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Stef

Welcome to the Voice In Sport Podcast. I'm your host, Stef Strack, the founder of  Voice In Sport. As an athlete professional and mom, I have spent the last 20 years advocating for women and innovating across the sports industry. Now I want to bring more visibility to female athletes and elevate their voice. At Voice In Sport, we share untold stories from female athletes to inspire us all, to keep playing and change more than just the game.

Today, our guest is Paige Monaghan, a professional soccer player in the NWSL at Sky Blue FC. After an up and down journey through the world of youth soccer, Paige went on to play Division I at Butler University where she was named to the All Big-East First team in 2017, and in 2018, she was also named the 2017All Big-East Offensive Player of the Year. On our podcast today, we discuss how she went from being a late bloomer to the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NWSL draft. Her family support and sacrifices fueled her dream of playing at the next level, even when she didn't make the teams she tried out for. 

She encourages female athletes to focus on the love of the game and not worry about the things they cannot control. Paige has made it to one of the most elite leagues for her sport by creating a strong internal voice and surrounding herself with inspiring female coaches and teammates through sport. She has learned to embrace her confidence and strength as a powerful woman. Welcome, Paige. We are super excited to have you here at the Voice In Sport podcast.

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Paige

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

Stef

I know that you've had a lot of ups and downs through your journey to the professional level, and I'd love for you to take us back all the way to when you started playing soccer and tell us your journey.

Paige

I'd love to.  Everyone's journey is different. I think mine is very different.

(laughs)

I'm from Roxbury, New Jersey. I played for Roxbury soccer for most of my life, starting with the U-8 travel soccer; We'd played nearby teams and stuff like that. I loved it. My mom was my coach at one point. I played with my friends. I just loved the game. It was so much fun. Summer league teams were a thing, and my parents wanted me to have a summer activity.

So I started playing summer tournaments with other clubs in the area. I was enjoying myself, having a lot of fun, and then actually coaches started coming up to my mom and saying, "Who is that? And who is she? What's her deal?" And  my mom was like, "Oh no, that's my daughter."

They were like, "Well, she should get to a real club team, because she's pretty good." And my parents were like, "What? She's good, but this is just fun for her. Paige, what do you want to do?" And I just wanted to play soccer, so I didn't really care who it was with, but I wanted to be with my friends and kick a ball.

I played for the summer league teams. Eventually, my Roxbury team wasn't going to exist anymore in high school because it was just high school soccer. So, in eighth grade I needed a team before high school. So, I tried out for Match Fit, which is a New Jersey club. And I played for the summer with them as one of my summer league teams, and then when it came to trying out, I didn't make the team. So, I tried out for ODP, which people know of in the soccer world, didn't make that either, didn't even get called back to the second tryout.

So, it was a really scary time because here's something I love so much, and people were going out of their way to compliment me and saying I'm better and should be on these club teams, but then when it came to it, I wasn't making these club teams. So, I kind of thought something I love so much and my passion was over because I wasn't good enough.

It was scary. It was gut wrenching. I remember standing in my backyard with my parents and just being like, "Is this really it for me? Is this where soccer ends?" And, I remember my mom being super positive and being like, "Well, it's okay. You don't play for a year, and then, you could play again in high school." But the idea of not playing a year in eighth grade was like the worst thing ever to hear.

So, my dad said, "You know what? Let's have her tryout for PDA," which PDA is known as one of the best clubs for women's soccer in the country.  So, I wasn't making these other teams, how on earth was I going to make this? But my parents were like, "Paige, believe in yourself, you're a good soccer player and you enjoy this, do it." So I tried out and I somehow made it and I love the girls. They were great. My coach, he was crazy, but in the best way possible for me.

(laughs)

And he would say that about himself. I started playing, but I wasn't playing many minutes which was frustrating and super hard because I was playing all the time on my Roxbury team or the summer league teams, and now I'm sitting on the bench. It's just a weird thing to go through, and I think anyone sitting on the bench can understand that. But my parents raised me amazing and just taught me to make the most of my minutes and not to bring other people down, but lift them up.

And then if I make them better and I'm competing with them, I'm only going to get better, so just constantly raising the level within the team environment. So, I played for PDA throughout high school, played for my high school team. I was super lucky. My Roxbury high school coach was amazing. He was very knowledged in the game, which I think sometimes some high schools aren't, but I was lucky where he was. He believed in me, and there was talks about college soccer because all these PDA players, that's why they're playing soccer at PDA. And that's why my parents are paying all this money because you're going to go to college and play college soccer. 

