Alumni Prioritize Equality for Women in Soccer

ATX Women’s Soccer (ATX WoSo) is the brainchild of five St. Stephen’s alumni: Nathán Goldberg Crenier ‘14, Saara Hassoun ‘14, Andy Lopez ‘14, Danielle Strasburger ‘13 and Kalya Thompson ’17. The five founders witnessed inequality in women’s sports — particularly soccer — realizing women faced specific barriers to becoming successful players and front-office professionals. The group brainstormed about how to activate change, and ATX WoSo was born.

The goal of ATX WoSo is to create a space where women soccer players can compete at a high level while simultaneously developing business acumen. The club’s model establishes a talent pipeline of skilled athletes and qualified business professionals. In conjunction with the club's launch, the founders also created the Front Office Development Program, a non-profit division of their initiative that will fund internship opportunities for women in soccer. The group is now moving forward with finalizing a permanent identity for their women’s pre-professional club in Austin.

"We all feel deeply connected to the city of Austin as a place where we developed both our athletic skills and the beginnings of our professional lives, so we want this club to give back to a place we cherish so much," said Lopez.

ATX WoSo officially launched in April 2023 with launch parties at Haymaker Brewing and the U.S. Soccer Fan Fest before the USWNT game at Q2 Stadium. In its first week, more than 200 season ticket deposits were sold for the club’s 2024 season.

Drawing from their time at St. Stephen’s and their diverse soccer experiences, ATX WoSo’s founders each bring a unique perspective to their organization, having adopted specific and detailed roles to support their goals. Goldberg Crenier says his time in the St. Stephen’s Soccer Academy served as “a place to gain hard and soft skills.”

After playing on the men’s varsity soccer team at Harvard University, Crenier worked for first-division soccer clubs, senior national teams and the U.S. Soccer Federation, where he served as special assistant to the Federation’s two most recent presidents. Crenier is currently the Assistant General Manager for Gotham FC and manages the ATX WoSo Front Office Development internship placement program.

Crenier and Hassoun were both appointed as 2022-23 Harvard University Global Sports Initiative Fellows, a program that seeks to build connections between academics and sports through an interdisciplinary, social-justice-oriented initiative. Much of this research has informed their strategy in establishing ATX WoSo. Crenier and Hassoun interviewed professional women’s soccer players to develop empirically-backed, team-level approaches to an athlete’s well-being.

Hassoun pursued her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California and graduate school studies at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. As a lifelong soccer fan, she is now the CEO of HT Sports Consulting, a firm that specializes in player well-being evaluation and strategy creation. Hassoun serves as ATX WoSo’s team president, managing all business aspects of the club.

Lopez and Thompson oversee ATX WoSo’s sporting and technical leadership team. Lopez’s knowledge is gleaned from being a skilled player as well as serving as a soccer director and coach on high school, club and collegiate levels. His overall experience is well-applied to strategy and skill development. Lopez is also St. Stephen's director of the girls' Soccer Academy.

As a professional soccer player with Club Deportivo Toluca Femenil and president of

HT Sports Consulting, Thompson brings a wealth of knowledge on navigating sporting and professional goals. A successful career in the St. Stephen’s Soccer Academy was followed by an award-winning stint on Brown University’s soccer team. The club won two Ivy League titles, and Thompson was a nominee for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Strasburger is ATX WoSo’s fifth founding member who will guide the group as communications director. Her communications and organizational strategy experience will help to further grow their support base. Since graduating from Harvard, Strasburger has worked in various training and research capacities overseas in China, Argentina and Peru. Strasburger cofound and serves on the board of two nonprofit organizations — Bluebonnet Data, a data non-profit supporting progressive causes, and The Boarding School, Inc., a non-profit organization empowering youth to serve on boards of organizations that impact their lives.

Pooling their collective talent, innovation and extensive athletic experience sparked from St. Stephen’s pedagogical emphasis on global understanding and societal change, ATX WoSo’s founders plan to make a significant impact to help women better succeed in an industry the group says needs more equality and justice. Learn more at atxwoso.com and www.fodp.soccer.