Kickin' It with Emily Menges + Appreciation Thread
Emily Menges spent 10 years in Portland before being traded to Bay FC. In honor of her time in the Rose City, we have a special Kickin' It and appreciation thread for the club legend.
In 2014, the Portland Thorns selected with the 25th overall pick (third round) from Georgetown University. Ten years later, she would become one of the best defenders in club history. This is a type of career that many dream of, but only a few get to live out.
She will be dearly missed in the Rose City.
In honor of Emily Menges’ exceptional time in Portland, we present to you a special edition of Kickin’ It. Bay FC supporters, you are getting one of the best.
Emily Menges makes her debut with Bay FC today. For the first time ever, she won’t be in a Portland Thorns kit.
Be sure to leave a comment with your appreciation for her in the comments.
Kickin’ It with Emily Menges
Stumptown Footy: What do you like to do for fun on an off day?
Emily Menges: On an off day for fun, I like to hike. I run my own newspaper, so I work a lot on that. I go on walks. Yeah, not that complicated of a person.
Stumptown Footy: What’s your favorite hike?
Emily Menges: I recently did South Sisters which was like so hard. I slept at the summit which was really cool. I’m not sure that’s allowed, hopefully the park service doesn’t see this (chuckles). It’s not like a designated camping area, but since it’s like a park you technically can’t be anywhere. Around here? I like going to Forest Park and going a bit further into Wildwood than the crowds. That’s kind of fun.
Stumptown Footy: Awhile ago, you posted a video of your cat, Turtle, pouncing into your arms. Did you train him to do that or is it just a thing he does?
Emily Menges: No, it’s absolute killer instinct! He slinks around my apartment like he is a panther except he’s terrified of everything. So he doesn't really have those but he gets into these modes where I can see his like pupils get super big, his ears kind of go back his hair on top of his head, like stands up a little bit and I know he's in like fight mode and so I just have to not turn my back on him or it will not be good.
Stumptown Footy: Any poets you’ve been reading lately?
Emily Menges: So, unless someone turns me on to poetry, I don't. Poetry is not my default thing currently reading Demon Copperhead, which is really good. It's equally good and equally terrifying because I heard that it's very accurate to the foster system and drug addiction in a second. So, yeah, very terrifying, but also very well written and so I can recommend that one for sure.
Stumptown Footy: What are your favorite restaurant and coffee shop?
Emily Menges: Favorite coffee shop is wherever I’m living at the time. Like I used to live down by the South waterfront and there was this guy who owns like, I don't know if you know where the roundabout by McCormick and Schmidt, like that little roundabout. There's a little guy who had a little stand that must have previously been like a ticketing box. It was so small and he was going for like completely non waste. So you either had to bring your own cup or you had to drink your coffee there and he just didn't have any, any waste. His goal was to start that here and then start that he eventually moved to Hawaii and do that. So who knows he might be in Hawaii now or there in a few years. But yeah, that was a really cool idea I thought because he just was like, not, did not care what other people thought about it. He was gonna do what he's gonna do. He is a dude.
Stumptown Footy: Have you played as yourself in FIFA yet?
Emily Menges: I have actually. I have friends, who have little boys, who are obsessed with Thorns and Timbers. Whenever I go to their house, I play at least one game against a six year old. I beat the six year old mostly, but usually I’m the Thorns. Actually that’s mostly not true, he usually plays me, and I play a different team. But, yeah, I’ve seen myself on FIFA. He plays as me up top and I score.
Stumptown Footy: What’s your favorite food, dessert, and berry?
Emily Menges: Pizza all day. Unpopular opinion around here, Sizzle Pie. I love Sizzle Pie. I think it’s because you can get it by the slice. It’s not a big ordeal when you go. I do live near baby doll so I go there, it’s very convenient. If you’re talking about fancy, fancy pizza, I love Oven and Shaker, Love Dimo’s on East Burnside, had for the first time recently. It was good. Favorite dessert? Ice cream, for sure. Salt and Straw is good, but I don’t need that. Any ice cream is good. Favorite berry? I like all berries. I guess I would have to say blackberries. I recently gone to Sauvie’s Island, itt was overwhelming on how many blackberries there were. The entire time walking around Sauvie’s island picking blackberries and bringing them home to put on the ice cream and yeah, so that was all I ate for dessert.
