Get to know the New Mexico Lightning — a women's indoor soccer team

It’s been quite the roundabout return for the New Mexico Lightning women’s indoor soccer team.

Established in 2019 to play in the Premier Arena Soccer League, the Lightning became one of the organization's top teams. But by 2022, the team discontinued play.

That is, until Women’s Major League Indoor Soccer commissioner Bernie Lilavois came calling, reaching out to one of the Lightning’s players, Taña Chavez, about bringing New Mexico in as an expansion team for the league’s second season.

“He's been calling me and texting me since probably April of last year, just talking about his league,” Chavez said. “I explained to him our hardships of not having sponsors and no home facility. The girls want to play, but we just don't have any backing and everything.”

But Lilavois came up with the idea of pulling sponsors from Las Vegas, Nevada, to support the team. And it worked.

So Chavez, 44, a defender who almost daily plays some form of soccer — be it indoor, outdoor or futsal — at various locations around Albuquerque, agreed to be the front woman and recruit a team.

“Our previous owner just up and left and everyone just knows me from being captain before, so I said sure I'll be team owner and player,” she said. “I'm doing all the back work. So anything on the website, anything on Instagram, setting things up, telling the girls what's going on with the league.”

The team held a tryout session Jan. 1, but it was mostly women invited from Chavez’s vast exposure to local players who helped form the nucleus of the team.

“We just know each other from playing in town at the indoor here or outdoor,” she said. “It's just seeing players around town just playing and we see they could play at the level, and that's how people were chosen.”

The level is professional, after a fashion. Sponsors will cover players’ travel expenses — meals, hotel, transportation — but they will not be paid a salary. However, players can negotiate personal endorsements, Chavez said.

Indoor soccer is akin to hockey in that it is played on a similar-shaped surface with a goalkeeper and five field players. The field is walled and the walls are in play. At the moment, there is no local site that can fit the Lightning in, so all the games will be played on the road, beginning Feb. 7-8 with four games in Las Vegas. 

The WMLIS has eight teams: the New Jersey Angels, the Chicago Mustangs, the Summit City Sentinels (Fort Wayne, Indiana) and Zoo City FC (Kalamazoo, Michigan) in the East; the New Mexico Lightning (Albuquerque), Pulse FC (Phoenix), the Las Vegas Turf Monsters and the Utah Uprising (Salt Lake City) in the West. Visit the league's website at https://wmlis.soccershift.com/. Games will be streamed live at youtube.com/@mlisprotv?si=PN9VGncs-_zbXh0W.

For players, especially the younger generation, it’s not so much about making money as about gaining experience.

Katherin Martinez, 20, is the team’s youngest participant and is looking forward to testing herself against higher-level players.

“It was actually a big, great opportunity, because women's soccer was pretty much dying,” she said. “There aren’t many girls that have the love for soccer like I do. It was just a big thing for me. And it’s a great opportunity to go travel, visiting places and see different levels of play. So it's great chance for me. I’m excited.”

Taking on this challenge should make Martinez and the other players better, she said, but the Lightning also should be competitive.

“I feel like I'm just quicker on the ball indoor than outdoor,” she said. “I just love having the indoor using the walls. And we've got some pretty skilled girls out here. I think we’ve got a shot to compete. I've seen some of the videos of the other girls and they’re pretty good. It's pretty intense. Every team has different tactics and you’ve just gotta watch them and learn how they move.”

Chavez, who played collegiately in Kansas and competed semi-professionally with the defunct Albuquerque Lady Asylum (WPSL), and also earned professional experience abroad with ASJ Soyaux in France’s Division 1 Féminine, this is a chance to pass on her experience and open doors for the younger women.

“We just want to have fun and see what we can do in the first season,” she said. “Get some of these girls experience because there's only three of us who returned from the previous team — myself, Kyla Tartaglia and Andrea Hetrick. And the biggest thing is to have fun and just play well and represent New Mexico.”

But there is also a certain expectation of success.

“Going back to 2020, 2019, we shocked the league by going undefeated and making it to the nationals in Cincinnati in October 2020, and then when we made it to Nationals, we took second place, losing to the Cincinnati Sirens,” Chavez pointed out. “So I think we would love to do something like that again, shock the league, come out with a bang.”