Due to injuries and father time, professional athletes can’t play forever.
That’s one reason the National Women’s Soccer League and insurance company Nationwide are working together to help NWSL players prepare for the day they have to hang up their cleats for good.
Experience Nationwide is an intensive two-week program held at the company’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio that gives athletes a taste of corporate life and post-player career options. Utah Royals forward and former BYU Cougar Michele Vasconcelos is one of this year’s six players.
“It was really exciting to be able to experience all aspects of the business here, some of which I didn’t even know existed,” Vasconcelos told the Deseret News.
What is the National Experience?
Jim McCoy, Nationwide’s vice president of sports marketing, said Experience Nationwide is a “first of its kind” program.
The idea for the program, now in its third year, came from a conversation Nationwide’s chief marketing officer had with players at the 2021 NWSL Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.
“This really highlighted that these are highly educated, highly motivated women who didn’t have a lot of time to focus on where their careers were going after playing,” McCoy said. said.
Nationwide will become an official partner of the NWSL in 2021 and is also a sponsor of the league’s Lauren Holiday Community Impact Award, which celebrates off-the-field work in the local community.
“The NWSL sponsorship is important to us and we want to do more than just put up a logo,” McCoy said when asked why the program is valuable to the company. “We really want to invest in making the lives of these players better. We thought it was a really fun way to connect.”
Over the two weeks of the program, players will work in various positions within the company, including public relations and marketing departments.
Players will also meet with executives from the Columbus Crew and Columbus Blue Jackets, learn more about careers in sports marketing, and hear from former professional athletes who have transitioned into corporate life.
The program included a community day where players visited the Mid-Ohio Food Collective and Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
McCoy admits he hopes the program will lead to players working for Nationwide after their NWSL careers, but the goal is to help them break into an industry that suits them. He said it was about supporting.
“(We) just want to help them on their journey to figure out what they want to do next,” he said.
Preparing for life after soccer
No matter how well top athletes take care of their bodies, there comes a time when they have to have a conversation with themselves about their post-playing career, and it’s not a fun conversation, according to Gotham FC goalie Abby Smith. That’s what it means. Part of the 2024 cohort.
“Honestly, it’s scary to have that conversation because, think about it, we all play professionally for a certain number of years, but even before that, we start at a very young age. So,” Smith previously said. He said he played for the Royals.
Particularly scary is when a player is forced to retire, such as after a serious injury.
“You never know when your career will end,” Vasconcelos said.
She recalled a time early in her career when a player signed a contract with her club. However, before the player could train with the club, he underwent a typical medical examination and discovered that he had a previously undetected heart condition. Her career is over.
Smith said many athletes go through an identity crisis when they retire, and the Nationwide program helps participants overcome that crisis by giving them the opportunity to explore their next chapter during their playing careers. We will help you avoid it.
Vasconcelos is keeping his options open for his next chapter, but he said the moment “really made me think.”
“I think the sooner you start thinking about it, the more you can start growing yourself as a person and trying new things and learning new skills that will prepare you for later on. Me after playing “My career has really been helped by the networking I’ve done as a professional athlete,” she said.
Both Smith and Vasconcelos believe the NWSL, like Nationwide, should continue to optimize partnerships, develop players as people and help prepare them for their futures off the field.
Earlier this season, the league announced another professional development program with partner UKG called “Beyond the Field.”
“I think if the NWSL can find a great partner like Nationwide, it will help us grow off the field and make (our) players even better on the field,” Vasconcelos said. spoke.
