I’m relatively young as well, so I just want to continue to grow and learn as much as I can and also, yeah, listen to the players, listen to how they feel good,” Hines said, reflecting on the season . “Of course I actually have a mode of play and I need this team to look a certain way, but the players must consider in it and you may see that there’s a real community there. They trust me, they trust the coaching staff, and when everyone seems to be working towards these goals, you may see what we are able to achieve.

When Texas A&M moves forward Amirah Abdur-Rahim was a highschool student, the 6-foot-10 forward from Georgia participated in greater than a dozen Division I college basketball programs competing for her talent and commitment.

Abdur-Rahim and her family were no strangers to collegiate athletics. At the time, she was preparing to turn out to be the ninth sibling in her family to play college basketball. Her siblings, Shareefhe went all of the technique to the NBA.

Getting Abdur-Rahim to commit to this system wasn’t easy. The school needed to persuade Abdur-Rahim and her older brother Amir. During Abdur-Rahim’s recruitment, Amir Abdur-Rahim was promoted to assistant men’s basketball coach at Texas A&M after which at Georgia. From 2001 to 2004, he played college basketball as a member of the All-Southland Conference in Southeast Louisiana and oversaw his younger sister’s recruitment.

“He was the caller who came to campus and made sure Amirah had a pros and cons list,” the Texas A&M coach said Joni Taylorwho recruited Abdur-Rahim when she was in highschool.

In between coaching duties, Amir Abdur-Rahim did every little thing in his power to develop relationships with the coaches recruiting his sister, ensuring she can be in good hands, challenged and growing as an individual and player wherever she went. When Abdur-Rahim decided to maneuver programs, her brother, then an aspiring coach, desired to stay within the loop.

“He was always there whenever he could,” Abdur-Rahim said. “He’s definitely my protector.”

On October 24, Amir Abdur-Rahim died in a Tampa hospital from complications that arose during a medical procedure for an undisclosed illness. He was 43 years old.

The news spread throughout the school basketball world when Amir Abdur-Rahim was the boys’s basketball coach in South Floridahe was widely considered the following big name in college coaching.

For Abdur-Rahim, it meant the lack of one in all his role models, a trusted confidant and one in all his biggest inspirations.

As the school basketball season continues, Abdur-Rahim intends to uphold and share his brother’s legacy by staying connected with him, continuing the sport that brought them together.

“The one thing that motivates me every day is knowing that he wants me to continue,” Abdur-Rahim said. “I just keep every positive thing he had about him.”

Abdur-Rahim was on the Texas A&M facility when she received the news of her brother’s death. She had just left Taylor’s office and had a temporary conversation with the associate head coach Chelsea Newton when she received a call from her older sister Asha. Abdur-Rahim sensed something was incorrect from the tone of her siblings’ voices.

“But I didn’t think so,” she said. “I used to be standing outside our training room and he or she told me. And then I immediately ran to my coach’s office because I didn’t know what else to do.

Taylor, who had left campus, ran back. For the following 4 hours, Taylor, Abdur-Rahim, and Newton sat in Taylor’s office.

“They were there for me, they let me feel everything I needed,” Abdur-Rahim said. “I was surrounded by people who loved me and who I know really love Amir.”

Taylor has known Amir Abdur-Rahim for nearly 20 years, and their first contact was in 2007 as an assistant coach when Taylor was at Louisiana Tech and Amir was in his first coaching position at Murray State as a graduate assistant.

The two grew up together within the industry, exchanging information and attending to know one another. They later worked side by side when Amir Abdur-Rahim became an assistant Tom Crean in 2019 in Georgia, where Taylor has been the ladies’s basketball coach since 2015.

As news of Amir Abdur-Rahim’s death began to flow into, Taylor’s phone began ringing. They coached teammates and called Taylor to verify the news or check on Abdur-Rahim. When Taylor answered the calls, she put them on speaker so Abdur-Rahim could hear them.

“Everyone wanted to share a story,” Taylor said, adding that lots of her staff members who got here together with her from Georgia had ties to Amir Abdur-Rahim. “It was really special for her to experience those moments and hear the impact Amir had and the legacy he left behind.”

