The Professionals

Kai Correa ’11

MAJOR: History

CURRENT POSITION: Field coordinator, Cleveland Guardians

HOW HE GOT THERE: Correa grew up in Hawai`i, where his father and grandfather were both high school baseball coaches. After playing baseball at Puget Sound, Correa moved right into coaching at his alma mater. He then spent four seasons at the University of Northern Colorado and gained a reputation as a skilled defensive coach, in part by recording instructional videos on social media. That caught the eye of the big leagues: In 2018, he joined the Cleveland staff, and in 2020 he was hired as a bench coach and infield instructor for the San Francisco Giants. When manager Gabe Kapler was fired in 2023, Correa managed the team for the season’s final three games, and in 2024, he found himself back in Cleveland.

WHAT HE DOES: Correa juggles a variety of roles under manager Stephen Vogt, from day-to-day organization to serving as an aide to the infield and outfield coaches. He’s known as one of the sharpest young minds in Major League Baseball and is seen as a potential manager. 

APPROACH TO THE JOB: Vogt calls Correa one of the most self-driven people he’s ever met. He’s gained a reputation for marrying modern-day analytics with old-school baseball knowledge, and he learned how to hone that philosophy in college. “Puget Sound fosters an environment for intellectual curiosity, thoughtfulness, and being process-oriented,” Correa says.

Maya Mendoza-Exstrom ’03

MAJOR: International relations and history

CURRENT POSITION: Chief business officer, Seattle Reign 

HOW SHE GOT THERE: After an All-American soccer career at Puget Sound, Mendoza-Exstrom kept a hand in the sport and took on an assistant coaching gig at her alma mater while attending law school at the University of Washington and later working as an attorney. In 2014, she became the general counsel for the Seattle Sounders MLS soccer team, eventually moving up to become chief operating officer. In 2024, she became the chief business officer of the Seattle Reign of the National Women's Soccer League.

WHAT SHE DOES: Mendoza-Exstrom views her role as essentially spreading the gospel of soccer—and, now that she’s with the Reign, helping the franchise reach its full potential amid the exponential growth of women’s sports. That means talking with fans, players, and potential sponsors about how to maximize the Reign’s impact. “When we talk about where women’s sports are now versus even 18 months ago, the whole zeitgeist has shifted,” she says. “There’s a lot of work to do to capitalize on that.”

EMBRACING THE JOB: “I believe that soccer has the capacity to change the world for the better, period,” she says. “There’s just nothing like it. And it’s that same sort of energy and ethos everywhere you go. There’s not a distinction between the women’s game and the men’s game, right? The ball’s the same size, the game’s the same, the field’s the same.”

Vincent McCluskey ’14

MAJOR: Psychology

CURRENT POSITION: Strength and  conditioning coach, New York Red Bulls

HOW HE GOT THERE: After playing soccer at Puget Sound, McCluskey wanted to continue his playing career, so he joined a local indoor team, then spent a few months playing in Sweden. He took classes in sport science at Seattle University before getting a master’s at New Zealand’s Massey University, which specializes in training students to work with soccer players. He later landed a job at the training academy of the Seattle Sounders, and when the academy director moved to the Red Bulls, he offered McCluskey a job as a fitness coach.

WHAT HE DOES: McCluskey works with the Red Bulls’ second team, essentially their Triple-A roster. “I do all of our warmups and training at games,” he says. “I take the guys into the gym. We do fitness testing, monitoring, strength testing, all that stuff.” The Red Bulls play a more high-intensity style than many other teams, which means McCluskey has had to adjust his methods, including shorter durations and more repetitions of exercises to improve the team’s conditioning.

JOB PERKS: “If we need an extra pair of legs,” McCluskey says, “then I get to play.” Sometimes it’s just for a single exercise; sometimes it’s a full training session. “It gives me the opportunity to be closer with the group, and they see that, ‘OK, Vince tells us to do all these things, but he actually might know what he’s talking about.’”

John Weaver ’98 

MAJOR: Business administration

CURRENT POSITION: Creative director, Seattle Seahawks

HOW HE GOT THERE: After playing football and studying business with a fine arts minor at Puget Sound, Weaver studied graphic design at the Art Institute of Seattle. In 2005, a friend in the Seahawks’ ticket office told him the team was hiring its first-ever in-house graphic designer. Weaver got the job—and he’s been there ever since. “To have this background in football helped me get my foot in the door for sure,” he says. “People who work in sports and design don’t usually have a really big crossover."

WHAT HE DOES: Weaver was promoted to creative director in 2011, and now oversees a staff of four and an intern during the season. “We get to work on such a variety of things, from banners that we put up on the stadium to Instagram to the digital ads that you get on your phone, and everything in between,” he says. “And as creative director, I get to craft the season-long messaging.”

