Natalie Smith's '06 Perspective

Name: Natalie Smith     
Graduation Year: 2006
Hometown/High School: Meadville, PA/Meadville Area HS
Where do you currently live: Leicester, England till Dec. then Italy and Switzerland

What have you been doing since you graduated?
After graduating I worked as an Athlete Marketing intern with the Women’s Sports Foundation on Long Island, NY. Then I worked for a semi-pro soccer team in NJ. This past year, the organization went professional and we were Sky Blue FC, the NJ/NY franchise of Women’s Professional Soccer, where I worked as the operations manager running our home games. We ended up winning the inaugural WPS Championship beating Marta and the LA Sol!! I’m now heading Europe for to grad school, a program called the FIFA Master’s Program, where I will receive an International Master’s in Humanities, Law, and Management of Sport. It’s a year program split between England, Italy, and Switzerland. And just for fun/experience, I spent two weeks assisting with the Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Soccer team during pre-season. CHIRP!!

I also continued to coach past college, head coaching one season at College of Mt. Saint Vincent, and training/coaching numerous youth teams ranging in age of U8 to U16, as well as camps like the Julie Foudy Leadership Academy.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to be working at a FIFA World Cup/Olympic event so working for FIFA or the IOC, or coaching collegiate women’s soccer.

What do you remember most about your experience in the Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Soccer program?
The championship. How everyone came together, worked so hard, pushed through adversity to get that SCIAC championship we wanted for so long. But beyond that one moment, I remember walking to the “away” CMS game, spotting a Wienermobile on the highway coming back from CalLu, our first airplane trip as a team to Minnesota, putting puzzles together in Skop and Hovey’s room, all these little things that made our team a fun, albeit occasionally dysfunctional, amazing group of women with a common purpose of bringing respect (and wins!) to the PPWS program.

What makes Pomona/Pitzer special?
The girls you play with. Everyone has different interests outside of soccer and come from all over the country, so you get the chance to learn so much from your teammates. Also the rivalry with CMS. All five schools come out for those games and emotions run high. It’s unlike any other small school rivalry I’ve ever seen. Plus, you get the opportunity to eat at some amazing and completely different dining halls!