Where are they now?

From Soccer to Community: Grant Schafer’s Journey Beyond the Game

Where It All Started

For Grant Schafer, soccer has never really followed a straight line.

It started when he was barely old enough to play — three years old, according to his parents, although they apparently told the league he was four — and eventually led him from Cincinnati United SC to the University of South Carolina, an international football club, internships in the U.S. and UK, and now the next step in a developing career in the sports industry.

But perhaps the most interesting part of Grant's story is that, for a while, he wasn't sure soccer had a place in his future at all. It took stepping away from the game to realize just how much it had given him — and how much more it could mean beyond simply playing.

Grant joined CUSC at around seven years old after his family moved to Cincinnati. His brother and sister were also involved with the club, and he remembers the travel and the team environment as much as anything from those early years. Many of his teammates became lifelong friends, with his core group remaining together for more than a decade.

One coach in particular, the current CUSC Director of Soccer, Scott Bower, left a lasting impression.

Grant recalls an early Developmental Academy trip to Chicago when his team was thoroughly beaten. At one point during the game, he admits, he simply stopped trying. The following week, Bower sat down with him at training for a conversation Grant still remembers, even if he can't recall exactly what was said.

When the teams met again, the result wasn't much different. But Grant's response was.

“I put in a huge shift for the entire game,” he remembers.

The lesson stuck: never give up, and don't quit on the people around you. Years later, Bower was still providing guidance, even helping Grant with his senior thesis.

"Scott brought a level of organization, professionalism, and tough love that pushed me to improve and become the best version of myself as a player," he says.

Finding His Way Back to the Game

In spite of these great experiences at CUSC, by the end of high school, Grant had become burned out with soccer and this is where his outlook starts to change.

His freshman year at South Carolina was difficult. Eight hours from home and away from the friends and community he had grown up with, he found himself missing something.

It took a while for him in those early months, but eventually that something turned out to be soccer.

“I genuinely just wanted to find friends and wanted to find community,” Grant says.

That led him to the International Football Club at South Carolina — a team where the emphasis was less on who was the best player and more on relationships, connection and bringing people together. More than 13 countries were represented, and Grant quickly found the community he had been missing.

Soccer was back in his life, but now he was older and it had become something different.

“I really found my love for football again,” he says. “It kind of reinvented my love for the game.”

Grant eventually became a captain, coach and, ultimately, president of IFC. Alongside close friends including An Nguyen and Henrique Faria, he helped revitalize the club following COVID, including a marketing rebrand, new jerseys and a renewed focus on recruiting.

More importantly, though, he helped create the culture that had initially drawn him there.

There were players from around the world, all coming together to train, compete and laugh together. Grant began to see sport differently — not simply as something people played, but as a way to create connections and community.

“Football and sports really create kind of a pathway for connection,” he says.

What Grant also realized was that he had always experienced that sense of belonging through soccer at CUSC but now, as an older player and leader, he had the opportunity to create it for others.

Creating a “Home Away From Home”

One of those players was Daksh Shetty, who joined IFC after coming to South Carolina from an international background of his own. Grant describes Daksh as being like a “little brother” to him, and eventually helped mentor him as he took over as IFC president as a sophomore.

For Grant, that experience became another important part of his soccer journey: seeing the impact he could have on somebody else, helping a younger player develop as a leader and creating the same kind of “home away from home” that had meant so much to him.

His first experience living and working outside the United States came through a three-month internship with Buzzers Academies in Southeast London. He worked in a diverse environment while also coaching children through holiday camps and school programs.

One experience particularly brought him back to his own childhood.

Grant remembers repeatedly setting up an eight- or nine-year-old player during a game. The boy ended up scoring four goals and, afterward, told Grant he had never scored four before and that it had been the best day of his life.

For Grant, it was a reminder of the impact coaches can have on young players — something he had once experienced himself at CUSC.

“Being able to reflect on that and have those experiences that kind of bring up what... Cincinnati United had on me — it was awesome,” he says.

Turning Experience Into Opportunity

His time in London also reinforced something else: access to sport matters.

After developing an idea at the end of his junior year, Grant used his senior-year honors thesis at South Carolina to research the financial barriers facing families in youth soccer. Conversations with people in the industry and surveys of families led him toward one particular conclusion: travel was a major — and often overlooked — cost of playing youth soccer.

That research became the foundation for an idea called ScoreFund.

Grant isn't presenting it as a finished product just yet. Instead, it remains an idea he hopes could eventually become reality — one that would connect corporate sponsors with families who need financial help with youth-soccer travel costs.

In his vision, it would combine elements of a nonprofit, travel agency and corporate marketing platform, with funding going directly toward travel rather than simply being handed to families.

For now, though, Grant is keeping the idea in his back pocket while continuing to build relationships and experience within the sports industry.

And his own journey has also changed the way he thinks about the traditional path through youth soccer.

Recently, while talking with his Mom, Grant reflected on the lingering idea that youth soccer is sometimes viewed through a “college or bust” lens.

His experience has shown him something very different. The game can open doors to careers, relationships, leadership opportunities and experiences that don't necessarily require someone to spend their future on the field.

Grant's own path is a good example.

The Next Chapter

After completing a business-development internship this summer with The Team, formerly Wasserman, a global sports agency, Grant returned to London on September 12th to begin a one-year master's program in sports business and leadership at the prestigious Loughborough University.

Exactly where that leads remains to be seen. Grant would like to continue in the sports-agency world and ideally build a career around soccer, but he is also realistic enough to know that the people he meets and the experiences he has along the way could change that direction.

What does seem certain is that the lessons he learned as a young player have followed him.

“Basic lessons” from Cincinnati United — perseverance, competitiveness, working with different people and understanding the value of a team environment — have carried through university, internships and into his plans for the future.

More Than Just the Game

And perhaps the clearest example of that came through the International Football Club.

Grant will always remember the international students coming up to him and thanking him for helping create a “home away from home.”

There's that phrase again and it truly captures what the experience meant to him. It also explains why his journey feels less like a departure from soccer and more like an evolution of what soccer means to him.

The player who once wasn't sure he wanted anything more to do with the game eventually rediscovered it through community. That community showed him the wider world. His experiences then led him to think about access, opportunity and the role sport can play in people's lives.

Looking back now, this comes as no surprise to those who knew him at CUSC, as explained by the aforementioned Director of Soccer, Scott Bower:

“Grant was someone I thoroughly enjoyed coaching. He was a U11 player during my first year at the club, and even then, it was clear that he was and still is a natural born leader. I am incredibly proud of all that he has accomplished, the decisions he has made and look forward to following his journey and seeing where life takes him next.

With all of that being said, it's unfortunate that he could not get into Clemson… Go Tigers!” 😀

And now, as Grant settles down for this second stint in London for his master's degree with that playful jab from one of his mentors ringing in his ears, he will turn his attention to figure out exactly where his journey will take him next.

The one thing that is for certain though is that if his time at CUSC taught him anything, it is that you don't quit on the people around you — and you never really know where the next team or game is going to lead.

- Thanks to Grant for taking the time to speak with us! If you want to learn more about the International Football Club, we will include a link at the end of the newsletter!