Trinity Rodman had barely landed her victory leap before the field crew at Audi Field rushed into action.
As a sold-out stadium of Washington Spirit fans roared in celebration of the club clinching its third straight trip to the NWSL championship match, the advertisements circling the field were covered up, and the soccer nets were taken down and replaced with football goalposts. Attendees clustered around the side of the field were shooed away by security a few minutes after the final whistle.
“Man,” said a dad corralling three young girls in matching pink puffer jackets. “They want us out of here.”
In two hours, Audi Field was transformed into a football venue for the Secretaries’ Cup, the annual NCAA Division III game between the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
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But the path to Saturday’s doubleheader was much longer than that changeover, and it had been filled with uncertainty.
The Secretaries’ Cup had long been scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday at Audi Field. But that was thrown into doubt after the Spirit qualified to host a playoff semifinal that same afternoon. The NWSL club is a full-time tenant of Audi Field but does not manage scheduling for the venue, which is handled by the primary tenant and operator, D.C. United. It originally seemed likely that Spirit leadership would need to secure a different venue for its semifinal, and so team executives began planning for a match at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
But a flurry of last-minute dealmaking allowed the Spirit to preserve its home-field advantage at Audi. The move was partially underwritten by a sponsor, Lafayette Credit Union, whose executives were named honorary captains of the semifinal match. They received what surely must have been the biggest cheer any sponsor has ever gotten from the crowd as players and fans alike were thrilled to keep the game at “Rowdy Audi.”
But the switch left cadets, midshipmen, families and alumni wondering for days: What about the Secretaries’ Cup?
A new kickoff time for the game was not made public until Thursday morning. Sources familiar with the discussions said that federal government involvement with security and logistics prevented a new time from being announced sooner. Audi Field eventually announced plans for an ambitious doubleheader: NWSL soccer at 12 p.m. and NCAA football at 4:30 p.m., with lines painted on the playing surface for both games: soccer in yellow and football in white. The bases of the goalposts were installed with padding before the soccer match.
In the days before that announcement, fans had wondered if the game would be played later in the night, or at a different venue. Some began traveling to the game before they knew when or where it would kick off.
That group included Keith McLiverty, the president of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy National Parents Association, who began driving to D.C. on Thursday before the new time had been announced.
“It’s just a lot of chaos,” McLiverty told The Washington Sun. “There’s people coming from all across the country for this game… It just shows disrespect to the tradition and to what the game stands for.”
Some expressed frustration at the game being dismissed as unimportant amid the scheduling chaos. A Merchant Marine alumnus said that it can feel like they are treated as the “red-headed stepchild of the academies.” Others noted this would likely never happen to any of the service academies who play in Division I.
One parent asked simply: “Would they do this to Army-Navy?”
The Secretaries’ Cup has been played annually for nearly 50 years. Historically, the game alternated between the campuses of the two academies, but it recently began using marquee venues at neutral sites — Fenway Park in Boston last year and Audi in D.C. this year. Washington was chosen as the 2026 site to include the game in celebrations for America250.
The game has come to serve as an annual gathering for cadets and midshipmen and their families. There are galas, dinners and parties scheduled around the contest, many of which hung in the balance as the schedule was in doubt.
Suzanne Hoffman from Melbourne, Florida, wore a “Marine Merchant Academy Mom” button on her jacket on Saturday. Her son is a midshipman, and the Secretaries’ Cup was her first time seeing him after he spent four months at sea, including time in the Strait of Hormuz as part of Operation Epic Fury.
“Coming to this game is a great way to support the kids that are going to fight for our country someday,” Hoffman said. “These are big games. Some kids look at their season being successful based on whether they beat the Coast Guard Academy.”
The new kickoff time (and the nationwide ground stop that happened the night before the game) did not stop Hoffman from getting to the Secretaries’ Cup. She expected flight delays would make her trip home less-than-pleasant. But for this, it was worth it, she said.
Some of the game’s pageantry had to be adjusted. A military flyover that had been in the works for months did not take place. A Coast Guard alumni party planned for after the game became a pregame affair. Just one of the two titular secretaries was in attendance for the coin toss, with Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin present, but not Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
But much of the frustration of the last few days fell away once the game began. For Steve Werner, a Baltimore native whose son-in-law played for the Merchant Marine Academy, a matchup against Coast Guard is guaranteed “fun football to watch,” no matter what.
“These guys put everything they have into it,” Werner said.
The Merchant Marines eventually romped to a 42-14 win. It took place a few hours later than originally scheduled and a little bit differently than planned. But it was still the game they loved.
“I was able to see so much support,” said Cat Saucier, who works for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association. “Everybody’s trying their best and doing what they can with what they have, and so far, what we have has been incredible.”
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