Q: What are you doing now? How did you land there?

Scott: Towards the end of my career, I saw the writing on the wall. The Sounders didn’t ask me to come back for the next season, so at that point I quickly closed the door to my playing career. I was happy with the way things turned out. I still felt like I had something left, but was also happy that I was relatively healthy, and was able to do things that I wanted to do with my kids.

I knew coming out that I had one of two options. The easy one was to stay in soccer; be a coach and stay involved with the team somehow. The other option was to get outside of the team. I talked to our owner and basically said, ‘I don't think coaching is for me.’ It follows a very similar schedule to playing, and I didn’t want to do that anymore. I didn’t want to miss out on evenings and weekends with my family because I was out coaching a number of teams. The business of the Sounders was what really interested me because I think, as we all know, the Sounders have done a fantastic job of really pushing the expectation of how a professional team should be operating and how they should be engaging fans. So, I really wanted to explore that. I didn't know in what capacity, but I just asked if there was something in there for me. Our owner immediately came back to say they couldn’t create a role for me, and unfortunately, in professional sports, they get a lot of people who want these jobs. A lot of them will work for very little money in order to just get their foot in the door. It was a good conversation. I think it was good for me to hear. I kind of closed that door and start looking elsewhere, outside of the Sounders and outside of sports.

I got a resume together, and I started to reach out to the contacts that I had in the business community. Some of those were the partners of the Sounders that I had made good connections with on and off the field at different events. Eventually, through those connections, I was able to set up a bunch of meetings with several of the leaders and founders of Slalom Consulting.

Having a math background, I thought it would be interesting to get into the information management analytics space, but after meeting with leaders in those practice areas, I realized that, being 15 years out of school, I was pretty far behind. It would take quite a while to ramp up and get knowledgeable in the area. That said, business and technology and the intersection of the two had always been really interesting to me. Even though I had gone to school to be a teacher, that was a space that I was reading books about when I was still playing.

So, going back to meeting with Slalom, I met with leaders and realized the analytics space probably wasn't where I was going to make my mark initially. Then, I met with the business development team, and I just loved the way they had that team mentality. Coming from sports, that was something I was worried I was going to miss out on. It was a great fit, and I was lucky to find it. It's been a truly fantastic learning experience because everyone has been so generous with their time and knowledge. It’s not sales. It's definitely business development. Everybody is in it to make sure the other guy succeeds and we all get pulled up together. Definitely not something I would have foreseen myself getting into post-soccer, but it's definitely been a blessing to have found the opportunity when I did.

Q: What did you think was the hardest about transitioning from being a player to working in an office environment?

Scott: Oh gosh, so many things! The biggest thing is the family dynamic. For 15 years I was able to take my kids to school, work out for 4 or 5 hours, and get home in time to pick them up. I could be the one that makes breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I could be there to do homework with them. So, I identified myself, first and foremost, with being a father and a husband. To kind of throw that on its head and realize I’m working 8-5, and there are times or evenings where I have to go out with clients or go to meetings - that was definitely the hardest. Of course, that’s an internal thing, something you are managing with your family. But, I think that's important to note because I think people might expect to be given flexibility in the business world.

The other side of it is that I hate using the fact that I played professional soccer as a means to open doors. I'd rather be viewed as being good at what I do post-soccer. And maybe that's not the same for everybody else but I’m very much focused on being able to close the professional soccer playing career and open up a new one that I can be fantastic at.

Overall, I’ll compare it to an injury. When you get back from an injury and you start playing, you don't feel great. It takes you a long time to get up to speed, and that's definitely how it is in the business world. You feel like you are constantly trying to get up to speed where the people coming directly out of college are able to utilize the knowledge they have and use it quicker than someone who's been playing sports for 15 years. It took me a solid year to feel like I had my feet underneath me and had gotten into a good rhythm. I think I'm still learning and that's a good thing because I tried to keep that same mentality when I was playing. I didn't want to ever coast through anything. I always wanted to be sure I was learning each and every day.