The Mother-Daughter Partnership Supporting Female Athletes: She Plays Strong

In soccer, an ACL tear can be life-changing for female athletes and their teammates. Women are 2-8x more likely to  tear their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)  compared to their male counterparts.

Why is this? Getting to the heart of this devastating issue for girls is the mother-daughter team of Deb and Lauren Marquez, who want to stop this troubling trend by focusing on education, prevention, and physical practices specifically designed for female athletes. Below is their story—how they found their “fifth gear” and created a successful organization through their shared love of soccer and the strength of their unbreakable connection.

The passion for soccer flows strong in the Marquez family. Deb played collegiate soccer at Loyola Marymount University before moving to Arizona to have a family, build a career, and start her soccer skills training company, Coerver Arizona.

She started coaching Lauren’s soccer team from a young age and instilled her love of the game in her daughter. Deb’s passion for the sport rubbed off on Lauren, who played at an elite club level before transitioning to collegiate play at the University of Hawaii.

Because of their shared love of the game, it was an easy decision to bring Lauren on board at Coerver Arizona to help build skills and develop players before she headed off to Hawaii—where she was integral to the Coerver Hawaii expansion.

Deb and Lauren bring different expertise to their training company. After a career in corporate HR, Deb is adept at handling the coaching, business, and marketing side, while Lauren brings her on-the-pitch knowledge, creativity, and ability to relate to the next generation of players. They both find strength and resilience in their relationship and enjoy learning from each other.

In addition to a love of soccer and their mother-daughter bond, there’s another component fueling Deb and Lauren to make a difference in the lives of female soccer players: giving back to the community.

This deeply instilled belief is about helping the next wave of girls learn to love soccer by keeping them informed, preventing injuries, and shifting their mindset about how to be the best athlete they can be.

Lauren approaches this by asking, “What did I wish I had when I was younger?”—and what can we do about it now? This led her and Deb to see something entirely new to develop out of their soccer skills company, without knowing just how much it would resonate with female players.

Having female coaches and trainers instruct girls can make a difference both on and off the pitch. 

Growing up, Lauren played on an all-boys soccer team before transitioning to having her mom as a coach. Seeing her mom in this leadership role, and having other female leaders to look up to, was the norm for her. It wasn’t until she transitioned over to the girls’ side of the sport in high school, that she saw the differences in how male and female players approached training and injury prevention. This made her wonder why there wasn’t more education and access to information specifically for female athletes? Her and Deb collaborated on this and what they could do about filling that gap. 

The Just for Girls camp was their solution, which featured a one week camp entirely devoted to female soccer players. Here they had access to female role models, former players who were now coaches, physical therapists, and mental health professionals. Girls were learning the importance of taking care of all different aspects of being an athlete, from diet and nutrition, to stress management, and learning how to reduce the chance of injuries—specifically ACL tears. Camp attendees were surrounded by an incredible support system, and more importantly, were shown female athletes who have gone on to different areas of expertise, but want to give something back and contribute to the sport that’s given them so much.

Lauren’s love of soccer started at a young age and continued through to the collegiate level.

The annual camp was incredibly popular, and there were always requests to have more opportunities for these young athletes to learn and train with female role models. But Lauren was heading off to physical therapy school, leaving them both wondering, what’s the next step for the Just for Girls camp? Where do we go from here? That’s when Deb collaborated with one of the Coerver community partners, Dr. Tamara Hefferon, the owner of Impact Physical Therapy. They started kicking around the idea of having something year-round that would make a difference in players' lives, educate female soccer players and prevent serious injuries like ACL tears. 

She Plays Strong, a non-profit organization is what grew out of this collaboration between Deb, Lauren, and Dr. Tami, who all bring unique skills and perspectives to the table. Working as a mother-daughter team is one of the best parts of She Plays Strong for Deb and Lauren, because their relationship is one of their greatest strengths. Deb brings years of coaching and mentoring to the equation, while Lauren has the perspective of an athlete and now physical therapist. Dr. Tami (whose daughter also plays soccer) brings 20+ years of specialized knowledge of the biomechanics, injury risks, and rehabilitation needs of female athletes. Together this cohort is setting out to make a difference for girls playing soccer—keeping them in the game longer, and injury-free to boot. Yes, She Plays Strong helps girls become better athletes, but the true heart of the matter is that they’re building strong, confident women as well. The women behind She Plays Strong rely on striving towards continuous improvement, but aren’t afraid to question or challenge each other’s perspectives in order to learn more, and help the program continue to grow.

Female role models are helping the players in She Stays Strong learn more about ACL injury prevention through a variety of different methods.

An ACL injury can be devastating—not only to the player, but also to her teammates, coaches, and family. Months of recovery and physical therapy can take a significant physical and mental toll on a young athlete. She may wonder if she’ll ever play at the same level again, or even consider leaving the sport altogether.

Lauren remembers this firsthand after watching her best friend suffer an ACL tear and seeing not only the pain of the injury, but the months, and sometimes years of rehabilitation that can follow. That experience helped shape She Plays Strong’s mission: preventing ACL injuries through a multifaceted approach focused on the whole athlete.

Here’s how it works:

1. Comprehensive PT assessment: Each athlete undergoes an assessment using the Demotu app to evaluate her unique biomechanics, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
2. Individualized strength program: Using the assessment data, the team creates a 6–8 week strength-training program focused on the athlete’s specific needs.
3. On-field evaluation: The player completes a field assessment with Lauren or Deb to evaluate soccer-specific movement patterns.
4. A personalized plan: Using videos, scorecards, and goals tracked in the app, each athlete receives an individualized schedule that incorporates warm-ups, strength training, and nutritional guidance.

Throughout the process, athletes are supported not only by the women behind She Plays Strong, but also by female PTs, coaches, trainers, mental performance professionals, and strength experts. These relatable role models help reinforce what Deb calls the “whole athlete”—developing more than a player’s performance on the pitch by educating girls about injury risk, the importance of strength training, and the mental side of being an athlete.

What makes the program especially powerful is that many of the women who return to volunteer once participated in the Just for Girls program themselves. Today, they’re building successful careers in medicine, engineering, teaching, business, and other fields—and coming back to help the next generation.

Having female role models matters. And not only the high-profile women playing professional soccer, but also the women who have become leaders in their professions and return to give back to their communities. Lauren experienced that impact firsthand growing up with her mom and other women as coaches and mentors. Now, she’s determined to give younger female athletes that same experience.

The players’ assessments are data-driven and plans are designed for each individual athlete.

The success She Plays Strong has had cultivating whole athletes is a result of the robust connections Deb and Lauren have in the community. When girls receive their plans from the assessment, there’s someone there to help them utilize them—whether that’s pointing them in the direction of a gym that works with female athletes, or a PT with deep clinical expertise treating and rehabilitating injuries in female players, or a sports psychologist to help them balance the mental load. The athletes are not only aware of all the resources available, but there's a coach or trainer there to help guide them in the right direction. Having a dedicated support system that’s separate from their club or high school teams means there’s a safe space to ask questions regarding their own training, techniques, and how to prepare for games.