Union’s Ray Gaddis sees progress in MLS front office diversity efforts, but knows a lot more is needed

Major League Soccer’s recent hiring of Sola Winley as its new executive vice president and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer drew praise Thursday from Union defender Ray Gaddis, one of the most influential Black players in the league.

“You’re starting to see representation of people who look like me, both men and women, in Major League Soccer,” Gaddis said Thursday on Inquirer LIVE: Sports and Social Justice, a roundtable conversation with Rodney McLeod of the Eagles and Dawn Staley, the Philadelphia-born basketball legend who now coaches the University of South Carolina’s women’s team.

“They’re already off to a good start,” Gaddis said, “This is the 25th year of Major League Soccer, they should have had one, but you know, like we’ve been saying, we’re making strides. We’re trying to change the narrative of the future.”

But MLS still has a long way to go to become as diverse off the field as it is on the field. There has never been an American-born Black head coach in the league in its 26-year history, and there have been very few Black executives at the top of front offices. D.C. United’s Danita Johnson, the first Black president of a MLS team, just took that job this year. (And she’s only the third woman to ever be a MLS team president.)

“We need more GMs, we need more head coaches, we need more assistant coaches,” Gaddis said. “There are brilliant people, there are intelligent people, there are people who are more than qualified to do the job but not getting the opportunities. … They can tell them they [are] overqualified and then give it to a candidate that didn’t do half of what they did.”

He added that he has seen too often that “we don’t get grandfathered into some of these roles,” while others are “able to segue a lot of times from playing, coming off the field right into a front office or coaching position.”

» WATCH: The full video roundtable with Gaddis, Staley, McLeod, and The Inquirer’s Shemar Woods

The Union’s all-time leader in minutes played, Gaddis helped launch the Black Players for Change group last year and serves on its executive board.

“The Black Players for Change, as well as the MLSPA [players association], has been trying to do a great job of making sure the right qualified — I have to use that word, qualified — individuals are put in place,” he said, “to be head coaches, assistants, you know, CFOs any C-suite type of person for an organization if they feel that they want to enter the realm of Major League Soccer.”

Gaddis also has studied in the Harvard Business School’s Crossover Into Business program for professional athletes who want to be involved in sports after they stop playing.

“This is an example that’s saying you’re trying to position yourself already, so they can’t say, ‘Well, you don’t have this credential’ or ‘You don’t understand this mechanism,’ “ he said.

Away from soccer, Gaddis detailed times when he and his father have been pulled over by police officers while driving. When he was in college at West Virginia, he knew “we best not wander too far” from the campus.

Last summer, Gaddis traveled to his hometown of Indianapolis to participate in anti-racism protests after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. He said he was inspired by fellow pro athletes he joined with there, including Camden County-born former Indiana Fever player Tamika Catchings and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s George Hill.

» READ MORE: Union’s Ray Gaddis takes leading role in anti-racism fight in MLS

Gaddis also made a point of thanking the Union’s coaching staff and front office for backing his participation in the protests while MLS was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Not every organization is going to support their players on their social stances — that’s just a reality. I’m not scared to say that,” Gaddis said. “But I had an organization, from the coach to the GM to the ownership, they spoke with me, they talked to me: You know, as long as I can handle the backlash, you know — and it does come with backlash, because they think that you should just shut up and for me kick the ball and just play. But, you know, that support group also pushed me too, because they had an open mind to try to create change, too.”

When MLS resumed with a summer tournament at Disney World, the Union made worldwide headlines by wearing the names of Black police shooting victims on the backs of their jerseys for their first game. Gaddis knew the players would be criticized for doing that, and it duly happened.

“I had to be at my best to speak on behalf of my people, because then they’ll say, you know, he’s ignorant, or he can’t speak well, or all of these other things,” he said. “Not only do we got to be the best in our sport but how we carry ourselves, and that’s always, you know, unwanted. And it’s not even pressure at this point for me, it’s the norm, but people shouldn’t have to undergo that to just be great in their environment — they should just have to focus on their sport or their education, without all these unwanted pressures as well.”

» READ MORE: In the Union’s finest moment, of course it was Ray Gaddis leading the team to its first trophy