It was probably freshman year when I made it, my parents sat me down and my siblings and the big family. My dad was a police officer; he's retired. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. So, it was a big deal for my family; we sat down and I said to my siblings, "I made the team. It's gonna be a lot, but I really want to do it." That was going to mean no vacations for us, because it's a lot of money, but we'll make a vacation for my soccer tournaments in Virginia and wherever we were going. So, I remember sitting at the table and looking at my siblings and saying, "All right. I want to do this. I want to play college soccer. I want to be on PDA, and I know it's going to be hard, but I want to do it." And my siblings were like, " Do it. You deserve it."

I'll forever be thankful for my family being so selfless for me and literally putting my dream above anything. I could get choked up talking about it because it's crazy.

Stef

It's so inspiring to see that your family supported you like that and that you sat down and had that conversation, and then the love and support you must've felt from that moment to continue your journey is pretty amazing. I guess it just makes me a little sad because not everybody has that situation, and in the United States, competitive youth sports are very expensive, and it makes it tough for everybody to continue their journey. So, I'm glad it worked out for you, and then I'm equally frustrated that that is our environment today. In order for people to get visibility and succeed in some of these sports, they have to pay a lot of money. It's one of the things that I think we need to advocate for.

Paige

Totally. I'm very lucky with what I have and I will forever feel blessed and spoiled by my parents, but it is insane. There was a lot of sacrifice for my family, and I was young. So, I kind of understood it and kind of didn't understand it and big picture, we didn't have to pay for college, which was awesome, but still it's day to day living expenses. It's crazy.

Stef

It is, and there are a lot of great organizations out there that are supporting to try to equalize the playing field so that more people can continue their journey in sport  let's transition a little bit into your decision to go to college. At what point did you know that you wanted to play college soccer and how did you decide to go to Butler University?

Paige

Along my journey, I came to the question of: if you're gonna put all this effort in and you're gonna put this money in as a family and everything like that, you've gotta want to do college soccer, are you that dedicated?

So, really it was going into my freshman year, but I didn't really know what level of college soccer. I didn't know if that was going to be a division one, two, three, NAIA school, and what even did that mean. But, I knew I was going to do everything I can for a scholarship because that's what I wanted to do, and I felt like that's what my family deserved. I wanted to make them proud and I wanted to make myself proud for everything. 

I was originally committed to Purdue. They offered me a scholarship. So it was like, take it, no matter where it is. So, it was Indiana; I'm like, "What the heck? I'm from New Jersey. What is in Indiana?" Unfortunately, the coaching staff got fired, my senior year, so I didn't know what the scholarship was going to be honored and it just got a little messy. So, I opened up my commitment. Luckily, I worked so hard to grow, I improved later, which I feel like a lot of the girls peaked, and their best soccer was happening early on where I was just joining. So, I was definitely a late bloomer, but I had big schools, top 10 schools reaching out to me, offering me scholarships.

My Purdue coach, when he got fired, he said,  "You're an amazing soccer player. Someone's gonna want you. There's no doubt in my mind, you're gonna play college soccer, but I have friends at Butler University and they'll take care of you there." And I'm like, "What is this Butler University?  What is my obsession with Indiana schools? I'm an East coast girl, what is this?" I was visiting schools  during senior year of high school soccer, and then I had the Butler University coach come to one of my high school games.

He's from England, Rob Alman. My former coach; he'll forever be my coach. He came to my game and I'm like, "What is this English man doing in my home saying they're going to offer me a scholarship, and who is Butler, and what is all this?" So, I knew they were a Big East school. I knew from basketball, Brad Stevens and Gordon Hayward.  But, I'm like soccer, they're low in the rankings. I mean, really low. Rob Alman's probably mad at me that I even say how low they were. But he said to me, "Listen, we want to develop you as a player. There's a really good class coming in."

The scholarship was amazing, there's just a lot of really good things. But, the best thing that really sparked in my mind was my dad asked every coach,  "Is she going to start and play for you?" He looked at me dead in the eyes, and he was like, "I'm not going to say, you're going to start; you have to earn it." That's when I knew,  that's where I'm meant to go. Somewhere, where you earn something, where you work hard for it.  I want to be surrounded by that, so I did an official visit just to make sure and loved the girls.

