Even having ended her competitive soccer career in spectacular fashion, 2020 Washington University graduate Taylor Cohen found herself struggling to adjust to her new identity as a former athlete. Her pivotal final moments on the soccer pitch inspired her to start her own company to help other athletes deal with loss of identity and built-in community.
WashU and the First Transition
Cohen came to WashU as a four-year letterwinner in soccer and three-year letterwinner in basketball at Fox Chapel Area High School in Pittsburgh. A three-time first team All-UAA selection, and two-time All-American and UAA All-Academic honoree, she finished her career tied for first at WashU in game-winning goals (18), third in goals scored (48) and points (124), and sixth in assists (28). In her first season, Cohen scored the Bears’ only goal in the 2016 NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Championship against Messiah, a match the Bears eventually won in penalty kicks.
In her senior season, Cohen served as a team captain and scored three game-winning goals in UAA play and netted another game-winner in overtime in a 2-1 NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Sectional Semifinal win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. She scored four times and added a pair of assists in the 2018 NCAA tournament.
“I could not have asked for a better college experience,” acknowledged Cohen, who was also thankful that her career did not end there. “I played professionally for a year for FC (Fußball-Club) Saarbrücken in Germany. I was supposed to play two years, but COVID ended my career. That was out of my control, not my decision, and not on my own terms. That was really difficult for me.”
She began working at a sports agency when she returned to the U.S. “I was grateful to have a great undergrad degree and a good job. However, I was still dealing with the identity loss and that transition from being an athlete to being in the work force,” she admitted. “Like so many athletes, I did not get to end my career the way I wanted to. So many athletes deal with that reality, whether it be because of graduation, injuries, a tough experience with a coach or any other number of factors.”
Soccer Career Ends with Mixed Emotions
After working for 1.5 years, she knew that she was not prepared to call her soccer playing days over. “I believed I still had some soccer left in my tank. I came out of retirement to play for Team USA in the 2022 Maccabi Games in Israel. I was grateful that my job let me go and that was I able to lace up my boots again,” she stated.
The Maccabi Games, often referred to as the “Jewish Olympics,” brings together Jewish athletes of varying ages to share their culture and values while competing in one of the world’s largest sporting event other than the World Cup and the Olympics themselves.
“Not everybody gets a storybook ending,” Cohen pointed out. “I ended my career winning a gold medal with Team USA. That was special for me. I had the opportunity to connect with so many people from around the world.”
In the immediate moments after the gold medal match ended, Cohen faced her conflicting emotions. “I was on the field with my head in my hands. This was the peak of my career, but now it was over for good. I was crying. My apex and ending were happening simultaneously,” she described. “It was a crazy moment. That experience was the ending of my own career, but also when the idea for my company emerged. I talked with so many athletes and heard about their experiences. A lot of them were anxious about what would come next in their lives.”
Loss of Identity and Community
“The loss of both identity and community is what I heard over and over speaking with other athletes. People spoke of missing the bonds they developed with teammates, coaches, and mentors, and everything that comes from being a part of a team,” she explained. “I started playing soccer at age 3 and played soccer competitively until I was 25 (and basketball through high school). I knew the loss I felt when it was over was common and I knew something had to be done. It happened to me, and I have heard from thousands of others that it happened to them.”
Focusing her efforts on entrepreneurship, Cohen began doing the foundational work for her company. She began having in-depth conversations with alumni and current seniors to find out what people’s needs were beyond their playing careers. In addition to speaking at WashU, she also went to Amherst and Tufts to talk about the transition from athlete to former athlete in open forums.
“I wanted to develop programs in a holistic way with a focus on mental health. We talked with alumni about how they train now, what motivates them, how they stay healthy and fit while working a desk job,” she commented. “As an athlete, you likely have access to an athletic trainer, nutritionist, team doctor, training equipment, ice baths, etc. Now who do we turn to when we have an injury or questions about our health?”
