It’s a question straight out of the movie “Office Space,” in the scene where the outside consultants — The Bobs — are making everyone interview for their existing jobs.
“What would you say you do here?”
Unlike the characters in the iconic film, U.S. women’s national team general manager Kate Markgraf’s job isn’t in any danger, but the answer to that query isn’t widely known. Sure, she’s in charge with leading the search for coaches that make up the U.S. women’s national team program. And? It’s not obvious from the outside, especially since the GM role never existed until Markgraf was hired in 2019.
Markgraf, in an exclusive interview with ESPN, described her job as one part “ambassadorial” and another part “director of women’s football.”
“The reality is my job is to help solidify and strengthen the different departments that impact our national teams as well as manage the hiring process and selection of our coaches, from all the female youth coaches that are full-time to our senior team,” she said.
Given her undergraduate degree in science business from the University of Notre Dame, as well as masters degrees in kinesiology and educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, plus a long and distinguished career as a player with the USWNT, Markgraf brings a unique skillset to the position, all while setting the course for the U.S. women’s program.
It’s clear Markgraf wears a variety of hats. She’s the conductor of the orchestra — a confidante, a taskmaster and data analyst all rolled into one. Her role as a defender during her playing days dovetails nicely into her current position, too: It’s her job to study, anticipate and sniff out potential problems before they become critical issues. This isn’t to say that there isn’t plenty of delegation of responsibilities, but she is intent on feeling the pulse of the team and the broader organization on the women’s side of the game.
Oh, and all of this is with the stated goal of helping the USWNT win their third consecutive World Cup title, something that has never been done. But Markgraf insists that there is one area where she doesn’t stray, which is selecting the roster or anything relating to team tactics. That remains the exclusive purview of USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski.
“I don’t believe a coach should be told, ‘This is your roster, and you’re going to play this person a certain amount of minutes,'” she said. “You hire a coach because you trust him and you hire his assistants because you trust that they’re going to help the technical staff. You hire everybody with an intention to complement a skill set of one another. I don’t do, ‘Kate Markgraf is going to come out of retirement and you’re going to play her 45 minutes.’ “
