NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jennie Clark’s first season as Vanderbilt soccer assistant coach will involve some adjustments. Let’s start with Nashville, where preseason will be hotter than what she experienced at Northwestern. So, too, the chicken. SEC soccer will be another new world all its own. A year ago, nine SEC teams reached the NCAA Tournament and three advanced to the Sweet 16—including the Commodores she now coaches.
Not that change is likely to knock her off her stride. Change is part of taking the next step. You want a tricky move? Try being a small-town kid from Norwalk, Iowa, with big dreams and very little German who moves to Leipzig to play professional soccer. Or being a defender plugged into a recently promoted team’s back line as it struggles for survival in the Frauen-Bundesliga, one of the world’s most competitive leagues long before giant clubs in places like England, Spain and Italy started to spend money on the women’s game.
Clark learned the language and survived the Autobahn. Her team went down, but she impressed enough to move up—to a title contender and Champion’s League regular by the end of her stay in Germany. She can handle Nashville. She’ll be fine in the SEC.
“I like to give the ‘why’ behind things and also hold people to high standards—because I know they’re capable of reaching those standards. Most of the time, people want to put in the work to achieve what they believe they are capable of achieving.”
Vanderbilt assistant coach Jennie Clark
A rising talent who is still early in her coaching career, she nevertheless brings a world of experience to head coach Darren Ambrose’s staff. She understands that as difficult as it is to turn dreams into reality, figuring out what comes next is often even more of a puzzle. She found the answer in coaching. Pursuing her ambitions as far as they would take her wasn’t the end of the road. It was preparation for helping a new generation take their next steps.
“I’m a relationship coach,” Clark said. “I care about the development of young women being their best selves and empowering them to know that they’re able to do more than what they think they can do. That’s my ‘why’—that’s why I like to do this.”
Going the Extra Mile
Growing up in Iowa, Clark knew she wanted to be a professional athlete. How to go about that was less clear. It wasn’t…