When Claire Mensi has the ball on the pitch, you relax, because you know she has the situation handled. The way she moves on the field—confident, assured, elegant—translates to how she appears off the soccer field. Standing outside the Conte media room, Mensi doesn’t appear phased by the door being locked, just makes small talk until it opens up and the interview can start. She’s the cool girl in every film, she’s the mentor who radiates warmth and steals the show, she’s BC women’s soccer’s sole captain.
But Mensi wasn’t always an Eagle – the defender started her career playing for Bucknell in the Patriot League. Playing out her final two years at BC is something that “was a no-brainer” once head coach Jason Lowe asked if Mensi would play at BC. The defender had always wanted to play for the Eagles, but knew there “were some big-time names, like Michela Agresti” in front of her, and so, she ended up playing her undergrad years at Bucknell in the Patriot League. Upon entering the portal and touring BC, “within 15 minutes, I looked back at my mom and said ‘I have to come here.’” Mensi is “thrilled” to be at BC, finishing out her soccer career as the Eagles’ captain.
The name drop of Agresti becomes a trend—Mensi is quick to name a player in order to praise something about them. She praises Ali Russo, her former teammate at Bucknell, when asked for someone she models her leadership after. Russo was Mensi’s captain during the defender’s first two years at Bucknell and was “an absolute workhorse.” In addition to “doing anything and everything for the team,” Mensi, now a captain herself, can recognize all the work she did behind the scenes in going to meetings and reviewing game plans. More than all the technical things Russo did, “she was at my door, trying to help me” both times Mensi tore her ACL. The two still keep in touch—another theme that weaves its way through Mensi’s interview.
Mensi notes “a lot of people on this team have been put in positions that are not necessarily their home base.” She praises Sophia Lowenberg for playing “probably four or five positions this year.” Lowenberg is an example of “coming up in really big moments” and working hard in all the different positions that the sophomore has been asked to play.
Recognizing how difficult playing in a different position is (Mensi has played both center back and center forward), the captain admits “I love celebrating with the bench.” She points out with a smile, “I was on there for probably half the season,” but there’s steel in her voice as she adds, “these people [on the bench] do so much work for us that doesn’t always get seen on the field.” Mensi acknowledges the work the players do at practice and in keeping up the energy on the sideline, too, highlighting that not only have players played different positions, but there are also different roles within the team.
It’s that recognition of the work individuals do behind the scenes, as well as her commitment to fostering deep relationships with each individual on the team, that sets Mensi apart as captain. Head Coach Jason Lowe acknowledged this when asked how to describe Mensi’s leadership. He wrote about how the captain “roots” her “leadership style in forming deep connections with each one of her teammates.” More than that, “she takes the time on the front end to understand what makes everyone tick.”
Her commitment to understanding how 28 different people tick is the reason that Lowe called a 6:30am team meeting in the spring. Calling the seniors in first, Lowe explained the leadership structure for the upcoming year and Mensi’s picture flashed across the screen. Admittedly, “I was a little shocked at first that it was just me,” and in the same breath she talks about “how much the others also deserve it.”
The decision to elect Mensi captain came out of a process that took place across the spring. All five rising seniors, (well, “senior-esque” Mensi chuckles, since she’s a grad student, “senior, part three, probably,”) were on a leadership council in addition to two juniors and a rising sophomore. The eight players and the coaching staff met and shared their perspectives and how they would approach certain situations in weekly structured meetings that followed a theme. That council culminated in a form being sent out to the team where “you got to write down three people’s names” while giving reasons for being captain and what that person needed to work on.
The other four seniors make up a leadership council that supports Mensi, with each senior having a particular role. The team has specialized leadership for energy, soccer team tactics, fitness, equipment, and connections; Mensi says this “completely helps me with my job [as captain].” This structure presented as a relief for Mensi, who had “only been here for less than a year” when she was named captain. Returning to praising her teammates, Mensi adamantly declares “I call them captains because they are to me.”
Being captain means “putting yourself in a backseat roll and making sure you do anything and everything for the team.” Leadership involves all the little, unspoken jobs like cleaning up the locker room, organizing travel plans, and choosing the pregame meal (Mensi notes that having Eagles Deli for a pregame meal is something she’s proud of, since it made her teammates happy). It also involves “sending texts the night before,” she tacks on some self-deprecating humor, “I’m sure I send them very lengthy, annoying texts.”
