For this Sun fanbase, landing a women’s pro team was worth the wait

TAMPA — Lizzie Wiederecht looked up to players like Mia Hamm when she was younger. She even owned the Barbie edition of the soccer icon.

While Wiederecht, now 30, says she does not play soccer well, she plays “very enthusiastically.” And that also describes her support of local franchises.

When the Rowdies returned to the pitch in 2010 in St. Petersburg, Wiederecht crossed the bridge from Tampa to attend games as a part of Ralph’s Mob, the men’s soccer team’s boisterous fan group whose members are decked out in green and gold.

But she always had a lingering hope the area would land a women’s team.

Wiederecht started a Twitter account, dotherowdieshaveawomensteamyet?, that would simply tweet “No” every day. So when it was announced in 2023 that Tampa was getting a professional women’s team, she was ecstatic: “This is all I’ve wanted.”

And she wasn’t alone.

Tampa Bay Sun season ticket holder Kimberly Bowers, who attended Land O’ Lakes High, remembers being recruited to play with the boys as a youth because there weren’t any high-level girls teams.

“I think about little girls like (two-time World Cup champion) Alex Morgan’s daughter who say they want to be soccer players when they grow up and I think about how I would have never thought that was possible when I was little,” she said.

Now supporters clad in Sun colors of yellow and blue pack Riverfront Stadium for home games. They stomp their feet and beat drums, chanting as the women’s team runs out onto the field.

And at the center of it all is Wiederecht.

Since starting the Heatwave, Wiederecht has decorated the fandom’s corner of the pitch with donated drums and flags representing each country the players are from. Tampa’s Eric Turner, one of the Heatwave’s drummers, said his 8-year-old son Lincoln had a blast waving the flags in the stands during the last home game. “We get to see the group grow from the beginning,” he said.

Even USL Super League president Amanda Vandervort has joined the fun, playing drums with the Heatwave at the inaugural game. “It’s different in women’s soccer,” said Wiederect. “There is just a different vibe at the games.”

Brian Leach hadn’t heard about the Heatwave before showing up to the first match.

“I met Liz at the game, and her enthusiasm was immediately contagious,” said Leach, who grew up in Iowa and has become an avid soccer fan since moving to Florida.

He is a season ticket holder for the NWSL’s Orlando Pride and the Sun, and he doesn’t miss a game, traveling 43 miles from Parrish to Tampa. “The effort everyone has put in to make this work is phenomenal,” he said.

Heatwave member JD Willet, a former communications director for the Rowdies who lives in Clearwater, said the Sun is something their group had been seeking for a long time.

“It would be wrong for us to not fully commit to the team that we have been asking for,” said Willet, also noting that rivalries have been displaced in the enthusiasm for the new team. “This feels totally fresh compared to seeing the same faces in Ralph’s Mob. I was hoping it would feel new and different, and it does.”

Wiederect, who also covers the Sun on a podcast for RBLR Sports, says the Heatwave is a shared project that all of the members should be proud of. “It’s not just my thing, it’s everyone’s thing. … We fought for this.”

Sun vs. Brooklyn, 7 p.m . Saturday, Riverfront Stadium, Tampa Streaming: Peacock