Cohen believes that the pandemic made people realize how important it is to come together in person. “After COVID and the super isolation that went with it, we were all looking for community. We saw a rise in running clubs and gym memberships not only to get exercise, but to be around others,” she stated. “I found an article on LinkedIn that addressed the importance of having a community to go to. I wanted to create a space that all athletes can join to find their people and their purpose after sports.” With that goal in mind, she created AthletEX (pronounced the same way as athletics) for former athletes to use the skills they developed in their sport to better themselves and impact those around them.
The Beginning Stages of AthletEX
“We started by bringing together former athletes both in Boston and New York, creating different spaces where they could connect to talk about what they were missing from their athletic days. It is interesting to see the differences between those who have been out six months vs. two years or whatever time gap exists,” Cohen noted. “We tested out a bunch of events, including Happy Hours, fitness-focused events, sports tournaments, pickleball, get-togethers around health and wellness, ice bath workshops, mental health seminars, and cooking events. We have hosted 25 events across the two cities, mainly focusing on New York. We seek to capture the competitive spirit of athletes while also creating a similar camaraderie to being teammates, team dinners, plane and bus rides, etc.”
Cohen stressed that AthletEX has developed a holistic approach that addressed varied reasons for post-athletic career concerns. “We wanted to find a way to bring all the different struggles under one umbrella. There are a lot of amazing resources that address one specific aspect of a person’s life like Hidden Opponent (a non-profit and advocacy group that raises awareness for student-athlete mental health while addressing the stigma about talking about mental health in the sports culture). There are groups for networking and career help, but nothing that includes everything at once,” she explained. “We are working to partner with these organizations, so that when you are part of AthletEX, you have access to physical therapists, nutritionists, financial advisors, career networking experts, and mental health practitioners, all of whom we have vetted.
AthletEX launched in September 2023 and quickly grew to 1,700 former athletes. “Our goal is to reach 10,000 members this year. We have focused mostly on content to bring about awareness. A lot of people find us on Instagram and TikTok, where we engage with a lot of athletes. We have also started a City Captains program, which is like being the captain of a team, where we have two captains in each city who are super connected to people and to that city. That is how we see ourselves growing into other cities,” she expressed. “The student-athlete world is small, so a lot of our growth happens through word of mouth.”
Although the main chapter is in New York City, there are members throughout the U.S. as well as Spain and Germany. “People can connect even without a physical chapter. We have members from all three NCAA divisions and NAIA with an even split among men and women, most of whom are between 22- and 26-years-old, but we also have people between 26 and 35 as part of the network,” she shared. “Currently, our most represented sports are basketball, football, soccer, swimming, and volleyball, but we have members from most sports. As we grow, we would like to add at least three more major cities to New York within the next year.”
According to the NCAA, only two percent of college athletes go on to play professionally. With more than 500,000 NCAA student-athletes, that means at least 490,000 athletes will go pro in something other than sports. One NCAA study showed that 44 percent of former athletes were struggling to find a purpose after their college careers ended. A 2019 report entitled “Former College Athlete’s Perceptions of Adapting to Transition” (Drs. Sarah Stokowski, Amanda L. Paule-Koba, and Chelsea Kaunert) that ran in the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics revealed that 57.3 percent of respondents reported a negative transition out of college sport.
“We are actively working to reduce those numbers of former athletes struggling to find purpose when their playing days are over,” stated Cohen, who is surrounded by a team of former athletes and/or those who are heavily involved in health and wellness. “This is a company for athletes by athletes. Everyone who transitions out of college goes through similar issues, but it is even more challenging for athletes. At AthletEX, we are working to build relationships with universities and the NCAA to prepare senior athletes on campuses for some of the issues they may encounter. This work fuels me. I don’t have an off switch. Every day, I want to grow and learn more. Once you are an athlete, you are an athlete for life. We want to bring athletes together, so they always have that community.”