Favorite Parts Of Being A Managing Director At Street Soccer USA

My favorite thing about my role is that I still get to play. It doesn't feel a whole lot different than it did when I was a Division I athlete, which I loved. Those were the best four years of my life.

The harder part is that there's no one else creating the routines and schedules. When you're a player or a student, your primary job is to show up and try hard. The difference today is you do all the things, and then you get to show up to it.

So, I get to show up to something that I think we've built in a really good way. It's very positive. We've gotten to choose the people we want to work for us and contribute to that culture. I feel like I have an amazing environment to step into every day.

I get very energized by the people I work with and the people we serve. With Street Soccer USA, which serves people in really difficult times, we get to see a lot of positive impact. Many adults we work with are in difficult situations.

There are things you want to give another person, but you can't solve their problems for them. Because we're about soccer, we get to see people choose to do the work and step into the resources we offer, and they succeed. I think 90% of the people we work with become better individuals and their lives improve.

I know some organizations don't always see these improvements, and that can be exhausting when you're only seeing people in hard spots. Because of what we do, we're not a shelter or a hospital. We're something people can do for themselves if they want to.

Everyone wants to be in our program; nothing is mandatory. So we get really good participation. We don't have to force people into doing things they don't want to do, which I think helps me do this for so long without burning out.

Every day I'm reminded of someone's life that's been better because of playing soccer, making friends, getting opportunities, or finding their community at our street soccer park. I don't see that with many of my peers; they seem to get a lot of bad news often.

Being in a place where I get good news, and then I can also play soccer with these people, and all the people I've met through recreation because we enjoy it and it's good for us, is probably the best thing. And I get to travel.

We also do events like the Homeless World Cup, where every year I get to go to another country and coach the US Women's Street Soccer team. That's an incredible experience. There are really unique things I get to do. It's considered my job, and it energizes me, which is hard to come by in nonprofit or this kind of work.