sjearthquakes.com: Welcome to the Earthquakes broadcast team! How does it feel to be back home in the South Bay?
Danielle Slaton: “I’m excited! Obviously the Earthquakes are doing great things, but I grew up in San Jose - it’s home. I got to play at halftime when I was 10 years old when the Quakes were playing at Spartan Stadium. This is a team that I knew and grew up as a kid watching, so my life is coming full circle."
SJEQ:
You have a decorated soccer career yourself at the collegiate, professional and national team level. Talk about how your experience on the field led you into broadcasting.
DS: “I grew up in San Jose. Actually, a lot of past and current Quakes players grew up in the Bay Area. There’s really good soccer here at the youth level. I was fortunate enough to be a homegrown player. I got to play college soccer around the corner at Santa Clara. I was just fortunate that I was developing at a time when a lot more opportunities were happening for women’s soccer. I was part of an U-16 Women’s National Team, which was the first time they put a youth team together. The U-20 team was developing and that door opened, so I was able to participate in that. I then got called up to the senior team while I was playing soccer at Santa Clara and that was right after the 1999 World Cup. There was just so much attention around the women’s game and I felt like I was at the right place at the right time. There was Brandi Chastain, a Bay Area native, who was coaching us at Santa Clara, so there was so much going on that I felt really lucky to be a part of it.
I got to play for the national team, played in the WUSA, which is the first iteration of the professional women’s league, and I really had a dream ride for a very long time. When I was 24, I got to play in France for a season in Lyon. It’s great to see that the French league is doing really well right now. As the story with many athletes, I suffered an injury with my knee, and that’s what got me into coaching. I was at Northwestern at a time where the BIG TEN Network was just starting. It was the first college network to really come to existence and they were looking for content and looking for people to talk about the game, so that’s where my first door opened into broadcasting. The first year I had one game, the second year I had two games, then I got to call a World Cup last summer and now I’m here working in MLS.”
SJEQ: What was it like for you to call the 2015 Women's World Cup last summer as a former national team player?
DS: “It was just special. To be a part of the World Cup and to represent your country is something that’s huge. To this day, my favorite song is the National Anthem because it has so much meaning for me. It makes it that much more special when your name is on the back of the jersey. To be able to see so many different women’s teams that are experiencing the World Cup for the first time and for me to be able to tell those stories was fantastic. I love soccer and I love telling the stories of players' voices that don’t get to be heard and that’s why I’m excited to be here - to be able to tell the stories of these players. By the end of the season, however, they’re going to be superstars."
SJEQ: How does your role as a broadcaster change after working on the national level to now working with a specific club?
DS: “When you’re at the national level, obviously you’re covering players representing their country. At that level, you don’t have the same access and insight that you would with a club. You don’t necessarily get to tell the nuance stories. When you’re with a club, you get to tell the stories of up and coming talent and future national team prospects, which I really enjoying doing. Being apart of the Quakes community, you get to see the evolution of the club and the fans throughout the season."
SJEQ: What are you most excited about in working as the club’s sideline reporter?
DS: “To be honest, being on the sideline, I get the best seat in the house! Maybe David Bingham has a better seat than I do, but that’s just about it. This stadium is amazing and that’s something that I haven’t really experienced on a consistent basis. I was able to go to one game as a fan last year, but to be a part of this and the culture that is being built around the new Quakes and this new stadium and this new branding - that’s really exciting for me."
