This past summer, former Greenville Liberty standout Julie Mackin faced a choice – pragmatism or passion.
She chose the passionate thing, pursuing a shot at professional soccer in the inaugural season of the USL Super League. Mackin and Liberty teammate Courtney Jones both signed with the Lexington Sporting Club and began play in the Super League in August.
Both Mackin and Jones had starred at Clemson, but Mackin had already begun work as a nurse while playing for the Liberty, a women’s pre-professional team founded in 2022 as part of Greenville Triumph SC. There, Mackin said she rediscovered a desire to play professionally. The pragmatic thing, at least financially, would have been to throw herself full-time into her nursing career, but the little girl inside Mackin had another goal.
“The Liberty allowed me to kind of come back into soccer and really regain the love of the sport I kind of lost in college,” Mackin said. “I regained my confidence and everything – built that up, and then made me think, ‘OK, maybe I still do want to play professionally.’
“The Liberty kind of formed a pathway for me to kind of go back into that pro environment, and now I’m living out the dream I’ve always had.”
Julie Carlson, Liberty head coach and technical director, said getting players like Jones and Mackin to the next level is part of a player-development path that runs parallel with putting a good product on the field for Greenville.
The Liberty roster is composed mostly of young women in college or recent graduates who are looking to grow their games in a summer league.
“You have an array of ages, so player development is a very general term,” Carlson said. “The development can focus on many different facets of a player. It can be their mental development. It can be their physical development. It can be their tactical and technical development. It can be their leadership development. It’s a very broad term because it hits so many different areas because their age range and their pro pathways are so broad.”
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For both Mackin and Jones, their careers with the Liberty helped them, as Jones said, “regain my passion for soccer,” while also redefining their performance on the field.
Jones, who spent most of her time rehabbing an injury this past summer with the Liberty, also worked on a position change, moving to fullback-outside back, where she rightly thought she would have a better chance to make a professional roster.
“Teams like (the Liberty) are giving so many young players amazing opportunities to develop their game in the offseason. Young women from some of the best universities can play and develop their game with one another,” Jones said. “They get to challenge one another and hone their skills. Teams like the Liberty in the W League also allow players to get more exposure to scouts and coaches within higher ranking leagues. I’ve had a few friends that played this summer that were able to sign National Team Replacement contracts within the NWSL or eventually play within the USL Super League. It’s been amazing to see this league raise the level of soccer and provide players opportunities that they may not get during a college season.”
This past season, the Liberty provided those opportunities for players from as far away as the University of Montana and Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and as close as USC Upstate and Clemson.
“We have a saying here on the men’s side (the Triumph) – and I’ve heard it in different places – ‘Why not us?’” Carlson said. “It’s the same question raised for players like Julie and Courtney when they look at themselves and say, ‘Well, why not me?,’ and to have that opportunity because they just don’t come along every day.
“(Mackin and Jones) are great role models and great examples (for) what you have to commit to and what the lifestyle is like. Now they can touch and feel it. They can see it versus seeing something that is unachievable. They actually now see something that is achievable. I think that’s what is really important here.”
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