Abdur-Rahim said it helped her to listen to the memories her brother’s friends shared.

“It kind of lit a light in me,” Abdur-Rahim said. “You know he’s loved, everyone loves him. You know, I’m not the just one combating this news. Even though they are usually not family, in a way they’re family to him.

Recently, Abdur-Rahim fell in love with basketball, which she said was a results of having to continually rehab from injuries and deal together with her mental health. What reignited her passion for the sport was watching her brother grow as a coach.

“His passion for the game, his love, his dedication, that inspired me too. It inspired me to be more dedicated,” Abdur-Rahim said. “Seeing him as a coach in an environment where he could be himself and show such passion brought me closer to the game. It actually bonded us.”

Taylor watched the boys’s team practice in Georgia. Taylor said that while watching Amir Abdur-Rahim as a member of Crean’s coaching staff, his love for the sport stood out.

“The passion, the intensity and the amount of time he spent perfecting his craft. … He was just someone who loved, breathed and lived basketball,” she said.

In his first coaching job at Kennesaw State, which began in 2019, Amir Abdur-Rahim finished his first season with just one victory. By the time he left three years later, the Owls had won 26 games, a conference championship and appeared within the NCAA tournament.

In his first season at South Florida, Amir Abdur-Rahim led a team that had had one winning season within the last 11 years to the American Athletic Conference regular season title and second round from NIT. It was named AAC Coach of the Year in March.

“I’m not sure you can put a value on what he did for the people, for the young men he coached every day and for the people he led,” Taylor said. “He was at the highest of his game. Next up was Amir. He was going to take over men’s basketball.

When Abdur-Rahim and his brother met by phone, they often talked about topics starting from basketball to memories of their father, William, who died in 2020. Sometimes, Amir Abdur-Rahim would ask his sister for suggestions on musical artists or advice on which lyrics can be a greater caption on Instagram, which she all the time responded to.

Sometimes they talked about their dreams for the longer term.

“I feel that Amir has already fulfilled his dream. He was destined to become a great coach,” Abdur-Rahim said. “It just breaks my heart that he wasn’t able to reach his highest limits.”

While much of Abdur-Rahim’s bond together with her brother was built over basketball, a few of her favorite memories had nothing to do with sports and every little thing to do together with his actions as her older brother. When Abdur-Rahim was in middle school, at any time when her brother was on the town between practices, he would take her and Asha to get their nails done and take them out to eat.

“He just took the time to all the time tell us he loved us. He was with us, he frolicked with us,” said Abdur-Rahim.

The outpouring of affection and support for Amir Abdur-Rahim and his family from the school basketball community since his death has been overwhelming and overwhelming. Dedications and private stories flooded social media. Schools across the country observed a minute of silence in his memory.

South Florida has modified the name of its student section Yuengling Center after Amir Abdur-Rahim and can leave an empty spot on the USF bench for the remaining of the season.

“Seeing it in person and seeing it constantly makes me feel better that his legacy will not be forgotten,” Abdur-Rahim said. “I also need to attempt to proceed his legacy.

“For me it just means being a great Muslim, a great person, a good friend, a good aunt, a good sister, a good mother, when that time comes, just being an overall good person.”

Every time Abdur-Rahim steps on the court for Texas A&M this season, she’s going to pay tribute to her late brother. His initials, two hearts on the perimeters and one in all his signature quotes – “love wins” – are written on the bottom of her right shoe.

“I want this to stay with me,” Abdur-Rahim said. “No matter how many shoes I go through this season, I will still write it down so I know I can feel him with me every step, every play, every basket.”

Hawks players will also wear unique shooting T-shirts before the match, and in the evening there will be an extra attraction commemorating his iconic move when he blocked opponents’ shots during his profession. His signature move after blocking an opponent’s shot was to wave his long index finger and say “No, no, no” in his face. As a tribute, when a Hawks player blocks a shot during a game, “No, No, No” will play over the stadium speakers so fans can rejoice the move.