Slippery Rock stay led to pro career in England
Danielle Turner had long dreamed of it, of leaving home and traveling to America, of playing soccer in an environment unlike any she’d had up to that point in England.
The game — football, over there — is paramount, with loyalties running deep. But even just a decade ago, she said, there were fewer opportunities for women trying to play the sport at a high level. So Turner took a leap, an 18- yearold leaving Cheshire, England, in 2010 for the rural Pennsylvania town of Slippery Rock, snatching a chance to play Division II soccer stateside.
“It’s always daunting at 18 going to the other side of the world,” Turner said. “I thought if I never did it, I’d always regret it.”
She boarded a plane and took off, heading to a place she only heard of through phone calls with coach Noreen Herlihy and soon- to- be
teammate Alison Hindley. It’s Hindley, with whom Turner competed at times while they grew up in Cheshire, who laid the groundwork for Turner to make the move.
Ten years on, Turner has reached the highest level of soccer in England, a mainstay in an Everton side that competes in the Women’s Super League.
She’s the first- choice left back, playing all 14 games in a 2019- 20 campaign shortened by the coronavirus pandemic. But before she broke through with Everton and before she earned the captain’s armband for the club, she was just a teenager on the other side of the world taking her first steps toward a dream.
Turner only stayed at Slippery Rock for the 2010 season. She doesn’t regret not going back to Slippery Rock for more years, though. That season away from home set Turner on the path toward soccer’s pinnacle, making Slippery Rock an important — albeit out of the way — stop en route to Everton.
“I’m a big believer in everything happening for a reason, and it kind of led me to where I am now,” Turner said. “That experience kind of got me out of my comfort zone in football and in life, and I learned a lot in both football and life experience. So I’m forever grateful for the experience I had there.”
Traditionally in England, youth soccer programs are run through club academies rather than schools, a pipeline of sorts for future first- team players to professional clubs. That setup has become more common in America — Riverhounds SC, a USL Championship team, has a youth academy — but school- sponsored athletics is still the usual route.
Women’s soccer in England, however, didn’t — and often still doesn’t — have the same backing as men’s teams. While there are 92 fully professional men’s clubs within the top four divisions, the 11- team Women’s Super League only became fully professional in 2018. So despite spending time in the Manchester United youth system, Turner searched for more intensive soccer training than universities in England offer.
“Women’s soccer in England has really grown over the last few years,” Herlihy said. “But back then, it was a great opportunity to come to America to get your education and play football.”
Instead of training once or twice a week while attending a university in England, Slippery Rock would offer an intensity Turner likely wouldn’t have seen back home.
The cast of expats helped Turner settle. Herlihy was from Ireland, along with two other players on the 2010 team. Then- assistant coach Ashley Martin was English, too.
“Just having that touch of home away from home was big,” said Herlihy, who now coaches at Akron.
She’s used to it now, but daily practices and the team apparel were all new back then. The travel for games, even if it was limited, and the hotel stays were unique concepts. In that environment, Turner progressed rapidly — especially once she dropped her math major after the first week.
“That was kind of the first exposure to almost what a professional setup would be like, in terms of training every day,” Turner said.
Turner joined as a winger but could play anywhere. And she did, although Herlihy employed her mainly as a striker. She found the back of the net five times and chipped in with six more assists. And when Turner looks back now on what her favorite moment was, her mind quickly jumps to the two goals she scored against Bloomsburg, carrying Slippery Rock to a win in the PSAC championship.
She’s also quick to remember how she missed a penalty three games later in a shootout against Cal U, a loss that ended the Rock’s run in the NCAA Division II tournament. But that low isn’t what Herlihy recalls best about Turner’s time at Slippery Rock.
“If you look at the website [ photo] back then, she looks like she was 14, right?” Herlihy said. “But she was technically good, she was scrappy. She was a skinny little kid, but you could just tell her feel for the game, her tactical awareness, her technical ability.”
Turner recently signed a new contract that will keep her at Everton until 2022. Her success hasn’t come as much of a shock to Herlihy, though, not after watching an 18- year- old Turner in practice each day at Slippery Rock.