MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Graduate goalkeeper
Brenna Murray was no stranger to succeeding on the pitch with the RMU women's soccer team this past fall. Her journey from transferring to RMU has not only been successful on the field, but also off the field in her young career.
This past month, Murray applied for the chance to attend the 2024 NCAA Emerging Leaders Seminar and was one of the 200+ students accepted. In order to attend, a student-athlete must be a Graduate Assistant or a current intern in a collegiate athletics department. Since the fall of 2023, Murray has interned under RMU's Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Development, Danny Bonaventura.
"Working with Brenna for the past seven-plus months has been an absolute joy," said Bonaventura. "She brings a vibrant energy to the office and her work daily. She's had great experience as a past SAAC President, TedX speaker, a transfer student-athlete and is continuously looking for ways to grow. I have complete trust in her and can confidently depend on her as a member of the team."
Over a three-day period, Murray and fellow student-athletes across the nation gathered to learn about college athletics at the NCAA's headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind. Student-athletes attended a combination of different panels, breakout rooms and interacted in leadership analysis courses.
Towards the end of the event, the NCAA split the students into groups of 11, giving the group just one night to prepare for an eight-minute presentation the next morning. Murray and her group won the project, competing against the four other groups in their set category as they put forth the best ideas on how to run events leading up to a Homecoming game.
"It was an eye-opening experience" said Murray. "I was able to network with influential individuals working in college athletics. I enjoyed learning from their perspective and took in a lot of info on what we can do for student-athletes in the future. The focus was all about how we can make the student-athlete experience better."
Murray started working with Bonaventura in August while balancing soccer practices and games. Over the last half year, she's helped run and promote several events, book rooms, attend Colonial Leadership Academy (CLA) meetings and is vital to SAAC as an executive member.
Earlier this year, Bonaventura gave her the reins on running the whole National Women's and Sports Day event held at the UPMC Events Center. She arranged the entire panel with RMU alums and promoted the event, weeks leading up to the event.
"Danny has helped empower me to help build a vision and step into my own as someone who wants to advocate for student-athletes," said Murray. "He's supported me a lot and is always someone I can bounce ideas off of."
This past season, Murray was a staple for RMU, helping lead the Colonials to their most successful season since joining the Horizon League conference in 2020.
Across the 2023 campaign, Murray won 12 games, earned four clean sheets and made 80 saves, leading RMU to their first playoff appearance and playoff victory in the Horizon League conference.
While continuing her internship and extracurricular activities, Murray and RMU women's soccer will compete in four more spring exhibition games before she prepares for her final year of collegiate soccer in the fall of 2024.
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