ARVADA, Colo. — Sports have a way of bringing an entire community together. In Arvada, girls soccer has been proof of that for decades, built on one simple belief: girls deserved to play too.
In the 1950s, Lu and Wes Sanborn chose Arvada to raise their family and encourage their children to discover their passions. Their children took an interest in sports, with Wes coaching several teams and saying it was "just a matter of who wanted to do what where, when and why."
Like many families, the seasons brought different sports. However, when their daughter Deb wanted to try soccer in the 1960s, there was a problem, as there was no girls team for her to play on.
"We were always together and always out in the outfield playing catch or kicking a soccer ball or whatever it is," said Deb. "The challenge was issued that girls would never want to do this, and thankfully, my dad accepted it because there was a whole lot of us around that we were ready to go."
It was a challenge Wes knew could be conquered and one he wasn't afraid to take on.
"Everybody was tickled to death at the meeting when I first brought this up," said Wes Sanborn. "They said, 'It will never be, nobody wants to play,' and I said, 'Well, how will you know if we don't try?' And they agreed to try.
"When I got that first team, they said, 'You asked for it, they're yours,' and that's how I really got involved in girls soccer."
Wes and Lu both took on coaching different girls teams, but it was not easy, as they had to find fields to practice on and learn the rules, too.
"The hardest part about it was just getting them all lined up to learn how to play, and the only way I had to was because I had a book," said Wes. "The book said, 'You do this, this, and this.' That's what I passed on to the girls."
Paula Hartfield lived across the street from Deb, with the childhood neighbors turning into teammates on the field. Hartfield said her father wasn't fully supportive at first, but that would change when he saw her on the field.
"I didn't know anything about foot skills or anything like that," said Hartfield. "I mean, it wasn't anything like it is nowadays, and I had a hard time staying in my position. I do remember that."
Decades later, the Sanborns proudly pulled out a 1972 clipping from the Arvada Citizen Sentinel with Deb and Paula featured in a photo alongside Gov. John Love's wife, Ann. The article, written by Ann Lockhart, was titled "Soccer Association Stages Another Successful Season."
Lockhart had no idea her article had been saved for all these decades until Denver7's Maggy Wolanske tracked her down. While the details may have faded, Lockhart emphasized the importance as a journalist to share the stories in her community.
"Well, newspapers have our history, the history of the community," said Lockhart. "I'll tell you, if you're doing history, you go back into the newspaper archives to look up things, and that's a great resource."
This newspaper clipping has a way of bringing it all back, with Paula and Deb rereading it and talking about the laughs, reversible shirts, and the life lessons that never left them.
"It taught us to accept a challenge when it was issued and that we were just as good and able to compete as a lot of the boys, which always made us happy," said Deb. "And to prove the girls were not all ribbons and bows, we actually could do both."
As Colorado gears up to welcome the first professional women's soccer team in the Mile High City, the pride runs deepest for those who knew all along the game was always something bigger.
"I think it'd be interesting to note or to share how did how did women's soccer even evolve? Because nobody really knew it would go this far," Deb said. "So now Denver has their own professional women's soccer league. They need to recognize how fortunate they are that we have paved a new path for them to go down, and we were the pioneers of that."
Denver7 is proud to be the official broadcast partner of Denver Summit FC. Our Maggy Wolanske covered the club's official team name announcement and spoke with excited fans at their brand launch block party in July.
A viewer reached out to Maggy about this story, and she was able to bring it to life. She knows there are plenty more soccer stories to tell, so if you have an idea, reach out below.