Employment Guide: Former Pitt athletes find careers related to sports

Most NCAA athletes don’t end up with professional careers, but many try to stay involved with… Most NCAA athletes don’t end up with professional careers, but many try to stay involved with their favorite sports in some aspect after their final college seasons.

The Pitt News caught up with three former Pitt athletes to find out how they combined sports and employment following graduation.

Joe Prince-Wright

Joe Prince-Wright, a former Pitt soccer player (2007-2011), currently writes as a member of the editorial staff at MLSsoccer.com.

He started writing for the site last July and, after covering the Emirates Cup in London, has since been based in New York. “It’s kind of not like a job at times,” Prince-Wright said.

He said his experience playing at a high level has helped him as a writer.

“You see things that maybe other people wouldn’t,” Prince-Wright said. “It gives you an angle of how to write stories … I’ve seen it from both sides of the fence.”

Prince-Wright played for second division Scottish side Arbroath Football Club last summer after graduating from Pitt in May. Prince-Wright still has hopes of playing professionally and has been training with an amateur team to stay in playing shape.

He received an invitation to the North American Soccer League combine on Feb. 10 in Florida. NASL is the second level of professional soccer in America, below Major League Soccer. If the tryout works out and he is signed to a team, Prince-Wright will take a break from writing to play professionally.

“I spoke to the editor and he’s been great,” Prince-Wright said. “He’s told me, ‘You can always go back to journalism whenever you want. Keep playing for as long as you can.’

“That’s my goal. That’s what I’ve been doing. We’ll see what happens.”

If NASL doesn’t work out, Prince-Wright might look to play in Europe where his agent has contacts.

In addition to writing for MLSsoccer.com, Prince-Wright is the MLS correspondent for TalkSPORT, and a game-day contributor for Eurosport.

Meagan Dimond

Former Pitt volleyball player Meagan Dooley Dimond (2006-2010) received her master’s degree in special education from Pitt last spring.

Recently married, she started coaching volleyball for Pine-Richland in Pittsburgh in the fall. She’s the head coach for the junior varsity team and the assistant coach for the varsity team.

For the last three years, Dimond has coached different teams for the Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Association. The 2009 Big East Player of the Year and third-team All-American currently coaches 15-year-olds, after coaching the 18 Elites for the previous two years.

In addition to coaching, Dimond teaches seventh and eighth grade special education students through Agora Cyber Charter School.

Dimond equated the cyber charter school experience to what one might experience at an online college. The children work from home and come together occasionally for live sessions.

While Dimond has found success outside of Pitt, she still misses college volleyball — most notably seeing her teammates on a daily basis.

Carolyne Savini

A former Pitt swimmer (2000-2004), Carolyne Savini is the director of executive recruiting for Turnkey Sports & Entertainment, where she has worked since March of 2006.

Turnkey is a firm that helps teams and corporations find qualified individuals to fill open executive positions. Savini’s role is to assist in recruitment of potential executives for various sports-related companies.

Savini has assisted with Georgetown University’s search for a new athletic director in 2010, the Detroit Pistons’ hunt for a president in 2011 and the 2014 Super Bowl Host Committee’s search for a chief executive officer.

In her role, she acts as a headhunter for the companies or corporations. She received her MBA and master’s degree from Ohio University in sports administration. “The neatest part [of my job] is interfacing with billionaires,” Savini said.

Yet she said her favorite part of the position is the people she works with from one assignment to another.