Erin Yenney
Episode 261
29 JAN 2024
She just retired a year-and-a-half ago after having been a pro soccer player, although she has now started a new semi-pro women’s indoor soccer team. Her pro playing career had seen her with a team in Turkey, which was preceded by playing for a team in Finland. Before that she played for two different teams here in the States in the National Women’s Soccer League, and before that played for a team in Colombia that became champions of the first year *of* the women’s pro soccer league in that country. That came one year after having played in Sweden. As a student-athlete she had played Division I women’s soccer at the University of Louisville after having been her high school’s all-time leading scorer.
Notable guest quotes:
“I was a cradle Catholic, went to Catholic elementary school, and attended Mass regularly with my family.”
“I did gymnastics, I did dance, I did soccer, basketball, and baseball.”
“I went on a retreat my senior year of high school – it was a Catholic retreat – and I just remember leaving there feeling like, I just felt so compelled that the Lord was speaking to me, and I remember coming home, sitting in the kitchen with my parents and I just remember crying and telling them – I just was overwhelmed with His voice… I just felt like He was calling me to do something.”
“When I went to the University of Louisville I got pretty involved with (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and honestly it was so enriching for my faith because it presented Christianity to me just in a different way.”
“I do remember, I would take some of my teammates to church on Sundays… I just felt so drawn to get to Mass and I think it was because I was yearning for the Eucharist.”
“Our teacher said, ‘Oh, what’s one thing that you want people to know about you that they might not know about you,’ and I remember writing, ‘I don’t want people to know me for my soccer abilities, I want people to know me for who I am as a person’.”
“My identity in Christ sort of was tested a little bit more even in my pro career, just because you get a lot of attention, and especially living in some of the countries I did with the attention that the clubs got.”
“I do feel really blessed (that) I was able to go and play in a lot of different places because I’ve always loved getting to meet new people and experience different cultures.”
“I was actively seeking another contract and two years went by before I got the call to go to Turkey. So, it really definitely tested my faith in the way of wanting to make sure I was following God’s call for me, and I think that really happened during those two years before Turkey.”
“I do remember feeling very conflicted at different periods where I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing it for me, that I was doing it because that was what God wanted me to do.”
“It was the first time also that there was an intersection between my faith and soccer intimately in a sports environment.”
