A new frontier for athletes
The 2026 Player Plus Media Academy gathered a select group of former and current soccer players for an intensive three‑day immersion at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Media Center, a program jointly organized by the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association and the MLS Players Association.
Participants, whose ages span from the late twenties to the late forties, include MLS starters, World Cup winners and Olympic medalists. They engaged in workshops covering live sideline reporting, podcast production, personal branding and social‑media strategy, with sessions led by veteran analysts such as Stu Holden of Fox Sports and UCLA professor Vince Gonzalez.
The curriculum also featured personal storytelling from alumni like McCall Zerboni, Shannon Boxx and Julie Ertz, while Karin Kildow of Content Capital Group coached athletes on amplifying their online presence. A light‑hearted social‑media workshop saw players create Instagram reels and memes, and Julie Foudy closed the experience with an improvisation exercise encouraging participants to chase their passions.
The program culminated in a certification ceremony, underscoring a broader commitment to building media talent, especially for women athletes, as highlighted by USWNTPA director of marketing Jeida Mitchell.