The Orlando Pride's newly appointed Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Caitlin Carducci is very familiar with the team from The City Beautiful.
Prior to officially joining the Club yesterday, she was at the helm of the Pride's budding rival, the Kansas City Current. Carducci was also at Inter&Co Stadium as Marta scored that memorable goal in the 2024 NWSL Semifinals and then watched the Pride lift the NWSL Championship in Kansas City a week later.
"Go back to that November night in 2024, I wouldn't have envisioned myself sitting here right now," Carducci told Orlando-Pride.com. "But you never know what happens, and I couldn't be more excited to be here."
After overseeing the team that lifted the NWSL Shield last year, Carducci now comes into a team that is on a similar footing as the one she just left. Established stars, a good young core and a coach that's been in conversations for top in the league. With that similarity, the goal for Carducci remains the same: winning, and lots of it.
"I want to win everything," she said. "I want to lift a few more shields. I want to win an NWSL Championship, win a CONCACAF Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, all of those things. Anyone who says differently is lying."
Preseason for the Club will start next week, sending the new General Manager right into action to help bolster what is already a top roster in the league. For Carducci, before bringing in new talent, she wants to make sure the current roster has the ability and culture to help it thrive for the long term.
"I want to establish a leadership model of caring for people," she said. "We're going to be an aggressive team. We're gonna be a hard-working team. We're gonna fight, but that doesn't mean that we can't care about our people while we're doing that."
Part of that caring harkens back to the culture that Head Coach Seb Hines has built since taking over the job in the middle of 2022. It's been a constant reminder over the past three seasons and a massive part of how the team went from barely missing the playoffs in 2023, to winning it all in 2024.
Carducci has seen how that has changed the trajectory of this Pride team and wants to make sure that stays in the forefront as she now takes over.
“Seb and his staff have done a fantastic job of establishing and really keying in on what the culture is, what the values are, and then making sure that we're using that lens to bring In players and staff that match that culture, match those values, and then those players and people ensure that anyone who comes in here is held up to those same standards," she said. "I will hold myself to those same standards, and if I'm not, then someone better be calling me out on it.”
Carducci now inherits a Pride roster that already is well established over the last two seasons and is a group already constructed to compete for titles. Now the job becomes working with the coaching staff to see what's needed in order to take them to the next level.
"I'm not stepping into a rebuild; nothing needs to be torn down to be built back up," she said. "We're looking at refining the amazing foundation that's in place. And I'm really looking forward to getting out onto the field, seeing how everyone's working, seeing what our coaches can do with this roster, and then as we need to make adjustments going forward, we're able to do so.”
The Ohio-native's philosophy for bringing in those players evolves from just what they can do on a pitch. Every potential addition and every internal decision comes down to not just their skill on the pitch, but who they are off of it. For Carducci, sustaining success isn’t just about adding talent, it’s about protecting the culture that made that success possible in the first place.
“I think, first and foremost, it's: who are they as a person? Will they fit in this locker room? Do they match not only the values of this club, but the values of the city?” she said. “What we are looking to do, as far as being relentless in our pursuit of the ball, holding it, attacking, winning the ball back immediately, if and when it happens, and keeping the ball out of our net. Those are the key pieces, and fortunately, this is a very, very talented roster.”
Part of what has shaped her mindset about her job is the jobs she held in the past. She's spent time with the NWSL league office, helping to write some of the rules and regulations in the competition manual that are still in use today, as well as with U.S. Soccer, serving as the Vice President of Member Programs. These experiences, as well as the relationships made along the way, bring an added layer of understanding to her role and a rolodex of people to call when needed.
“It makes it really easy to pick up the phone and talk to an established, experienced, knowledgeable person,” Carducci said. “I have great friends and colleagues at the league. I have great friends and colleagues at U.S. Soccer, and still some wonderful relationships within the NWSL. So all of those pieces fit together really well, and we can use all of them and use the experience of other people within the organization to make sure that we are involved, we are aware, we are influencing the game in a positive direction, not only for the Orlando Pride, but for the league and for the country.”