My host was actually one of my best friends today, Shannon McDevitt.  She was just such a hard worker and the other girls that were there were  also these inspirational females who just want to make each other better and compete. So, I knew it was where I was supposed to go. And I was lucky with Rob Alman, Terry St. John, who was also the co-head coach, being a female coach and a leader.  She was just so inspiring that they recruited amazing people, and then they recruited great soccer players. That was the environment I wanted to put myself in, and that's how I ended up at Butler.

Stef

Amazing. So, it sounds like the coaching staff had a really big part in your decision. When you take a step back and look at your holistic decision to choose a sport and choose a college as a student athlete, what  advice would you give to the other girls out there that are trying to decide between different schools right now?

Paige

I think what was really important for me was, my parents instilled  it in me and then Rob Alman kind of fit the mold of things my parents have said to me. I knew soccer was going to end. I wasn't sure when or how, or in what way, but I knew it'd end.  Unfortunately, there's injuries, I didn't know if I was gonna go pro, there's a lot that can happen. But, my parents said, you always want to put yourself in the best environment. So, that's with great people, that's great education, that's soccer. It's more than just going to this school because this coach, and this is what their school was ranked last year.  And, Rob Alman said that to me; they said soccer is going to end, education's important. Terry St. John, she was an accounting major; she's a very brilliant woman in every level in and out of the classroom. So, they were all about that. So I would advise that, it's more than just soccer, but also think of what you want to get out of soccer.

I knew I wanted to develop individually as a player, so I need to go somewhere where someone was going to do individual sessions with me and who was going to work with me.  They have spent -- I can't even tell you how many hours of individuals I've done with them on top of the team practices.

Stef

Let's talk about role models, because I think it is so amazing that you had a female coach in college. We don't have enough female coaches in college today. So, what did it mean to have a female coach as a role model during those four years at Butler?   

Paige

I think college is such a time where you're on your own for four years, no matter if you're 30 minutes from home or nine hours from home, like I was. But, in those four years, I think you really decide what kind of person you're going to be which seems crazy, but  there's so much thrown at you and it's really down to what are you going to do?  So, I was fortunate to have Terry St. John as my coach. Like I said, she was an accounting major, she played at Purdue actually, which is kind of crazy. She was such a hard worker, and she would be the first one to tell you, she'd be like, "Ugh, I wasn't good at soccer, but I worked so hard that I was good at soccer," And that was truly inspiring to me.  

She was brilliant with how she communicated with the team, how she worked with other people in the athletic department. If she needed things to get done, whether it was  a hotel or a Panera order on the road,  she got it done. One time we were all wearing the wrong jerseys, I've never seen her chin drop so far to the ground. She just knows how to solve things, and it was so inspiring seeing her really just handle life and living it effortlessly, making it look like she's not even breaking a sweat, but doing so many incredible things. So, having her as my coach and having her inspire me as a female and just show me what you can do and how being a powerful human is really amazing. Empowering women is how you want to live a life because it's just the best way. We all joke that my team's a bunch of feminists and I would really say it's because of her.

(laughs)

Stef

That's amazing. There is so much power when as girls, we lift each other up. We can accomplish a lot more together that way, and it is so amazing to hear that you had that environment in college. It makes it such a better experience. I would love to know, what advice would you give to the girls that are going to be transitioning into college when it comes to performance?  What do they need to do to get ready to go into college? Then, help us understand the difference and the transition moving from college to pro and ensuring that you step onto that field ready to perform.

Paige

So, it sounds odd, but going in from high school to college, you really have to have no expectations, but know that the expectations are high. You're going to be thrown into this environment of preseason with these group of girls that you probably don't know, and you're all going to be at similar, but also different levels in different ways, in different forms.

So, my best advice is use your resources. I would say the seniors, the juniors, the sophomores. Ask them for a cup of coffee,  it's simple. It sounds lame, but text, "Hey, can we go grab a cup of coffee?" They're not going to say no  and just talk to them and be like, "Tell me about your experience. What did you do? What's it like?" And even having little insights of, "Rob Alman has us do a bunch of juggling tests," and that turns into, "Hey, do you mind showing me the juggle test?" And then, you're creating a relationship, but you're also creating a foundation for you to learn.

So, I would ask. Ask questions, ask different people what they think, but also know who you're asking.  Again, I think I was really lucky with Butler, where I had amazing seniors who wanted to take care of me and wanted to help me and wanted to grow. So, don't go to the bad apple for advice; There's always going to be a bad apple. But, look at who did it right, and look who you're like, "Wow, this woman is amazing. What did she do?," because she's going to want to help. 

