Her summer was almost limited to a single match, Vancouver's last of the regular season.
Veteran fullback Martina Franko dressed for her first Whitecaps game this year against the Colorado Force last Friday, knowing only a win would secure the women's team a place in the playoffs.
Had it been to her liking, the Canadian international (she has 55 caps since her first national team appearance at 29 in 2005) would have been playing sooner.
"I tried to come out about a month ago," she told the Courier. "I was talking to [head coach] Hubert Busby throughout the season, trying to make it work. We talked even through winter."
She cited logistics, like travelling the Sea to Sky Highway, and a lack of cash. Add to that an infant who was too sick to withstand her demanding schedule.
Beyond Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»and the semi-professional, second-tier W-League, Franko says this summer she also would have been in Germany, playing for Canada.
Why did one of the country's top soccer talents stay home? The answer shouldn't surprise you.
"Sportswomen all across Canada are having this issue because there isn't anything established for women with children," she said.
Franko gave birth to her son, Micah, a year and a half ago. Her husband took parental leave while she continued to coach the varsity women's soccer team at Quest University in Squamish. The support she needed as a mother and athlete wasn't forthcoming at the national level.
"In the States, I know in women's soccer they have fought for the last 10, 15 years to have a contract established for women with children. But we just don't have anything like that in Canada."
The concern ultimately comes down to money. In 2005, the Canadian Soccer Association paid for Charmaine Hooper's mother to travel to Europe with the team after the striker--the highest-scoring national team member ever--had a daughter.
The team's then-head coach, Evan Pellerude, told Canadian Press at the time, "I'm committed to doing it. It would be a really bad story, I think, if we said, 'Good, you're a mother. But we can't support you.'"
Franko, 35, believes she could have argued her own case more forcefully. "I didn't fight for it that much with the national team. It's enough taking care of a baby and trying to train so I didn't give my 100 per cent to have support and have a child caretaker with me," she said. "But it wasn't given to us."
Also daunting were the costly logistics of relocating to Rome for three months of training prior to the international soccer tournament.
"I just knew it wasn't realistic," she said.
The women on the Whitecaps roster draw a weekly honourarium of $400. Franko said the charitable branch of the franchise, the Whitecaps Foundation, has made her transition back to the pitch smoother by, for example, helping pay for her own hotel room when travelling to road games with her son.
Back with the Caps for her first game of the season Friday, Franko quickly resumed her leadership role. She captained the team when they appeared in the W-League championship last year. Against Colorado, however, the defense struggled to find its footing early. The Caps rallied to tie the game 3-3. On Sunday, a draw elsewhere in the league means the Whitecaps post-season stays alive. They meet the Blue Heat for the W-League Western Final on Sunday, July 24 in Santa Clarita.
Twitter: @MHStewart
