When Real Salt Lake General Manager Craig Waibel talks about the newly-minted National Women’s Soccer League club, Utah Royals FC, it is with a lump in his throat. He speaks from a place of opportunity, of equality and of pride.
For years, Waibel has been supported by his wife Julie and daughter Jocelyn in his endeavors on the soccer field. That has brought his family from San Jose to Houston to Ann Arbor, Michigan and Seattle before finally landing in Utah. And while women’s soccer has always been important in his life – he served as an assistant coach at Rice University during his time with the Houston Dynamo – his connection was never as deep-seeded as it is now with Utah Royals FC.
So when Waibel goes home to his family after a busy day at the office, it is with a whole heart knowing that a part of what he is doing while spending long hours and sometimes days at a time away from his loved ones is going towards creating heroes for his eight-year-old daughter.
That’s enough to make any father proud. But Waibel takes that pride to heart because of a battle his daughter – and his family – endured just three years ago.
This is the story of that battle:
Craig Waibel’s smile and affable demeanor belie a coffee-fueled day that has been filled with meetings and phone calls and more meetings and occasional breaks to check in on his family.
“We don’t sleep very often.”
That’s the life of an MLS General Manager during a transfer window. The morning starts with continuing overnight conversations with agents, players, technical directors and scouts in Europe and Asia and proceed throughout the day with similar chats with more of the same in North and South America before finishing back overseas as the day fades to black.
The hours are unending. The workday, unrelenting.
When a players is signed – the proverbial finish line crossed – there is a brief moment to celebrate before moving to the next target. By now, his third season in Real Salt Lake’s front office, Waibel has a better grasp of how to navigate the tumultuous waters of a transfer window, but few could imaginably be more difficult to pilot than his first summer window in 2015.
Waibel was only a few weeks into his role as Technical Director early in 2015 when his daughter Jocelyn – then five years old – went to the pediatrician for her annual checkup. If his sleep patterns were disturbed by wins and losses on the field, the murmur in his daughter’s heart would send him into turmoil for weeks to come. The atrial septal defect – a 22-milimeter hole in her heart between the left and right atrium – would need surgery and while success was highly likely, the prospect of a five year old girl going under the knife for a life-saving procedure was a heavy concept to bare.
“That changes things,” Waibel said. “The world loses color … pretty quickly.”
As the season progressed and Real Salt Lake ambled toward the summer transfer window, Waibel did his best to balance work life and the real life that waited at home and carried on whether he was there to witness it or not. The doctors advised Waibel and his wife Julie that waiting until the summer for the surgery would be the best path, as common illnesses, no matter how mild, could be difficult to combat while she recovered from the procedure.
So it was on June 30, 2015 that the family went to Seattle Children’s Hospital and Jocelyn Waibel underwent open-heart surgery.
“I’ve never faced anything quite as scary as watching her go under anesthesia,” Waibel said. “Watching her go under was pretty terrifying.”
The procedure was a success and within days the family returned to its Park City home.
It was right about that same time that Waibel was made aware that a star forward from Argentina might have some interest in coming to Major League Soccer. While still taking every free moment he could to care for his recovering daughter, Waibel was also negotiating the transfer of Juan Manuel Martinez.
He was one of several targets that rose and fall from RSL’s radar in the days and weeks to come and marked one of Waibel’s greatest coups in the early stages of his role in the front office.
During the season, Waibel kept the ailment and personal matter quiet. Only those in his innermost circle were aware of the agony he faced on a daily basis before sipping his coffee, opening his email and working to improve Real Salt Lake’s roster in any way he conceivably could – staying with the short- and long-term goals of the organization.
Even when the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2007, he remained focused on what needed to be altered to return to form in 2016 and not dwelling on the woulda, shoulda and coulda of 2015.
“As the team lost games and people kept telling me how important that was, I kept wondering if everyone had the same perspective on the world as I did in that moment. This club means a lot to me and this position means a lot to me … but never more than my daughter will.”
He credits a pair of mentors that helped get the move over the line – then-President Bill Manning and recently departed General Manager Garth Lagerwey. However, it was the understanding and support of his wife Julie and the relentless recovery of his daughter Jocelyn that enabled him to see the move through to completion.
Those few summer weeks in 2015 offered him great perspective on the implications – big and small – of the job he does and how much he valued the support of those closest to him.
“If I had hair I would have lost it anyway. It ages you pretty quick when your child is sick,” said Waibel, noting that Jocelyn had a recent checkup that showed continued improvement. “This one, thankfully, has a healthy ending. Now she puts pressure on me to win. It’s funny how the table has turned. All I wanted was for her to get healthy. All she wants is for the team to win.”
Now an ardent supporter of the team who takes great pride in her father’s role, Jocelyn and mother Julie are quick to ask Craig what the days hold – who is coming, who is going and who to watch on the horizon.
And while Jocelyn is also outspoken about preferring her time with her father outside of the transfer window, when he has a chance to be a bit more focused on weekend activities, school projects and quality time at home, she also loves watching Real Salt Lake win and singing Believe with her friends.
“As much time as it takes during the trade windows, I’m very fortunate. My wife and daughter love this team,” he said. “There is a certain amount of enjoyment that a family has to take from a job that is as relentless as this. I’m extremely lucky to have a couple of ladies at home that enjoy this team as much as I do.”
Utah Royals FC kicks off its inaugural home match on Saturday, April 14, at 1:30 p.m. MT from Rio Tinto Stadium. Tickets are available at RSL.com and by calling 844-REALTIX (844-732-5849).