Whether because of injuries or Father Time, no professional athlete can play forever.
That’s one reason why the National Women’s Soccer League and the 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 a two-week immersion program at the company’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, that gives athletes a taste of corporate life and the post-playing career options available to them. Utah Royals forward and former BYU Cougar Michele Vasconcelos is one of six players in this year’s cohort.
“It’s been really exciting because we’ve gotten to experience all aspects of the business here, and there are jobs that I didn’t even know existed,” Vasconcelos told the Deseret News.
What is Experience Nationwide?
Experience Nationwide is a “first of its kind” program, according to Jim McCoy, Nationwide’s associate vice president of sports marketing.
The idea for the program, which is now in its third year, grew out of conversations Nationwide’s chief marketing officer had with players at the 2021 NWSL championship in Louisville, Kentucky.
“It just really highlighted ... that they they are highly educated, driven women that just didn’t have the ability to focus much time on where their career goes after playing,” McCoy said.
Nationwide became an official partner of the NWSL in 2021 and is the sponsor of the league’s Lauren Holiday Community Impact Award, which honors players for their off-the-pitch work in their communities.
“The NWSL sponsorship’s important to us, and we love to do more than just hang our logo,” McCoy said when asked why the program is worth it for the company. “We want to really invest in making the lives of these players better. ... We invest in our employees in this way, and we thought this was a really fun way to connect with the players in a different way.”
Over the course of the program’s two weeks, players are introduced to various positions in the company, including in the public relations and marketing departments.
Players also meet with executives of the Columbus Crew and Columbus Blue Jackets to learn more about sports marketing careers and hear from former professional athletes who have transitioned to corporate life.
The program includes a community day, when players visited the Mid-Ohio Food Collective and the Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
While McCoy admits he hopes the program leads to players coming to work for Nationwide after their NWSL careers, he said the goal is to help them launch into whatever industry works for them.
“(We) really just want to try to help them in their journey to figure out what they want to do next,” he said.
Preparing for life after soccer
No matter how top athletes take care of their bodies, the time comes when they have to have a conversation with themselves about their post-playing careers, and it’s not a fun conversation to have, according to Gotham FC goalkeeper Abby Smith, who is also part of the 2024 cohort.
“It’s terrifying to have those conversations, to be completely honest, because think about it — we’re playing pro for a certain amount of years, but even prior to that, you start when you’re so young,” Smith, who previously played for the Royals, said.
It’s especially scary if retirement is forced upon a player, like after a major injury.
“You never know when your career is going to end,” Vasconcelos said.
She recalled a time earlier in her career when a player signed with her club, but before the player could even train with the club, she went through the typical medical examinations and learned she had a heart condition that had previously gone undetected. Her career was now over.
Many athletes have an identity crisis when they retire, Smith said, and the Nationwide program helps participants avoid that by giving them a chance to explore their next chapter while still in their playing careers.
Vasconcelos is keeping her options open for her next chapter, but that moment “really got me thinking,” Vasconcelos said.
“I think the sooner that you can think about that, the more you start to develop yourself as a person and to try new things or acquire new skills that can then set you up for after, and I think a big part of my thinking about my post-playing career has been the networking that I’ve done as a professional athlete that has really helped me,” she said.
Both Smith and Vasconcelos believe the NWSL should continue to optimize its partnerships like it has with Nationwide to develop players as a whole person and help them prepare for their future off the pitch.
The league announced another professional development program earlier this season with partner UKG, which is called “Beyond the Field.”
“I think the more that the NWSL can find amazing partners like Nationwide, to help us in our development off the field, I think the better players (we) will be then on the field as well,” Vasconcelos said.