DESIGNING THE JOB: When the Seahawks redid their uniforms in 2012, Weaver had a great deal of input into the process. “As a designer, you want people to care about the work you do,” he says. “People don’t just love the Seahawks brand—it’s a part of their identity. People care about it deeply. I could be designing toothpaste, and you could still do wonderful design, but people aren’t going to attach themselves emotionally to it.”

Eric D. Williams '93

MAJOR: English language and literature

CURRENT POSITION: NFL writer, Fox Sports

HOW HE GOT THERE: Williams grew up in Tacoma and played football and worked for The Trail while majoring in English at Puget Sound. He went to graduate school for creative writing at the University of Memphis “to write the great American novel, like every other 20-something thinks they’re going to do,” he jokes.

With a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in hand, he came back to the Tacoma area and taught and coached high school, covered high school sports for the Kitsap Sun, then worked at the News Tribune covering the Supersonics’ last season in Seattle and the Seahawks for six years. He moved to Southern California to cover the Chargers for ESPN and worked for a year at Sports Illustrated covering the Rams before landing at Fox Sports in 2021.

WHAT HE DOES: Williams covers the National Football Conference – Western Division, writing features and covering news. He’s also a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

PREPARED FOR THE JOB: “I played football from the time I was 6 until I was 22, and I coached for three years in high school,” he says. “I think that’s helped me as a reporter in terms of being comfortable with the subject matter, being comfortable going to practice, and understanding what questions to ask based on my knowledge of the sport.” While Puget Sound doesn’t offer a journalism major, Williams was able to get an overarching education and interact with a variety of people, which helps him feel comfortable in a range of situations. “It just makes you a well-rounded person going out into the world,” he says. “I think it’s important to be curious as a reporter, and certainly at Puget Sound, they sparked that interest in a lot of different types of subjects.”

Nasser Kyobe ’13

MAJOR: Communication Studies

CURRENT POSITION: Executive producer, Seattle Seahawks Radio Network

HOW HE GOT THERE: While a senior at Puget Sound, Kyobe (pronounced CHO-bee) did an internship at the Seattle news radio station KIRO, which helped land him an internship at the local ESPN station. He eventually took on a marketing role with the Seattle Mariners. After a brief stint with the Houston Astros, he came back to Seattle as a producer for the Seahawks.

WHAT HE DOES: Kyobe is truly a jack-of-all- trades for the Seahawks: He produces the pre- and post-game shows, produces podcasts on Seahawks.com and elsewhere, works with the PR department to set up player interviews, and helps manage the Seahawks’ radio network. “Outside of that, I help a lot with voiceover work and commercials, I support our production team and social media team, and I’m also kind of our librarian when it comes to all of our radio archives,” he says.

DREAM JOB: “If you would’ve told 17-year-old me that I’d be doing what I’d be doing, I’d be through the moon,” he says. “It’s a grind, but when you’re enjoying what you do, it doesn’t feel like working. I want to be here until I retire.”

Here are six young graduates who are already on their way to careers in pro sports.
- Tina Hay

Jack Bonicatto ’23

Bonicatto is a business operations and community liaison for the Seattle Seawolves, part of Major League Rugby. “I work in ticket sales, event planning, fan engagement, merchandise, and more,” he explains. At Puget Sound, he was on the track team and was a three-year football starter, playing wide receiver, while earning a degree from the Business Leadership Program. He’s about to start a master’s in marketing at the University of Nottingham in the U.K., where he’ll also play American football.

Aaron Felcher ’22

Felcher, a Business Administration major, spent six years working parttime in the events and promotions department for Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers, focusing on game-day experiences. He also worked with Timbers 2, the club’s developmental squad. He plans to stay in sports: He’s now pursuing a master’s in sports management at Columbia University.

Allison Goodell ’24

Goodell was a pole vaulter on the track team at Puget Sound and graduated from the Business Leadership Program, where her mentor was Nasser Kyobe ’13 (see opposite). She’s now doing an internship in the Seattle Seahawks’ ticket office. She also handles customer service emails and gets to make visits throughout the stadium on game day with the team’s live mascot, an Auger hawk named Taima.

Marissa Perez ’24

Perez played tennis and majored in communications at Puget Sound; she’s now doing a season-long internship in the Seahawks’ communications department. She helps with media availability for players, sets up news conferences, provides stats sheets for the media during games, and recently interviewed offensive guard Laken Tomlinson and tight end Pharaoh Brown for the Seahawks website.

Zack Teats ’19

Teats, who majored in psychology and played football at Puget Sound, is now coordinator of football communications for the San Francisco 49ers. “I’ve been able to work two NFC Championships and a Super Bowl so far,” he says, “and as a fan of the game, those are experiences that are hard to put into words.” He hopes eventually to lead the communications department for a professional sports team.

Quinn Williamson ’23

Williamson, who graduated from the Business Leadership Program while participating in football and track, has been a game-day intern for the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League and a member of the ”Street Team“ for the Seahawks. Like Jack Bonicatto, he’ll soon start a master’s in marketing at the University of Nottingham (and play American football there as well), with an eye on a career in the sports biz.