1. Law to Soccer to CEO
 Steven O’Day learned early in life how to adapt to new challenges and responsibilities: He spent four years at Millersville bouncing from defense to midfield to striker, a starter at each spot on the school’s soccer team. After graduating in 1985, he sought a law degree at Temple. O’Day had no idea, though, that his four years on the pitch would wind up shaping the direction his professional life would take just as much as the three he spent nose-deep in law books.
A circuitous career, including 11 years spent coaching women’s soccer at Franklin & Marshall, eventually led O’Day to his current role as president of Austin College, a Division III school in Texas. “I’m sorry to sound cliche about this, but the experiences that I had as a student-athlete in college were transformational for me,” he says. “At the time, I never imagined that it would someday morph into being the president of Austin College.”
>> Reality Check: “At about the nine- or 10-year mark of law practice, most attorneys go through a soul-searching moment of are they going to stay in the profession or are they going to go in a different direction?”
>> Between The Lines: O'Day coached the Diplomats from 1997 to 2007, recording 112 wins which remain the most in program history. “Once I started coaching, that’s when I really discovered a calling to work with college students. It was such a blessing for me to be entrusted with, in any given year, 27 or so soccer players on the roster and help them — not just on the soccer field.”
>> Of Note: O'Day became senior associate dean at F&M before taking a position at Lebanon Valley College as vice president of strategic initiatives. Four years later, he became president of Austin College. “I wasn’t going to just pursue anything. I really wanted it to be the right fit for me — a mission, a vision that I believed in — and Austin College fit that bill.”
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