Short Summary

• The Campaign. We need to raise funds to launch Tallahassee (TLH) Reckoning – Women’s Professional Soccer Club. With emphasis on the holistic development of the player, we will provide the only connected development pathway for ambitious girls and women soccer players. TLH Reckoning will be the most sought after player development franchise for the best athletes seeking a safe yet rigorous environment to excel and unlock their unlimited potential within. We will work to eliminate barriers and create more accessible opportunities for all while invigorating our dynamic community of fans/family/friends. 
• The Magnitude Your Contribution. Your contribution will help create a template of success for other ‘overlooked’ or ‘forgotten’ areas to replicate to improve the lives in those communities. Your contribution will help prove that the socioeconomic status, gender, race, color, ethnicity or geographic location (etc.) does not matter — those differences will not impede or restrict opportunity to develop and have excellence realized. Read my bio below to learn more about me, the founder.
• Founder – Ashlee Fontes-Comber Bio. Fontes-Comber is an award-winning executive in women’s soccer with an unwavering commitment to positively impact the women’s game. She notoriously has the keen ability, verified prowess to develop and implement vision and strategy through systems and processes with exceptionalism and innovation to drive results. Accompanied by the tenacity to unite all the right stakeholders with a mission to advance the women’s game, Fontes-Comber has a proven track record of undeniable success and sustainable cornerstone contributions to the game in the US.

In 2022, she served as the first elected female of color President for the world’s largest soccer coaching association, United Soccer Coaches; concluding her 6-year term of board service in January 2024.  Via Nikao Management, Fontes-Comber spearheaded the market strategy for ata football. Separately, she co-founded the Girls Academy league, revolutionizing player-empowerment standards across the nation.

Fontes-Comber was the first female of color to run a professional soccer franchise in the US, as first in charge of the NWSL’s founding club, the Washington Spirit. She built the Spirit into a championship contending club with a robust youth academy from scratch during her tenure, achieving profitability status in year three. As a player, she helped pave the way for Florida State University to become a dynasty in women’s soccer as well as competing in the W-League in the early 2000s. She resides in Tallahassee, Florida where she is working to complete her Doctorate (PhD) and she consults women’s sports organizations across the globe.

• Why is this Important to Me? I will continue to dedicate my life to making access to opportunities for girls and women through soccer. Tallahassee is home and I want to do right by what these players/coaches and community deserve. Additionally, I will work to make this the most sustainable, thriving and impactful program for the girls and women so it can be replicated in other areas across the country, the world.

Ready to make a contribution and be part of history?! Feel free to reach out and connect with me via LinkedIn if you have more questions. 

What We Need 

• Our Minimum Funding Goal/Need: We need at least 3,500 people to donate a minimum of $100 to be sustainable for the first 12-month cycle of operations.
• Our Stretch Funding Goal/Need: The stretch goal would be to raise $1.05 million, which will allow us the appropriate amount of resources and time to develop and strengthen internal operations, programming, revenue streams and external constituencies.
• All funding will go towards breaking down barriers to entry & access to resources in soccer for women & girls in Tallahassee. Your contributions will help disrupt the overall disparity in equitable opportunities that exist. Funding will support a pre-professional team, an academy-level college-showcase team, & grow the sport into areas that do not usually have access. 

• Make history and a sustainable impact for generations with us!

  • Please indicate if you want to be recognized/acknowledged for your contribution or if you want to remain silent. If yes, then you will specifically be mentioned as one of the founding contributors that made this happen!

The Impact

• The Problem. For too long women sports have been an afterthought or not worth the investment. Areas that are geographically and institutionally challenged, like Tallahassee are even further off.

  I am committed to dedicating my time and expertise to establishing a connected pathway and pipeline for aspiring female soccer players in and around the Tallahassee area. While connecting the community to celebrate our phenomenal talent around the game we all love.

  In the United States, youth sports are a multi-billion-dollar industry. Our geographic landscape in this country is so vast and disjointed, that our development systems are set up to do what is easiest to make money.

  As such we end up catering to the athletes that can pay the premium price and live in large metropolitan areas. We are not actually developing our top talent, instead we are creating tougher barriers to access.

  In other words, it is rare for a talented female athlete to have the access to resources and opportunities to play at the highest levels unless they have quality transportation, thousands of dollars in disposable income per quarter, and live in a metropolitan area. And if a player has the means but not the location, then we uproot the athlete from their community. 

  Soccer, like any sport, is meant for all girls and women not just the ones that can afford it.

• The Solution. TLH Reckoning will solve this problem and fill this need by creating the structural pathways for excellence locally – breaking down the barriers to entry and access to resources to participate at the higher levels. 

  Through funding for the female athletes – we can support their training, recruitment and provide them a semi-pro team to play for when they return from college in the summers in front of their home-grown community and continue on their development pathway as an athlete and person.

  Additionally, this helps reinvigorate and bring together a community while infusing all with memories that will last for lifetimes.

• Why Me? My Expertise. I have been contributing to building and strengthening the women’s soccer landscape for girls and women across the country for decades…as a record-setting, barrier-breaking, award-winning player, coach, executive and board member…as a player at Florida State University; as a coach of several youth players that were recruited to play in college and scouted for national teams; as a co-founder of the only all-girls nation-wide elite soccer league; as a founding executive who built the Washington Spirit of the NWSL into a record-setting, championship-contending franchise; as the first-ever female of color to be elected as President of the largest soccer coaches association in the world. My reputation and credibility for doing things for the right reasons and for the betterment of all is undeniable. 

  I first helped connect, inspire and put Tallahassee’s women’s soccer prowess on the national landscape back in 2000 and now I am ready to help deepen and strengthen that prowess from the youth to the pros for the unique gem that Tallahassee is! 

• Every contribution helps. Your support will help turn dreams into a reality for hundreds of girls and women soccer players in Tallahassee. As an effect of your contribution, hundreds of girls and women will develop into unrivaled impactful leaders entering the community,  nationally and globally after their playing careers. Your contribution will be felt for generations. Your contribution is a statement in your belief in creating equitable and sustainable change for women and girls everywhere – and a special thanks supporting me, a female of color. 

Risks & Challenges

New ventures in general have a high risk of failure from formation to the first few years. Those failures are attributable to the leadership (prior start-up and industry-specific experience), financial resources, and external support. As a doctoral candidate, I have studied and researched this topic for over 5 years and as a professional it has been part of my life’s work.

• I am well-versed and tested in overcoming all obstacles in new venture start-up. Please see the Washington Spirit of the NWSL, D.C. United Women of the W-League, the Girls Academy League.
• I am well-versed and tested in leading complex, multi-layered and diverse organizations. Please see United Soccer Coaches. 

Other Ways You Can Help

Please help in any way you can:

• Please spread the word out and make some noise about this campaign! We need as many contributors as possible to reach our funding goals! 
• Remember to use the Indiegogo share tools!