NORMAL, Ill. - Stanford alum and NWSL Houston Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell came to speak with Redbird soccer on campus this week.
"We absolutely loved having Jane on campus this week," said head coach Brad Silvey. "Her growth and development within her youth, collegiate and professional careers allowed her to quickly connect with our team."
A Georgia native, Campbell was the starting goalkeeper for Stanford for three seasons, earning All-Conference, All-Region and All-American honors her senior year. She was also the Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year her junior year and is tied for first place on Stanford's most career shutouts list. Over the course of her collegiate career, Campbell played in 84 of a possible 91 matches for the Cardinal. She has also been called up to the U.S. Women's National Team camps multiple times throughout her career for international friendlies. Her most recent call up comes this week for a friendly against New Zealand.
Upon arriving in Normal Monday evening, Campbell joined the coaching staff for dinner. The group discussed the status of Houston prior and post Hurricane Harvey, her role within the team, her path to becoming a professional, and her current setup with the Houston Dash and how it compares to college.
When meeting with the entire ISU soccer team, Campbell was able to share her perspective with the Redbirds and give insight into how the professional soccer world works and how she made the transition from collegiate soccer to professional soccer. Some things she discussed with the team included: roles and responsibilities of team members – starters, subs, bench, travel, etc., dealing with changes in a coaching staff, the importance of diet and nutrition, different roles athletes have within the community and how she has dealt with challenges and adversity throughout her career.
As a goalkeeper herself, Campbell spent some time with the ISU keepers to discuss the importance of their role within the team. They were also able to go over some keeper-specific topics like hard work vs camaraderie, how a goalkeeper union should function, coping with adversity and having a short-term memory.
Before she departed, Campbell met with the team's leadership group to discuss different roles a leader can play within a team unit, leadership beyond the team environment, what a leader looks like, different leadership styles, challenges within leadership and leading when not on the field or in a starting role.
"The perspective and experience she shared reinforced many similar concepts we encourage as a staff," continued Silvey. "And to have such a young, accomplished and rising star in front of our student-athletes was simply a special opportunity."
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