Ever since I was a very young kid, football (soccer) was my life. My parents took me to Blackburn Rovers games after I turned 2 and its been an amazing journey so far. Growing up in England in the 90’s, we didn’t have girls football as it hadn’t really grown at that point, so until the age of 12 – I had to play on Boys teams and was the only girl on my primary school team. The rules in England when you turn 12 is that you can’t play on the boys teams anymore so my Dad along with some other parents formed a club for girls, in which to this day – is still standing strong and has multiple teams and successes. I had some fantastic experiences, from being a ball girl at Blackburn Rovers for 4 years as well as David Beckham accidentally standing on my foot when I was a mascot.
In England, I represented Burnley FC (unfortunately) & Blackburn Rovers FC before securing a scholarship to play soccer in America. I honestly hadn’t planned on moving across the World but after my aunt introduced me to this company – it was all I had my eyes on.
In 2009, I moved to Chicago to start my next chapter at Illinois Institute of Technology, and played 4 years of soccer in the NAIA while securing my Bachelors in Biology. I was proud to be voted captain for my senior year and still to this day, return every year to show the ‘kids’ how its done in the Alumni game. Towards the end of my tenure at Illinois Tech, our assistant coach at the time introduced me to Nick Mulvaney and I started to volunteer coach with Chicago City in 2012/2013 while they were still “Lakefront Attack”
My journey in America wasn’t quite finished and I applied for a Graduate Assistant position at North Park University. For the next two years, I worked under Chris Wright (now at FC United) and helped coach the NPU Women’s team while securing my Masters Degree in Business Administration. During this time I continued to volunteer coach for Chicago City, received a job with Women’s Sports Chicago and gained a graphic design internship at the Chicago Redstars. It was a busy year with coaching youth, coaching college, working with WSC, and interning at CRS, however it provided me with the tools and knowledge to approach Nick about how we could implement various marketing and business strategies to take the club to the next level.
In 2015, I took on a full time position with the club as a coach and Marketing Director and in 2018, transitioned to the Director of Marketing & Operations and started the Chicago City SC WPSL team with Nick to continue to provide more opportunities to girls and women in Chicago.
Soccer/Football has been an integral part of my life and I couldn’t imagine living without it. My love for the game has flourished and I am so honored to be able to continue to stay in the game at a business level. Sports give you memories and skills that you just won’t find anywhere else and I would urge everyone and anyone to incorporate it into their lives.
Roles
- Founder & Director – Bicks Media
- Founder & General Manager – Chicago City SC WPSL
- Director of Operations & Marketing – Chicago City Soccer Club
College
- Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago IL – Bachelors
- North Park University, Chicago IL – Masters of Business Administration