Stumptown Footy: Do you have a favorite movie?
Emily Menges: This is like this is always my go to answer because it's a movie I watched so many times growing up, it was kind of The Count of Monte Cristo. And so if you'd ask Sinc, that in trivia, she would know that. Yeah, I mean that it's just like gives me, it's like weird that that gives me comfort. It's about like a terrible story of revenge but, you know, like I used to watch it a lot growing up.
Stumptown Footy: What song would you pick for an entrance song?
Emily Menges: We actually played a game in our locker room, like a really dour game, but we played a game, like, if you were going to play a song at your funeral, what would it be. So everybody kind of told a lot about people. And so I, I picked, Here I go again on my own, which is a good funeral song but not a great walk out for a soccer team.
Stumptown Footy: Do you have a favorite artist? What type of music do you like to listen to?
Emily Menges: Maybe because I’ve been in Portland so long, it’s like osmosis itself into me. I like camp and folksy music. I like most kinds of music.
Stumptown Footy: Are you obsessed with any TV show right now?
Emily Menges: So I’m halfway through Beckman, which is good. I wouldn’t say obsessed though. My friends were just making fun of me because I’m like halfway through the whole series of Castle. They were like, that’s so niche and nobody watches that. It’s not bad, it’s entertaining, always different, and hard to predict the ending. Again, would not say obsessed. Probably the last one I was really into, it’s hard to say obsessed, but I watched the old Japanese show, Old Enough and that killed me. I thought it was so cute and so funny. So I watched, like, it's probably the last thing I binged for a little bit, but not a big binger.
Stumptown Footy: Do you have a dream vacation or a place you haven’t been to, but really want to go to?
Emily Menges: Haven’t been to so many places. I would love at some point in my life to do like Patagonia right. Do a good amount of time up north hiking and go south hiking. Take a little river cruise down to Antarctica. I come back up, do more hiking, that kind of thing. One day.
Stumptown Footy: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Emily Menges: Flying.
Karina LeBlanc in the background: She is. Her superpower is her.
Emily Menges: Flying is my answer. Ignore Karina (chuckles).
Stumptown Footy: Do you have any items on your bucket list you can share with us?
Emily Menges: Again, there are so many things I haven’t done. So I guess the thing on my bucket list would be like, eventually want to write a book. But I just, like, right now I just don't have time and I like it. There's something brewing and so maybe eventually one day I'll write it, but who knows.
Stumptown Footy: Who’s your favorite Pokémon?
Emily Menges: A favorite Pokémon? I spent… My brothers and I, like I got $5 bucks allowance or something every week. There was a stationary store in my town, we would walk into town and spend it all on Pokémon cards. I remember Eevee being really cute, like that weird memory surfaced. But yeah, I was a Pokémon collector for a bit.
Stumptown Footy: Who’s your best friend on the team?
Emily Menges: Best Friend? So hard! I mean, I have been rooming with Sinc my entire career. That’s a different kind of friendship. I think, I’m lucky I have a lot of different friendships with a lot of people.
Stumptown Footy: If you could bring one thing from your hometown and bring it to Portland, what would it be?
Emily Menges: Pizza! Pizza! The pizza in my hometown every place even my least favorite is better than Sizzle Pie, which is my favorite place here. Cheese, all cheese, plain pizza.
My husband and I were season ticket holders since the beginning, and Emily was always our favorite player throughout all the years. We loved her dependability and all she seemed to stand for. So we were very disappointed to learn she was the player involved in the debacle with RW, especially after all this team had been through. We expected better of Emily. It's bittersweet to see her moving on. We wish her well but in a way we said goodbye to her a while ago already.
Her little Eastmoreland duck poem from Belle Esprit will never fade…
That I’ve got her name and number on my Black Rose shirt says a lot about how I feel. She was a rock on the pitch for almost a decade.
That said, all the caveats discussed below are also on her. You don’t have to be a deep and thoughtful person to be a great player, and that seems the case here.
The thing that stuck out the most to me among those was her baffling inability or unwillingness to understand why her teammates weren’t okay with her having a relationship with their boss. Not the relationship itself - not okay, but the heart wants etc. - but her not SEEING that it wasn’t okay and expecting her teammates to act like it was okay.
So fine player, flawed human just like the rest of us? Yep.
Thanks for the wonderful years, Em. Good luck - except when you play us!