But doing all those little jobs means not letting the fact that her teammates are people first get lost in translation. Mensi is candid when she talks about “wanting to make sure that everybody has what they need and to be there in all facets of life.” Knowing that being an athlete can become all consuming, especially in season, Mensi points out that sometimes “it’s a shock” when she remembers personal details like “a test they had or that it was their sibling’s birthday.” Being there as both a leader and a friend allows the players to feel comfortable coming up to Mensi and admitting they’re having a bad day.
Mensi spends most of the interview talking about things she could improve on, though she does admit one of her strengths is organizing—there are lists about everything, typed, not handwritten, though there are sticky notes in her locker. She also admits to caring too much, one of the hallmarks of her interview and her captainship. “It’s hard to factor 28 opinions into anything,” she admits when talking about how caring too much sometimes impacts her ability to lead effectively.
Mensi acknowledges that one of the hard parts of the job is putting her foot down and making decisions, knowing not everyone is going to be happy. This is another one of those moments where Mensi leans on her teammates, especially the seniors. The captain points out “there’s a lot of emotion when we’re playing and I think a lot of it’s out of care.” In her straightforward answers about both her strengths and weaknesses, you get the sense that Mensi is happy where she is but is always striving to make the experience better for someone else. She’ll admit to caring too much, but that care is instrumental in how Mensi leads the team and blends 28 personalities into a cohesive unit.
With the end of the season fast approaching, Mensi is focused on ensuring a positive environment for the team, regardless of the record. She sighs before answering a question about balancing results with a good experience. “It’s definitely tough,” she admits, “we’ve only won three games this year.” Quickly she adds on, “We’ve had great ties. And the wins…I’m proud of all of our wins, and I wish we had more.” But those losses make it hard to keep the positive environment going.
The focus has been “leaving the past in the past.” It’s a tough balance of not allowing the past to ruin any momentum gained, but also not looking forward to the big-time names on the schedule and missing the opponents in front of them. Mensi admits, “it’s hard. I’ve struggled with that.” But those are the moments when Mensi leans into her fellow leadership council to focus on “creating an environment that people want to be a part of every single day.”
For Mensi herself, when those moments get overwhelming, the important thing is “taking my time alone.” She “puts pressure on” making plans and seeing people and has been trying to “not say yes to so many things in advance.” She goes back to talking about her relationships, mentioning that she “doesn’t always call a parent or a friend,” but then quickly notes, “I mean my family is so supportive.” Mensi also looks for a teammate’s perspective by talking to Jenna Hall. “We talk every single day,” Mensi smiles, noting how nice it is to talk to someone who knows the daily grind of being a student athlete, but isn’t in the BC locker room.
Leaving BC better than when she got there “is super important” to Mensi because she wants both her team at Bucknell and her BC team to have something to “keep building on.” Mensi “[hopes] we didn’t leave any negatives” about her time as captain, wanting the experience to have been a positive for each individual on the team. At the tail end of the interview, Mensi circles back to the question about legacy. The captain “wants people walking away from this team feeling fulfilled and feeling so loved by everyone.”
There is genuine fondness in Mensi’s voice as she talks about how she wants those who still have time at BC to “still be so wide-eyed” and “still welcome every experience BC has to offer.” The advice comes from Mensi’s own experience ending up at BC, an “experience [that] was supposed to happen,” despite the graduate student not expecting “to have another college experience.”
With a smile in her voice, Mensi adds that she hopes once she leaves, the BC team will continue to rely on her. Players from Bucknell still text her, speaking to the deep relationships Mensi forms wherever she goes. Mentioning that her Bucknell coach called her after the South Carolina game, Mensi notes how important having people who “care so much about you and your success,” is in life. She hopes “to be that person for them, far after this time here.”
Though the soccer season wraps up at the end of October, Mensi, armed with her ability to forge deep connections whenever she goes, a willingness to thank every person around her, and refusal to care less than 100%, will still find a way to be a leader, no matter what the future holds for her. Coach Lowe wrote of Mensi “If you see Claire on campus she’s either leading something or preparing to lead something. That’s her DNA.”
For now, though, she’s changing the culture of BC’s women’s soccer.
Thank you, Claire, for your time, engaging answers, and vulnerability.
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