The first thing you notice is that Skate isn’t used to being on this side of the camera. As the head of Atlanta United’s marketing and fan engagement, she’s used to telling stories – just not her own. She’s not one for the spotlight; in club photos she always seems to find a way to slip just outside of frame. But she starts to warm up when she thinks back to when she first fell in love with the beautiful game.
“I had a blue uniform on, I was at the YMCA,” she says. “I remember seeing the grass, the ball and not worrying about anything else in the world.”
She was born as Sarah Kate Noftsinger, but if you know her, you know her as “Skate.” Long before Atlanta United brought her to the front office of a professional team, her love was born on those youth soccer fields. And like so many others, what she learned between the lines went well beyond her skill on the ball.
“I was never the tallest, the strongest, the fastest or the best so I had to work extra hard,” she says. “And I think the skills I learned then transcended into my professional career. There’s working as a team and trusting people around you, but also individually it’s a grittiness of always finding a way. You figure out how to do something, work hard and become great at it.”
And she did become great, with soccer taking her to Wake Forest and on to the New York Power in the third round of the 2002 WUSA draft. After a short stay there, she moved to the Washington Freedom and thrived – and says it was a turning point not just in her career, but her life.
“I walk into the locker room and I’m surrounded by people like Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach. I believe some people are born great but it takes work to be the greatest, and Mia instilled that in me. She made me believe in myself on and off the field. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for her and all the other women in those locker rooms because they not only opened the doors, they instilled a work ethic in us that you can never take for granted.”
But sports are fickle, and careers in it can take sudden, unexpected detours. In 2006, four years after the draft, a broken neck put Skate on the sidelines for good. To lose the one thing you love to do most in such an abrupt way was something Skate calls one of the biggest challenges of her life.
“I had a choice to make. We have many chapters in our lives and I could either draw this one out or I can close it, move on and not look back. I’ll never forget what it taught me and what it gave me, but I had to move on. So I did.”
She says she swore off ever working in soccer again, moving into venture capital then non-profit work. But you can travel the world and never get far from the beautiful game. She was doing community work in South Africa when she re-found her love of the game – only this time, more for its effect off the field than on it.
“It was in South Africa that I realized the power of the sport to unite communities like nothing else in this world can. I believe there are three things that bring people together best: music, art and sports. Soccer just has a power that transcends cultural barriers.”
So when she heard of an opportunity to help with a complete overhaul of the female youth soccer system in America, she says it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. At that time, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy was still in its infancy, with funding going almost entirely to the boys’ side. The group charged with building a new foundation for youth female soccer in America would come to be known as the Elite Clubs National League, or the ECNL.
“We got the right people together in the room at the same time, and we ended up building the most recognizable female youth sports brand in the country,” she says. “There was a business side of it, trying to create more opportunities, but if you want to be the best and develop the best players in the world, they need to play together every day. So that was the platform we created, but it turned into a brand younger girls could be inspired by, which in a way I hope had the biggest impact.”
The ECNL would grow from 20 clubs to 90, with about 12,000 athletes and 90% of them earning college scholarships in soccer. It was an achievement on both the business and technical sides, and it would’ve been easy for Skate to stay. But there was a new project brewing in Atlanta, an MLS expansion side. And while there were plenty of doubters who said soccer would never work in a “bad sports city” – a colleague called the move “career suicide” – she saw an opportunity.
“In Atlanta I think we saw hunger,” she says. “We saw passion. Atlanta was just so ready for a forward-thinking club that truly stood for something. That’s where Atlanta United came in. We just built something with a purpose.”
The story from there has been told countless times, from the electric highs on the fields to the record-breaking support off of it. Skate has won awards for her work, just like the club has. But the accolades aren’t when she feels the most pride. She says she’s fortunate to feel that every matchday.
“I’m really proud of looking up into the stands and seeing every walk of life standing next to each other and truly believing in something greater than themselves,” she says. “It’s even cooler when you see that outside the stadium, out around Atlanta. You see it’s not just a sports team, it’s a symbol of the city.”
And while the club moves forward every day, there has been no greater culmination of that so far as when thousands of people lined the streets of Atlanta to celebrate the city’s first major championship in decades. To anyone there, it was a moment that meant so much more than any play on the field.
“It reignited a city that has so often come up just short,” she says. “It’s been a long time since they’ve tasted victory, and this gives them something to hold onto. It was a significant moment not just for soccer fans but for everyone to just be proud of where you’re from. And just as importantly, it will always provide that point of inspiration that it can be done again.”
It’s a culmination of a life so far dedicated to growing the game at every level. She helped pave a path for young girls like herself to compete at the highest level. She’s experienced the life of a pro. Now, through Atlanta United she can inspire those girls – and everyone else in Atlanta – to fall in love with the beautiful game just like she did.
“Atlanta United taught me people are hungry to unite around something that has purpose. Being able to play a small part in helping people transcend the troubles of everyday life, I’m not sure there’s anything more fulfilling than that.”
© 2026 Atlanta United FC
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