Alyse LaHue
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Something that a lot of fans seem to want is a return of Peter Wilt. I am sorry to inform those fans that I don’t think Peter Wilt is ever going to be a part of the Chicago Fire in an official role again, not that the club wouldn’t have him, but because he needs to be free to work on his own projects.
But like the fact that NFL teams can’t pry Bill Belichick away from New England, you can get the next best thing in their protegees. And Peter Wilt’s protegee is NWSL executive Alyse LaHue.
LaHue started her career in sports management as an intern for Wilt with the Chicago Red Stars back when the team was first created for the WPS back in 2007.
Since then she has risen through the ranks and taken everything she’s learned about the way Wilt dealt with supporters to heart. After the dissolution of the WPS, she helped the Red Stars survive and make it to the other side in the NWSL until finally stepping down in 2016.
But her biggest, and ongoing challenge, is one that seems fairly similar to the struggle that faces the Chicago Fire. Alyse LaHue was hired as the vice-president of Sky Blue FC in 2018 and eventually became GM the following year. The team she arrived to was one in absolute shambles, with players who did not want to play in New Jersey and a fan base that was in open revolt against the club. In just three years, she’s taken Sky Blue from the gutters to being one of the prime destinations in the league.
The problem is that it would be incredibly difficult to convince LaHue to come over to the men’s side of the game, with her commitment to growing the women’s game wherever she can. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth the contact. Her miracle work with Sky Blue FC and historical connections to the Chicago soccer make her an incredible candidate uniquely qualified for the situation the Chicago Fire are currently in.