Stephanie's Story

Upon graduation, I got married and dedicated the next five years to being a stay-at-home mom. My husband was a college women’s basketball coach at multiple universities across the country. I loved every moment of supporting my husband’s dreams and being a stay-at-home mom. I still got to feel like I was a part of the collegiate athlete community and became the mom away from home for countless female student athletes. I even remember making comments like, “I wish I would have graduated in something I could actually use, like sewing or cooking,” because I thought this was my forever job. Fast forward to 2015, I had three kids: a three-year-old, two-year-old, and a four-month-old baby. My life was everything I ever dreamed of. I felt fulfilled in so many ways. But in January, our lives took an unexpected turn when our youngest ended up at children’s hospital with a serious medical condition. With every breathe, we thought it might be his last. I was so stressed that I ended up with shingles at 25. All treatments were experimental including a recommendation from a research doctor to move somewhere dry and warm. Due to the timing of the recommendation, there weren’t any collegiate coaching jobs open for my husband, let alone ones that met the “dry and warm” criteria. Once I realized this, I reluctantly told my husband, “I have a good degree. Let me see if I can find a job.” I remember interviewing on the side of the road with three young kids in the car as we drove across the country, not knowing where we would end up.

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After months of interviews, I landed a job in Las Vegas. In the fall of 2015, my husband and I completely switched roles. He became a stay-at-home dad, and I entered the workforce. The first few years of this “new life” were quite the experience. The kids and I cried every day as I left for work, my husband and I fought more than ever as we adjusted to a new dynamic, and I was trying to navigate corporate America with no work experience. Finally, I got to a point where I realized that this was going to be my new reality, and I needed to make every moment away from my family count. I was driven to provide the best possible life for them. Since going all-in, I’ve had great success and accomplished so much over the last eight years. I currently am a Senior Director of Finance and oversee a finance team that manages over $1B in revenue.

I’ve often been asked and contemplated why I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had and why others haven’t. The more people I work with, the more I realize that so much of my success at work, stems from my athletic background. And that maybe there’s a group of women, just like me, who have no idea how great they can become. The more I thought about the teams I played on, the women my husband coached, and the people I knew who played college sports, the more I realized that current and former collegiate female athletes very rarely reach their full potential after their athletic careers are over and the statistics support my initial thoughts.

 

Fourteen percent (14%) of c-suite executives are women. Of that 14%, 94% played competitive sports. I believe that playing sports is one of the most effective ways for women to prepare to become the leaders of tomorrow. Yet in a study I conducted, 75% graduated without a job and 70% made less than $40K/year in their first job after graduation. Among those people, 60% had a Master’s Degree or higher. With over one million collegiate female athletes graduating every 13 years, and less than 1% going pro in their sport, why aren’t there more former collegiate female athletes finding great success after athletics? Why are so many floundering around for years or decades, despite all their talent and potential. I believe a large reason for this is what I call, “The Lost Years.” After athletics, you lose your coach, your team, your direction, your resources, your passion, your identity, and your confidence. Every athlete, in some capacity, goes through “The Lost Years,” some remain there longer than others, and some never get out of them. My hope is to not only help collegiate female athletes transition successfully into “life after sports,” but also help them achieve their biggest wins through an ongoing ecosystem of support.  

 

Companies everywhere constantly struggle to meet achieve their DEI initiatives, struggle to build a pipeline of female talent, and see significantly more male applicants than female applicants. So many higher ups are talking about the problem, but we need to start getting a little more impatient driving towards a solution. After months of research and case studies, I believe I have found a solution. I believe that female athletes can execute better than anyone, but they don’t understand the new game…yet. My dream is for collegiate female athletes to take the world by storm, to fulfill every dream they’ve ever had and some they don’t know exist, to find their biggest wins in life after sports, and to bring others along on that journey with them. The time to invest in our collegiate female athletes is now. Together, through the work we’re doing at TCA, we will begin to fix the issues around equality across all businesses and economies.