Julie Bruening ’19, MComm ’21, Empowers Youth Through Sports
Julie Bruening, right, stands with women’s soccer coach Betsy Warren, left, and former goalkeeper coach Sasa Miskovich, MHI ’18. (Courtesy of Julie Bruening)
When Julie Bruening ’19, MComm ’21, came to Chatham in 2015, she was among the first class of co-ed undergraduate students. But now, as an assistant women’s soccer coach, she thinks the University’s history is still alive.
“Chatham does have this rich history of being a women’s college and [of] women’s leadership, and that’s something a lot of the alumni have experienced,” Bruening said. “It’s important that isn’t lost.”
It’s something Bruening carries with her as the program director at Open Field. There, she oversees the girls’ program, which aims to empower young girls through soccer, as well as similar programs aimed at youth and college-age adults.
Soccer and studying at Chatham
Bruening came to Chatham after she was recruited for the women’s soccer team by Betsy Warren, who’s still the head coach of the prgogram. She came to Pittsburgh from a rural town in northeast Ohio.
“Once I stepped on the campus, it was a great atmosphere,” she said. “There’s no denying that the campus is beautiful; nestled in the city but doesn’t feel like you’re in the city.”
Eventually, she stayed for an overnight visit, which gave her time to meet her future teammates and made her feel welcome. “That said a lot about the culture at Chatham the team created,” she said. “I felt like this was a place where I could not only be comfortable, but comfortable enough to be pushed outside my comfort zone and really grow as an individual.”
The athletics program at Chatham was in a period of growth when Bruening joined as a player. The women’s soccer team played then at the on-campus Varsity Field. Despite the field’s small size, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) allowed the team to continue to host games there.
“At that point, in previous years, the soccer team didn’t have the best record … so teams in the conference didn’t argue [with the field], because they just assumed they’d beat Chatham,” she said. “They saw Chatham as an easy win.”
What opposing teams got, however, was a fight, Bruening remembers.
Bruening in mid-kick during her time playing with the Cougars.
“To play 11 v. 11 on that field is a challenge, especially for teams that are a higher caliber and used to a bigger space,” she explained. “My first year, we got results that conference teams and coaches weren’t expecting. … We were scoring goals on teams who’d previously shut us out for years before.”
It wasn’t long after that seasons that the women’s soccer team was no longer allowed to play PAC games on Varsity Field. Before eventually settling at their current home field—UPMC Graham Field in nearby Wilkinsburg—Bruening and her teammates played at the Riverhounds’ Highmark Stadium or the Ellis School.
To her, that said a lot about how the program was improving and becoming more competitive. “That would be my favorite memory, that transition,” she said.
As an undergrad, Bruening studied education with intentions to be a teacher. Her undergrad advisor was Kristin Harty, the education program director who’s an associate professor of special education.
Bruening said Harty was there for her through all four years of her undergraduate studies. “She was great, supportive, and asked about life outside the classroom, which I found a lot of value in.”
From playing to coaching
After graduating in 2019, Bruening because a graduate assistant for the women’s soccer team while she pursued her master’s in communication degree. She stayed on as an assistant coach after finishing grad school.
“At that time, I was having conversations with Betsy about what’s next for me,” Bruening said. “I think we both realized and recognized that I wasn’t ready to step away from sports in any capacity, whether that meant becoming a coach or a mentor.”
Being a leader for so many years within the team, Bruening had respect for the players, and they had respect for her. That helped make for a mostly seamless transition, but it wasn’t without growing pains.
“The hardest piece was not being in the game,” she said. “I had started all the games from my first to final year.”
But that transition has also held lots of rewards.
“With that comes a great sense of accomplishment in a different way,” she continued. “You get to see players you’ve been working with since pre-season grow and peak at the right time in the season.
“I think it’s really cool to sit back and watch those people flourish, spread their wings, and fly.”
Open Field
Bruening speaks to athletes during an Open Field Future Forward event. Future Forward is a program for teenagers from marginalized communities, particularly immigrants and refugees, in Allegheny County.
After finishing graduate school, Bruening started work at a nonprofit in sports safety development. But she soon saw that the organization Open Field—whose founder, Justin Forzano, had worked with the Chatham soccer team in the past—was hiring.
“It was like a full-circle moment,” Bruening said. She’d already made connections with Forzano during her time with the soccer team. “Chatham was the connector. My experiences at Chatham are what led me to my current position.”
Now, she works as the program director at Open Field, which is a sports nonprofit whose programs use soccer to “engage youth and promote social and emotional learning, physical activity, and academic success.” Bruening oversees the organization’s Pittsburgh programs.
Those includes the youth program aimed at kids age 6-14. That is a neighborhood soccer league, but the group also teaches kids emotional and social skills, things like how to manage emotions, how to be a good teammate, and how to best communicate with your teammates.
She also directs the youth leader program, which teaches high schoolers to be reps and coaches and get paid doing it. There’s also the girls program, which acts as a space for young female athlete. While largely similar to the co-ed youth program, they hold conversations about girl-specific topics.
“Every day is different,” Bruening said of the job. She often starts the day in the office, working with her colleagues on logistics, before heading to a practice with one of the many programs she’s in charge of.
“The mission is to improve the lives and future of young people through sport,” Bruening said. “That’s important to me, because my life and future was impacted and influenced by sport. I’ve said before, I can’t separate my childhood from sports, because sports were just embedded into what I did growing up.”
But it’s also connected to Bruening’s background in education. “I didn’t know that sports-based youth development was a valid career path—which it is,” she said. “No one ever tells you that you can have a career in this.”
It was an ideal job for someone who loves working with youth, mentoring, and sports. “I thought the only way I could do that was to be a teacher and be a coach on the side, because that was the most traditional path, until I learned that sports-based youth development is a thing. You’re not often exposed to that or told that it’s a valid career path.”
Learn more about women’s soccer at Chatham, as well as the University’s value of women’s leadership and gender equity, at chatham.edu.