Burleigh preaches positivity to players
Interim coach brings different philosophy as team rebounds
It’s nearly 10 a.m. on a sweltering morning in Sanford when Orlando Pride coach Becky Burleigh takes over on the team’s portable speaker.
Burleigh is quick to note that she’s only temporarily in charge of the music. Striker Sydney Leroux will soon take over deejay duties once she arrives several songs later, switching to something a little more current.
But for now, Burleigh sets the tone for training with a classic — “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston.
The song’s effect is automatic. Brazilian star Marta doesn’t even wait to get her hair pulled up into a ponytail before whipping it around, somehow managing to belt out lyrics with her head halfway upside down.
Every player who enters training begins to mindlessly bob to the song’s infectious beat, with hummed harmonies echoing across the pitch as they tug on their cleats.
Whether it’s on the pitch or amid a warm-up dance break, Burleigh has brought a different beat to the Orlando Pride during her first month as the team’s interim head coach.
“Becky has a different philosophy,” defender Amy Turner said. “I’m really buying into what she’s brought here. She’s a very positive coach. That’s really refreshing for me as a player to have someone who believes in you and backs you all the way.”
Burleigh attributes this approach to football and life to one person — her mother, Nancy.
Nancy Burleigh spent most of her adult life in a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis (MS). Growing up with a parent with a disability impacted the way Burleigh learned to approach life.
“From a pretty young age, I always had a strong appreciation of positivity,” Burleigh said.
Nancy and Burleigh’s father, Ron, were her biggest fans. They were in the stands for almost every match of Burleigh’s first 22 seasons with the Florida Gators, cheering the team on to a national championship and a litany of conference titles.
Both of Burleigh’s parents passed away before the 2017-18 season, leaving an empty pair of seats in the stands of James G. Pressly Stadium.
For the following season, the team wore patches of their initials — “R + N” — on their jersey for the rest of the season.
The gesture reflected the way Burleigh’s style — focused on warm support rather than the intense criticism that’s become second nature to competitive athletics — impacts the players whom she coaches.
Now as the Pride’s head coach, Burleigh still carries one of Nancy’s favorite phrases with her into every training session and match: “There’s always someone worse off than me.”
“That just has always stuck with me,” Burleigh said. “There’s so many things that you can look at that you don’t have, but there’s so many things that you can look at that you do have. I just choose to focus on the latter.”
Burleigh’s coaching model focuses on appealing to players’ strengths rather than harping on their weaknesses. The coach never wants players to feel their impact on a game went unnoticed.
In practice, however, Burleigh noted this emphasis on positivity can be a difficult balance.
“It’s making sure that we recognize and appreciate the things that are going well and not just assume that it’s going to happen,” Burleigh said. “You don’t want to have it happen and not appreciate it. But also, when something doesn’t go our way, it’s being able to move through that quickly.”
Her confidence-focused mentality already has translated directly into results on the field for players such as Courtney Petersen.
Burleigh moved the fullback into a higher role in the team’s new defensive shape, encouraging the attacking-minded defender to spark transition plays. The shift resulted in Petersen’s assist in last week’s match against Portland.
After the match, Petersen said her coach’s guidance helped her to feel free to mold her own role on the pitch — which is the ultimate goal in Burleigh’s system.
For Pride players, Burleigh’s presence brought an immediate boost in confidence.
The team is unbeaten in Burleigh’s first three games heading into Sunday’s road match against Washington at 4 p.m., and players across the roster attribute those results to a rekindled sense of joy on the pitch.
“We’ve just been having a lot of fun lately playing,” midfielder Erika Tymrak said.
Despite this early success, Burleigh has been quick to note the work still left as she continues to adapt to her new role as an NWSL coach.
In the team’s 1-1 draw against Portland last week, Burleigh felt she didn’t utilize her substitutes early enough in the game, waiting to pull in three of her substitutes until after Portland had already equalized.
The coach greets those errors — and any potential mistakes in the future — with her signature eagerness, describing them as welcome moments of growth.
“Looking back at the last game, I could have managed that a little bit better from a changing perspective with the substitutions,” Burleigh said. “But I think that that’ll be a learning curve for me, too.”