Laura Greb won a girls’ soccer state championship at Robbinsville High before a successful four-year career at Western Carolina University. She will serve as a graduate assistant for WCU women’s soccer team this fall.
Laura Greb has worked soccer camps for numerous summers, but this year it’s a little more meaningful for the former Robbinsville High standout.
This summer, Greb is working at the Berkshire Soccer Academy in Massachusetts and is trying to use the job as a little kick start into what she hopes may be part of her career somewhere down the line.
Having just graduated from Western Carolina University in North Carolina—where she was a four-year performer on the women’s soccer team—Greb will now pursue a master’s degree in health and physical education while also serving as a graduate assistant coach for the team. She hopes Berkshire will lay a little groundwork.
“I am definitely using this summer as an adjustment to coaching and getting my learning started,” she said from Massachusetts in mid-July, a few weeks before camp opened. “I am very excited for the GA spot.
“This is definitely something I want to do in the future. I am not sure at what point I decided to go in this direction, but I have always loved teaching and soccer, so coaching just seemed to be a perfect fit for me.”
It also seems like a good fit to Catamounts coach Chad Miller, who coached Greb her final three seasons. That was enough time for Miller—who has been a college head coach for 10 years—to see Greb’s potential.
“She definitely had the characteristics of a coach on the field in her playing days,” Miller said. “Laura was always asking questions and wanting to know more. She loves to compete and really is a student of the game, so I am glad to see her pursuing the coaching aspect. I think with her background and work ethic she has the tools to be a successful coach in the future.”
Miller was pleasantly surprised to learn that Greb was thinking about staying in the game as a mentor. He learned it when the two were killing time on the road.
“I didn’t really know she was interested in coaching until this past fall when we talked about it on a road trip,” Miller said. “As a coach, you always love to see your players interested in the sport beyond just playing in college.
“It is a game that really is about people and getting the most out of them. So I am excited to see her stay in the game and give back to the sport she loves. I’m even more excited that she will doing that with us here at WCU as a graduate assistant.”
Greb will always have a place in RHS history, as she was one of the leaders on the Ravens’ first state championship team in 2008. Recruited by various schools after collecting 50 goals and 29 assists in her three-year career, she was enamored by West Carolina’s team and campus.
“Everyone was so welcoming, and I loved the family bond everyone had together,” she said. “The experience absolutely lived up to my expectations. I enjoyed my time at WCU completely.”
Greb played forward for the Catamounts and after a learning freshman year in which she played 10 games, she started 52 of WCU’s 58 games her final three seasons. She tallied 10 goals and 10 assists, getting four goals and three assists as a junior and three goals and four assists as a senior. All four totals were second on the team during those two years.
“My main goal in a game was to do what my team needed me to do,” Greb said. “Some games, I was needed to sit back and play more defensively while in other games I was needed to attack more and find the net.”
Whatever she was doing, she did it well. A strong technical player according to Miller, Greb’ dedication and passion fueled her to work on improving each year.
“She was a true student of the game,” the coach said. “Laura always worked hard on her fitness and was at the top of our fitness rankings within the program. I think her biggest contribution as a player was that we could rely on her to always be good with possession and dangerous in the final third.
“Laura had the ability to be dangerous in front of goal and scored some big goals for us over her career. She was very cheeky on the ball and fun to watch taking people on one v. one to goal. I would consider her to be a coach’s player. She always did the right thing in terms of being a leader and always put the team first.”
One of the biggest goals Greb scored came last fall when she tallied the game-winner against The Citadel on Senior Day. She considered it her personal highlight.
“It was a header,” she said. “But I can’t even describe it for you.”
Greb also experienced her greatest team moment as a senior, when WCU won at North Carolina-Greensboro.
“It was one of the few times we have beaten them in team history and just the second time on their field,” Greb said. “It was such a great feeling when the final whistle blew.”
The final whistle has now blown on her career, which snuck up quickly on Greb, as it does for most college athletes.
“It absolutely flew by,” she said. “It is crazy and still hasn’t set in that it is over. It was a crazy few years but totally helped me grow as a person.”
She also grew as a player, which should transcend into coaching.
“I became a smarter player than I was when I entered college,” Greb said. “Coming out of high school, I did not know what to expect, and I was surprised how much faster the game was.
“I adjusted and learned to play quicker. I found different ways to execute passes and shots at the speed of a college game.”
Greb’s playing days ended with a nice exclamation point when she was named to the North Carolina Collegiate All-State team in June. She called it the “icing on the cake” for her career.
She also has a strong academic resume’, having recorded a 3.8 GPA as a health and phys-ed major. Aside from going for her master’s, Greb’s plans are wide open.
“I am actually quite unsure of my plans for the future at this point, but I do want to go into coaching,” she said. “This GA spot will give me awesome experience, and I will be learning from great coaches.
“I have had many good coaches in my life, and they all taught me a little something to make me who I am and the player I am today. Chris Mayer, Paul Oliu, Tom Gentz and Shaune Kent all taught me great things about soccer and developed me into what I believe to be a great teammate, player and leader.”
Miller said that Greb’s duties in the upcoming season will be to assist with the training and help the attacking players. She will also be hands-on with other activities to give her an idea of the complete spectrum of college coaching.
“She will also be involved with team travel, fundraising, camps, alumni functions and recruiting,” Miller said. “The biggest thing I feel a former player can bring to the table is a person the current players can relate to because they know she has done what they are currently doing.
“Laura will have the ability to learn a lot in the next couple of years, and it should give her a great foundation to build on as she continues to develop as a coach. We are excited to have her with us on staff this fall with the program at WCU. The thing I am most proud of is, I felt she got better every year and had her best season as a senior. She’s a first-class young lady and has a great family. We are proud to call her a Catamount.”
And she is proud to call herself a coach—a job she unofficially began working at this summer.
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