Adrianna
Franch

As a kid, Franch was a foot taller than everyone else. Her mother put her in YMCA sports, which allowed her to sample many of them (she describes herself as too competitive for volleyball, “I didn’t like having to stay in your space”), but she really took to basketball and soccer. Then, at 13, she spent a practice in goal and someone said, “Hey, you’re really good.” In Franch’s version of the story, they just made her look good. “I mean, really, they were just kicking it right at me," she says. That was the start of being touted for phenomenal hand-eye coordination and athleticism between the sticks for every soccer team she’s played for. 

Franch grew up in Salina, a small town in Kansas with nothing but flat land and windmills. Now, Franch lives with her fiancé, Emily Boscacci, in Portland and plays for the Portland Thorns. Sitting astride two rivers and nestled between mountain ranges, the city is a far cry from where she grew up, but she still describes herself as a small-town girl at heart—she listens to country before every game and eats home-style southern breakfasts of biscuits and gravy in the mornings as often as she can get away with it. But she’s also embraced the city. “I love Portland—playing at Providence Park in front of 30,000 people a game, it’s such a cool experience. I have a squirt water bottle, and I always shoot the water bottle into the air, as like a cheers and thank you to the fans,” Franch says.