Growing up in a small town in Maryland across from her family's farm, Ashley McElwain's path has led her to Greensboro College to play women's soccer in 2025. Her path to Greensboro is unique, and one that was created by a solid family foundation, staying humble, and battling adversity.
McElwain and her family have spent multiple generations on the farm that Ashley's father and uncle currently run. In fact, McElwain has lived in the house she and her family currently live her entire life, with her extended family right around the corner. "It's kind of crazy explaining it to people because not many people lived the same way that I've lived. My aunt and uncles all live on the same road...explaining that to people, a lot of people don't understand that asking 'what do you mean you live on the same road with your whole entire family?' But they all work on the farm, so it just worked out that way."
Ashley and her cousins grew up together and went to the same elementary and middle schools. However, once high school began, McElwain branched off to Harford Tech instead of the traditional route of North Harford High School. Harford Technical High School is a trade school where students can learn specific skills and be ready to use those skills for a career after graduating. "Once we saw it we immediately fell in love." Ashley would go the culinary route during her time at Harford Tech while also playing for the girls soccer team. All things looked to go smoothly until her senior season, where a freak accident changed the course of her soccer career.
As Ashley looked forward to the high school playoffs in her senior season, a concussion suffered in a car accident unfortunately derailed the rest of her senior campaign, including the high school playoffs. "It was a few weeks before playoffs started and I was driving to school one morning...it was foggy, and a deer jumped on top of my car, falling onto my windshield and smashing it in. I slammed on the brakes and my head immediately hit the steering wheel, leaving me with a concussion. By the time I was cleared from the concussion, the soccer season and playoffs were over, and at that point there wasn't much left of my senior year."
Despite the adversity and being unsure of what her next steps were, McElwain didn't let that stop her from pursuing a collegiate soccer career. After her recovery, Ashley began reaching out to Harford Community College, not far from her hometown, for a chance at that college soccer opportunity. "At that point that's when I started reaching out to Harford and we started talking and I ended up playing there." And when she showed up to campus, McElwain delivered on and off the field. Mainly playing as a defender, McElwain put up a solid freshman campaign in 2023 by playing 16 games and capped that season off by being named to the NJCAA All-Academic Team. What would she do in her sophomore season? McElwain would shine for the Fighting Owls, scoring 7 goals with 5 assists, starting all 18 games. She was named All-Region as well as being named First Team All-Conference and again named to the NJCAA All-Academic Team.
Ashley would finish a stellar 2024 at Harford and finish her two-year JUCO career. The question then was, what's next? As McElwain mulled the possibility of continuing her collegiate soccer career, trying to find a fit wouldn't come easy. "When everyone asks me about my recruiting process after Harford, if I'm being completely honest with everyone, I'll tell them it was the worst experience I've ever had trying to play somewhere else. The recruiting process was not easy at all. Kids that go (to a two-year school) experience far more challenges to be recruited than the average kid coming out of high school. Many coaches are worried about where you came from and the coaching there verses coming to a new school...it's hard for people to give JUCO kids a chance." Another challenge of being recruited, Ashley says, is timing. "Coaches want to see your film from your sophomore year, not your freshman year. So, by the time you get all your film from your sophomore year you're already to Christmas time... it leads you to then be recruited in the springtime, leaving you barely any time before you begin again in the fall for your next school. By that time a lot of schools have all the recruits they want."
Despite the challenges of being recruited, Ashley leaned on some family advice that eventually led her to Greensboro College. "I went to an overnight camp at Saint Mary's College of Maryland where the coach was interested in me. But it just came down to numbers and by the time I had reached out to him, he already had too many players. One night my dad said to pull up Saint Mary's (MD) fall schedule and see who they play. He assured me, 'you know you can play for Saint Mary's (MD), it just came down to numbers. Who does Saint Mary's (MD) play?' So, I scroll to the bottom and there was a scrimmage, St. Mary's (MD) had happened to play Greensboro, and it was the oddest thing ever. So, my dad said to click on them (Greensboro). Their record was good, and my dad said, 'just give it a shot, who knows what could happen?" And after that, Ashley's journey to Greensboro began.
Ashley reached out and sent her film to Greensboro College head coach, Mike Johnston, and Ashley says, "It might have been a day or two, where a lot of places took weeks until you heard back from them, and coach Mike emailed me back..." Ashley and Johnston began to discuss the possibility of McElwain coming to Greensboro. "He was very accepting of who I was, and it felt good to find a coach that I felt wanted. It was something that felt really good." Once she arrived on campus in early spring, Ashley describes her visit as "truthfully, I don't even have words, but it was the best experience ever. I thought I was someone who always wanted a big school...but as I went to Harford and times changed that wasn't something I was interested in anymore. So, seeing that it was a small school, the area around Greensboro is a very nice place, and it was a team that I felt wanted on." While on campus, Ashley was also able to begin a friendship with her new teammate, fellow junior, Claire Friedlander. "We hit it off and now we're rooming together in an apartment. It's just really cool how everything fell into place at the right time. It was so odd how it started, by searching random teams, and Greensboro just fell into place. It was an amazing experience once I found Greensboro and found the place where I wanted to be."
McElwain will be a business administration major with a minor in economics at Greensboro College. While she doesn't have specific plans yet after graduation, Ashley says further down the road she would like to continue her career and do something related to business, possibly involving culinary. She's also very excited to meet her new teammates when she gets on campus. "I am so excited to meet all of my teammates. Knowing I'll be playing with girls from all over the US, it's so surreal. I think it's so cool to now go somewhere else and meet all these new people that you would have never expected to meet." McElwain's Greensboro journey will be in full swing this August, and she will look to take advantage of this new and exciting opportunity to continue her education and soccer career as a member of the Greensboro College Women's Soccer team.
