The Penn Stater Magazine

Former Penn State soccer star Joanna Lohman ’04 Bus, who has continued her playing career in the Women’s Professional Soccer league and for other teams abroad, is moving beyond the playing field. And she’s hoping to move beyond soccer—to the NFL.

Joanna Lohman poses with the rest of the Washington Freedom braintrust.

This week, she was named general manager of the Freedom Futures, the developmental squad for the WPS’s Washington, D.C., franchise, the Freedom. And she told The Washington Post in this story that she’s got her eye on a bigger long-term goal: GM of the Washington Redskins—who, let’s face it, could use some help at 3-8.

Lohman is a native of the D.C. area and proud owner of a LaVar Arrington ’00 H&HD Redskins jersey, but she says those aren’t her only credentials. She told the Post, “Being around Joe Paterno at Penn State, his teams have always been blue collar. We don’t have names on the back of our jerseys; it’s always about the team before the individual. I think the Redskins could benefit from that type of outlook a little more.”

Hard to fault that logic. And great to see more women making inroads in professional sports management.

Lori Shontz, senior editor