Then, transitioning from college soccer to pro soccer, was really the same thing for me. I had no expectations of myself. I remember going into pro soccer being like, "Wow, I hope I step on the field," and then I was starting. So, I had goals for myself, levels I wanted to reach and things I wanted to do, but I think it's really easy to  just say,  "I'm going to go into this with open arms and do everything I can, and I'm going to do it the right way because that's what kind of person I wanted to be. And that's the player I want to continue to be."

Stef

That's great. And I think what's interesting about what you said earlier is that you called yourself a "late bloomer." I'd really love to hear your advice to the girls out there right now that might be playing sports and they might be thinking to themselves, "You know what? I'm not good enough," or somebody's telling them, "You're not good enough," and so they're thinking about quitting. I just would love to hear your perspective as somebody who was a late bloomer and now is at the most elite level of playing soccer today.

Paige

I'm still going through it.  I'm still having people say I'm not good enough, and "You need to be this and need to be that" or whatever, but  I love soccer. It was my passion. I still love soccer. It was so important to me back then, but when people were saying,  "You're not good enough, you're not going to play,"  there was thoughts of, "Alright, I just won't do it then." But, I wanted to prove them wrong so bad, because there's nothing better than proving someone wrong. Right?

But also, it's because I believed in myself and my family believed in me and I told myself, no matter what happens in what way and what shape, what form, I love this and I'm going to make myself proud and my family proud. So, I totally get what you're going through. I encourage people, if you ever feel like you're going to quit, talk to someone. It just helps; it reassures you, and I definitely talked my feelings out to my parents a long time ago, but it's just kind of a challenge and overcoming a challenge. I'd rather say, "Oops, I did this and that didn't work out" compared to "What if I didn't quit soccer?"  You have to figure out what's important to you, what you love and what you want in your life. I'm still facing it today, but overcoming the challenge is way more fulfilling than saying "What if?"

Stef

And today, we're all in the same situation with the pandemic. We're all sort of out of sport, if you will. So, we're all facing the mental side of the game right now, which is like: how do you stay mentally tough especially during a moment where there's so much uncertainty?

So, how are you dealing with the pressures of this uncertainty right now? Tying it back to mental agility, what advice would you have, to girls, to strengthen their mental health during this moment?

Paige

A bunch of things come to my mind. Growing up, I have struggled with anxiety, just being anxious. I've learned how to cope with it and what to do with it. And honestly, I've talked to family and friends, and I use working out and soccer as an outlet, but I think you have to have grace with yourself and what's going on, especially today with the world and the pandemic and how much uncertainty, and whatnot.  But, it was a quote that we learned, and I love quotes: "The only thing certain in life is uncertainty."

So, with that quote, I thought, "Okay, how do I react? What am I going to do?" There's so many things out of my control. You focus on what you can control, which is yourself and how you react to things and what you're going to do, and really look into yourself. So during this time, I can make excuses and say why I can't do a workout or I can look at myself and say, "What do I want to do?" In my soccer career, I want to score goals. I want to play. I want to make an impact with my team in the NWSL. That's why I'm doing the things I'm doing today.

But, when it comes to having anxious thoughts and mental toughness, I think one thing that really helped me was my dad's advice when I actually played basketball too growing up,  you miss the free throw and then you have a second one and you hear the entire crowd, and everyone makes the sound to reassure that you missed.  But my dad  looked at me; he goes, "onto the next," which allows your brain to reset  because a lot of people just say, "Oh, forget about it," but anyone who's anxious or overthinks, which I think is a lot of females, we are so good at overthinking. I know I am.

(laughs)

That "onto the next" reset helped me so much because I needed to worry about the next play because it didn't matter what happened  five seconds ago. It matters what happens with this next point. So, "onto the next" has really been a saying that has been near and dear to me and helps me so much.  Even when I drop a cup of coffee on me, I'm like, "Okay, onto the next.  What am I going to do about it?" And I move on. So, I guess that's just my quote of  "Onto the next."

Stef

Something as simple and short, like "onto the next" can really help you train your mind to get to the right place instead of a place that's negative. So I think there's a lot of power in that, and thank you for sharing that.

