After their last game of 2023, a semifinal defeat on November 5, the Portland Thorns underwent physical exams and attended exit meetings with coaches. Then they were released into the wild, where they'll remain until late January. 

For three glorious months, the players choose what to do and how to exercise. Recovery is a priority. “You can only ring that high-intensity bell so many times in a season,” says Sanatan Golden, a local physical therapist and conditioning coach who teaches a training class for athletes called “The Ultimate Offseason.” 

“The rigors of a season take a toll on an athlete’s tissues,” Golden says. “The offseason is a time to repair and rebuild,” as well as build up performance and injury resistance for the next season.

Thorns head coach Mike Norris concurs. “I’m a firm believer in rest. Just leave them alone. They perform under heavy demands all season with intense daily routines. They hear my voice too much.” 

During the National Women’s Soccer League season, which usually runs from April through October, the team averages about one game per week, and otherwise trains four to six hours per day, plus rigorous nationwide travel. Players theoretically get two days off per week, but sometimes the travel schedule precludes that. “It’s high intensity and high pressure,” says 18-year-old midfielder Olivia Moultrie, who made her Thorns debut at age 15 after her court case overturned the NWSL’s minimum age limit. “I strive to embrace the pace. I’m, like, cool, that’s my life.” 

Her family moved from Santa Clarita, California, to Wilsonville, Oregon, in 2019, so that the then-13-year-old Moultrie could train with the Thorns. Their property has a large field, and during the offseason Moultrie texts a list of high-level friends for five-on-five. “The games are casual in the sense that they are unstructured pickup games,” says Moultrie. “But we still play hard and are competitive.” And Moultrie and her family have jumped on the Portland bandwagon, cruising around on new bikes and exploring local hiking trails. “If Portland freezes like last winter, I’m excited to sled the hill by my house, which goes down for a quarter mile.”

She’s done with school for now: last March, she graduated from an online program, and says she’s thrilled to have skipped the drudgery of in-person high school. “I see my sisters going through school, and I’m so happy I’m doing what I do every day. I’m so glad I got to skip all that. I’m the luckiest person in the world.”

Fellow Thorn and formidable defender Reyna Reyes, 22, was the fifth overall pick in the 2023 NWSL draft in January. She’s adjusting to her new Southeast Portland neighborhood. “I’ve never been so pale,” says Reyes, who was born in Texas and spent her college career at the University of Alabama. “I’ve always lived in the South.” Offseason, she takes advantage of legs that aren’t dead from soccer practice to play tennis on the courts by her house, and suit up her toy fox terrier, Cookie, in a little coat and boots for trail hikes. 

She plans to leisurely explore her new neighborhood, visit family in Texas, and relax in the Bahamas with her boyfriend. However, she keeps her plans loose: she’s one of nine Thorns from the past season with training obligations to a national team, in her case playing for Mexico, where her father is from, and where the soccer federation sometimes schedules training on short notice. “I love really getting to experience that side of my culture,” says Reyes. “I didn’t know Spanish going into it, but I’m picking it up. The other players are great, and the personal chefs for the team are amazing—their tortilla soup and ceviche.”

Soon enough, the elite players return to Providence Park for preseason training. “In past offseasons, I’ve gone back early to train with the coach,” Reyes says with a smile, about her college career. “I get restless.”