KC Current’s Lo LaBonta says she’s ‘stubborn.’ Why it drives her success (& celebrations)

Kansas City Current captain Lo’eau “Lo” LaBonta says she’s “stubborn” — a word she’s used to describe herself throughout her career.

Last Wednesday morning, the turf of the Current’s training facility was muggy and bright. The quiet of the field slowly gave way to the chatter of players stepping out from the facility’s main building. And as they stretched and sprayed on sunscreen, LaBonta took a moment to speak with The Star.

“Stubborn in the most positive way possible,” she explained. “And that comes especially from my first (professional) year when I was cut from a team.”

LaBonta referred to a brief stint with the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team Sky Blue FC (now NJ/NY Gotham FC). Fresh out of Stanford, where she’d earned a national championship (and an engineering degree), LaBonta made just six appearances with Sky Blue in their 2015 season. They let her go two months before it was over.

“I was like, ‘I’m not going to end my career here,’” LaBonta said. “I’ve put so much into it.”

A year later, LaBonta fought her way onto the high school fields that the Current’s predecessor, FC Kansas City, once called home. Then, she played on loan in Australia. And when FCKC folded in 2017, she joined most of her teammates in their move to the Utah Royals.

Three years later the Royals folded, too, and LaBonta returned to Kansas City for the Current’s inaugural season, one that ended at the bottom of the NWSL table.

A turbulent career, yes. Even so — stubbornly so — LaBonta’s made herself best known for celebrating. Especially when it comes to scoring goals.

There was the “KC Baby” celebration, where LaBonta stuck a ball under her shirt and sucked her thumb in a DIY pregnancy. The homage to “Dirty Dancing,” where she got a cramp in her calf as teammate Hailie Mace lifted her gloriously into the air. And the time she went viral for faking a hamstring injury, only to twerk toward the sidelines. Just to name a few.

Sometimes, LaBonta takes inspiration from a movie or TikTok, she told The Star. Other times, she colludes behind the scenes with teammates like Mace and Debinha. Most of the time, she has to be ready; many of the celebrations come unexpectedly.

“It would be so long between me scoring goals that I’ll forget them,” LaBonta said of the “KC Baby” celebration. “I’m playing a defensive role, so I never thought I would score. But when I got that goal in our home stadium, I was like ‘I have to pull this out.’”

For this, she’s been dubbed the “Celly Queen’‘ by many of the Current’s fans. But LaBonta’s tenacity for joy extends beyond herself.

In a 2022 episode of the “Men in Blazers” podcast, LaBonta recalled living in trailers for parts of her career and taking on coaching gigs — alongside playing for Sky Blue — for extra money. It was an experience that wasn’t unique to her, with then-teammate Kim DeCesare having had to do the same. To play professionally as a non-male athlete at the time was to take on lacking conditions, uncertainty and unsustainable pay.

“No one seem(ed) to be on the players’ side. It was absolutely awful,” LaBonta said in the podcast.

So much so, in fact, that even in 2022 an independent investigation revealed a complicity by NWSL officials toward allegations of verbal abuse and sexual harassment by coaches in the league.

And while there’s still quite a bit of work to do, the landscape of women’s soccer seems to be improving. With the Current, for one, LaBonta and her teammates have the privilege of their very own stadium, the first in the world dedicated to a women’s professional sports team. On television, the Current have also played in some of the most viewed games in the NWSL: 915,000 viewers on average in the 2022 championship against Portland, and for the regular season, 614,000 in their 2024 opener — also against the Thorns.

So for LaBonta, celebrations can come from anywhere, not just after a goal.

“Any little thing, people should be celebrated, whether it’s a goal, it’s a block, it’s a tackle,” LaBonta said. “That energy brings you up and makes a more positive environment. I think we have that here, and that’s why we’re doing so well.”

She’s also been known to push her teammates to celebrate themselves individually, too.

“I don’t want to name them, because some of them take it like I’m jinxing them if I say I want them to do a celebration,” LaBonta said. “But there are a few now, like, ‘Yeah, we have one if we score.’”

She named forward Bia Zaneratto’s rendition of Ronaldo’s “siu” celebration, a jump that LaBonta is pretty sure goes over her head.

In all, LaBonta and the Current have come a long way, from being humbled in their last-place first season to this year’s undefeated run that has them at the top of the NWSL table. On Sunday, they’ll face Portland again — this time at Providence Park, where passionate Portland supporters are known for making the stadium just as much of a fortress as CPKC Stadium.

LaBonta seems to take the pressure in stride — stubbornly, positively so. And maybe, going into this next match, there’s a new celebration somewhere in her pocket.

“The celebrations just make it fun,” LaBonta said. “You have to remember why you started the sport: It’s because you enjoy it.”