By Josh Perry || HockomockSports.com Managing Editor
When her middle school yearbook asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up,’ Avery Snead had only one answer. She wanted to be a professional soccer player. Now, after finishing a grad season at Indiana University, the former King Philip star will be fulfilling that dream. Just this week, Snead signed a professional contract to play for Bodø/Glimt in the Norwegian Toppserien.
“It’s just something you say,” Snead joked a few days before flying out to Norway to join her new team. “I’m sure a million people said professional football players or whatever. Once college hit and I started to gain a little success and I realized how much I still loved it, I knew it was attainable.”
“From then on it was just putting in the work and performing and, yeah, here I am.”
At the end of the Big Ten season, Snead was referred to Inspired XI, a sports agency dedicated to women’s sports, by one of her former coaches at Providence College. Right away, her agent started reaching out to clubs inside the United States and in Europe. There was significant interest from a team in Galway, Ireland (“I thought I was moving to Ireland for three weeks,” Snead said) but the contract process was delayed and a team from Spain and Bodø/Glimt stepped in.
“I was on a ski trip with my family when my agent told me that I had a call with Bodø/Glimt the next morning,” Snead explained. “I was very interested and hearing from the coach and seeing his vision for the team next year and me fitting into the team, I was just very impressed with him and what he had to say about the club.”
This will be an interesting transition for Snead on and off the field. Bodø is located above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. A conversation with former St. John’s University standout Claudia Nicole Cagnina, who has played for Bodø/Glimt for the past two seasons helped allay any fears about dealing with the weather that far north.
“She had amazing things to say,” Snead explained. “She said, ‘I love the team, it’s a great environment, good culture, I love living in Norway.’ She said, ‘Honestly it’s just like Long Island and probably like Boston too.’”
While the location might be daunting, Bodø/Glimt has had a lot of recent success on the men’s side, for example playing in the latter stages of the Europa League and playing against some of Europe’s elite teams like Manchester United and Roma. The funds earned from those exploits have laid the foundation for top-notch facilities for both the men’s and women’s teams.
Bodø/Glimt’s women’s team was promoted to the Norwegian top flight at the end of last season. It will begin its Toppserien campaign at the end of March, giving Snead several weeks of preseason to get acclimated to her new teammates, new coaches, and the new locale.
“That’s also something I really liked about the club is that I wouldn’t have to be joining a team midseason and just be the new person who doesn’t know anything and try to fit in,” she explained. “I’m excited that I have almost two months to get situated.”
After twice being named Hockomock League MVP, earning HockomockSports.com Underclassman of the Year and Player of the Year honors, and being named All-New England as a junior, Snead spent four years at Providence College. She recorded 13 points (six goals and an assist) and played more than 6,200 minutes in the heart of the PC defense.
Her awards at PC included All-BIG EAST Second Team (2021, 2023), United Soccer Coaches All-East Region (2023), NEWISA All-New England First Team (2023), NEWISA Senior Bowl (2023), NEWISA All-New England Second Team (2022, 2021), BIG EAST All-Freshman Team in 2020-21.
This past fall, Snead made the leap from PC to the Big Ten, joining Indiana as a grad student. She scored three goals and had three assists for the Hoosiers, although Indiana’s final record wasn’t what she had hoped for when transferring. Regardless of
“I still grew so much as a player and a person and I learned so much leaving my little Providence bubble and going to a big school and having to fight for my spot in a new environment,” she said. “It was an awesome experience.”
Asked if moving to Indiana and having to compete in a new environment would help her with the much farther move to Norway, Snead replied, “One hundred percent. If I had stayed at Providence, I would’ve felt very comfortable and very close to home, which is awesome for the four years but leaving and getting out of my comfort zone was the next step I needed to take.”
“I’m happy I did that because I feel more comfortable doing something even crazier now.”
With her move just a couple days away, Snead was busy trying to figure out how to pack for a season that would stretch from late March to at least the end of June. She will get a break in July, as the league will take the month off during the Women’s European Championships, and then play from August through November.
It’s still sinking in that she is packing to start her professional soccer career.
She said, “I’m so excited, I can’t even explain it. I always knew that I wanted to play and it wasn’t until like the past couple years where I was really serious about it.” Spending last summer playing in a league for the NWSL’s Racing Lousville, Snead was convinced she was ready for a pro career, wherever it landed her. “I thought this is something I really want to do even if it’s not in the United States. I would love to go abroad and travel and get to do what I love and just experience new things while I can and while I’m still healthy.”
Even as she prepares to leave, it is still hard to fully come to terms with how far she has come from starting out in youth soccer to playing for her club team to playing with her best friends and winning titles at KP.
“It won’t feel as real until I land in Norway and start playing,” Snead said. “Once I get there, I’ll be more grounded and be like, let’s get to work.”
“I think it was clear from the start how much I loved soccer and it’s just a dream come true that I get to do what I love and continue my career.”