Another topic that often keeps us in our head is body image and how we feel about our own bodies. So, how has your journey in sport affected how you think about your body, and now as a professional, what advice would you have to girls looking back, on how your internal voice has shifted during that journey?

Paige

This sounds cheesy, and I'm a big cheese ball, and I blame my mother for that, but love yourself. Women, I know, are overly critical about themselves. I talked about this before with a friend. I remember feeling self conscious growing up because  you're growing and things are developing and  some people are getting boobs and some people are getting butts and you're growing or you're not growing, and this is growing and this isn't growing and there's just so much going on.

It's hard. It's awkward. I think a lot of girls struggle with seeing what's on Instagram, and this is what you should look like, and if you're at this height, you should be at this weight. But being an athlete, it puts you in a totally different field, and honestly, it took me a long time to understand that. I'm 5'8", I range from 140 to 150 pounds.  You read that on a scale, that will tell me I'm overweight. Am I overweight? No. But, what healthy things are you doing for your body, for your mind, for your spirit, for your overall health, for your game?

For me, I remember facing a time where I felt like I needed to lose weight to look better, to look prettier. This girl has a tiny waist, but I won't be able to perform as well if I'm getting pushed off the ball or if my core is not stable or if my legs aren't strong -- I know that's a soccer thing with girls and big thighs and stuff like that. Believe me. I understand.

But I would have teammates come to me and say, "Oh my gosh, your legs, I'd kill for your legs." Meanwhile, I'm like, "Oh my God, she has such a skinny waist. I'd kill for that." But, instead of that, demand out of each other to focus on the good things and lift each other up and know that I'm so lucky, I'm so blessed for such a healthy body that has kept me safe and sound and healthy. Just really focus on that, focus on the big picture. You're not made to be someone else; you're made to be the best version of yourself.

Stef

Yes. And celebrate the things that you love about yourself.

Mental toughness, it's a muscle, right? How we think comes from training. It's really easy to look at our friends and compliment them. So, we have to also take a step back and say to ourselves, "Okay, how do we say something positive about our own selves? And remind ourselves, our bodies are beautiful and strong, and my version of my body is amazing." That takes a bit of practice, and I think the earlier you can start that work the better for your journey in the long run.

Paige

I wish I started younger and I'm not saying go eat brownies 24/7 and gain weight.   Living a healthy lifestyle, and yeah, eat the brownie for someone's birthday. You know what I mean? Enjoy life, enjoy yourself.  

Stef

Yeah! Remember that muscle weighs more than fat. When you're training your body, you're going to gain a lot of muscle.  It's so important to fuel your bodies with the right amount of nutrients. Otherwise you'll get on the field and you won't be able to perform. You'll get pushed off the ball. You won't have the energy you need. So it comes hand in hand with fueling your body with the right nutrition.

Paige

Exactly.

Stef

Our podcast is all about untold stories. So what is an untold story that you would like to share with other young female athletes today?

Paige

Thinking of an untold story, that's pretty hard, but  I guess a funny story would be... when we're talking about asking for help and stuff like that and I mentioned, I was so lucky to be surrounded by my siblings, but I would do some individual training on my own with the help of my siblings. So, I remember being younger and having to do  running tests for high school soccer. And my sister would ride on her bike, screaming at me to run faster.I remember needing to practice kicking soccer balls, so my brother would stand outside with boxing gloves as the goalie because he wasn't a goalie and he would try to defend. 

So, it's kind of a silly untold story, but I guess one thing of just remembering to make it fun and soccer was so much fun to me. It's still so much fun to me. It could feel like a lot of pressure even this time, but recently, the other day, I did the same thing with them this many years later, just to have that refresher of, "Okay, I love this sport. It brings me so much joy," because there can be really challenging times of frustration and anger and feeling like you're not doing so well. How do I get back up? But, I think focusing on the love of the game is super important and an untold story.

Stef

I love that because going back to the financial side of youth sports, not everybody can afford to have a trainer or do individual training. So, being creative like that and having your friends and your family help you achieve your goals is really inspiring.

Paige

They're incredible. I'm so lucky for them.

Stef

I can't wait to meet them someday. What do you think your superpower is that you gained from sport and how are you going to use it to drive something positive outside of sport?

Paige

Just knowing that I can handle anything, and I have had super highs of soccer and super lows that I've shared with you, but even, throughout my first year of my pro season, there's games, I wasn't playing, there was games. I was scoring the game winners. So, really it just taught me that no matter what it is, no matter what's going to get thrown at me, I can handle it. I have the tools and I'm learning so much every single day that whatever gets thrown at me, I can do it, and that's amazing that I can do it and I can inspire others to do it as well.

Stef

Definitely. That's going to translate way beyond when you're done playing the sport.

I'm curious, because you had this amazing team in Butler, you're all feminists. What can we do at Voice in Sport to help support the women's game?

Paige

These podcasts you're doing with every type of female of different sports is really awesome, but I think one thing that I've learned through college soccer that is so awesome is women supporting women. So we just need to support  and we need to show that physical support. So, Butler women's soccer, we would try to go to the women's volleyball games and the women's basketball games.

We went to our guy friends' soccer games and the football games as well, but, encouraging our guy friends to even come to the women's basketball game, come watch us. Every time they went, they were like, "Oh my God, that was so much fun. That was great."

So, I would say for voice in sport, just to encourage people to really go out and support each other because supporting each other is only going to make this world a better place.

Stef

I agree.

We are all about support, advocacy and visibility. So those are our three words I would love to know. What are your three words that you would use to describe your journey in sport as a female athlete?

Paige

I've been blessed, I've been challenged, and I've been powerful. For a long time being a female, and you get asked in those terrible icebreakers, "What's one word to describe yourself?," and you're like, "I'm nice," and then you're like, why did I just say that,  that doesn't sound impressive or cool at all?

(laughs)

Anyways, if you're blessed and remind yourself how blessed you are every day, it just makes your day a little bit brighter. And again, Terry St. John taught us, we had grateful circles every other week. We would talk about what's one thing you're grateful for, and it really brought our team together because  we had some players who unfortunately lost parents due to cancer, but then you have players who this one helps this one with  finishing a science project, and this one got a hundred. So, just reminding yourself of how grateful you are and expressing that in a group, I would recommend. And that's why I'm doing that now. And that's why that's one of my words.

Being powerful, I think the powerful one really stands out to me. I've been thrown a lot, but I know I can handle it all. And I can handle it in life, in relationships, with whatever knows my next job will be. Being a powerful human and being a powerful woman really makes myself proud and would make my younger self proud. And then, challenged.

I want to be challenged. I want to be the best version of myself in every way. I think sometimes challenge has this negative thing about it of if it's challenge, that means it's too hard for you. No, challenge yourself. Challenge yourself in the classroom; I was a business major at Butler University. It wasn't always easy, but I challenged myself and then I did it. So, those are my words, I would say.

Stef

I love that, and I appreciate you sharing the open conversation that you have with your team. I think that's a great tool for girls out there, and if your teams are not doing that, pick that tip up from Paige and take it to your coach because it's a great way to keep communication going and also keep things positive. So, I love that.

Okay. Here's your chance, Paige. What is one word that would describe yourself?

Paige

Powerful. I am proud of myseIf. I finally did it!

Stef

We have it here at Voice in Sport. She has made her final statement, her number one word. And to all of you that have not looked up the definition of VIS, that is the definition of VIS. It's a Latin word that means power.

Paige

That's amazing. Love that.

Stef

The last question here is: what is one single piece of advice you would give to all the girls in sport out there?

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Paige

To all the girls in sport out there, my best advice is we have this opportunity and our opportunities might not be as easy as others, but just do it. Whatever your opportunity is, whatever your passion is, whatever your love is, do it to the fullest.  It's really easy to be someone else, it's really easy to follow the crowd, but whatever is your thing, I say, do it and do it with your full heart and your full might because I'm telling you, it'll be worth it.

Stef

So inspiring. Thank you so much, Paige, for joining us at the Voice In Sport podcast. I can't wait to see you play in the next season and thank you for sharing all your stories.

Paige

Thank you so much for having me and I hope I helped.

Stef

Thank you, Paige for sharing your incredible journey in sport. You have inspired us all with how you have navigated the ups and downs in sport.  We love how you describe yourself as powerful and we believe that bringing more visibility to athletes like you will inspire so many more to keep playing and to never forget how you show up off the field. 

You can keep up with Paige's journey by following her on Instagram and Twitter and by watching play with the Sky Blue FC. Please subscribe to the Voice in Sport Podcast and give us a rating. You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok @voiceinsport and if you are interested in advocating for female athletes check out voiceinsport.com and voiceinsporfoundation.org.

Host: Stef Strack

Producer: VIS Creator™ Jasmine Baker