Asheville City Soccer Club is proud to announce Madhu Schmid, a member of the ABASA (Asheville Buncombe Adult Soccer Association) Board of Directors, as the second-ever recipient of the Meghann Burke WNC Soccer Pollinator Award. This award is named after Meghann Burke, co-owner of Asheville City SC and current Executive Director of the NWSL Players Association, and honors women in our community who exemplify the values of Western North Carolina while utilizing soccer to make a positive and lasting impact on the region.

Schmid did not get into soccer until later in life when her kids started playing it, but she quickly became woven into the fabric of soccer in Western Carolina. In 1995, Schmid moved to Asheville, and despite living in Europe for some time, had not discovered the beautiful game yet. In 2001, Schmid joined a clinic with over 40 other soccer moms about how to play soccer that was designed to show the parents how hard the game is and to not be so hard on their kids and she quickly fell in love with the game. Now, Schmid’s fingerprints are all over the Western NC adult soccer scene as she still hopes to bring the beautiful game to more people in the region.

“I just love the game, and I want to play and I want everyone else to play,” says Schmid. “So I just want to give everyone else the opportunity to play.”

In recent years, the adult soccer community has faced multiple obstacles. A worldwide pandemic in 2020 kept everyone socially distanced and stuck indoors while Hurricane Helene struck the region in 2024, damaging soccer fields, homes, and lots of other infrastructure in Western NC. Schmid has been around through it all, and believes in the power of soccer that helped bring a sense of “normalcy” to a region that so desperately needed it.

“It’s been challenging through the hurricane, through COVID, through all these hardships but we’ve persevered to make sure that we could bring soccer to the adult community,” says Schmid. “I think it gave people the feeling of getting back to normalcy. It gave them a place where they could see friends and get out there and forget life and troubles for a couple of hours and just play the beautiful game."

Through her work, Schmid has helped expand the game of soccer in WNC by helping provide places to play and setting up groups for all skills and age ranges. Not only has she given the already-existing soccer community more opportunities to play, she also has helped introduce so many people to join an ever-expanding community of those who enjoy the beautiful game.

“In Asheville, NC the name “Madhu” is synonymous with soccer. Whether it’s free local pickup, our ABASA women’s league, or the Asheville City Blues, Madhu is there and running things: cheering through a haze of blue smoke, distributing noise makers to little kids, making hats for fans and onesies for local soccer babies,” says Felice Bell, President of ABASA. “She is the heart of our community. Even a knee replacement couldn’t keep her down! We are lucky to have her, and our league wouldn’t be what it is today without Madhu.”

“Everyone has a ‘Madhu’ story where she helped arrange a field at the last moment for a pick up match, or she handmade holiday ornaments to distribute at a party, or she drove everyone to Charlotte for a big match, or one of the thousands of other times she sacrificed her time and money to make someone else’s soccer experience better. And the most amazing part is that she never sees it as a sacrifice - it’s just part of her own soccer journey - helping others. And people who use their experience to make others’ better - they deserve to be recognized and celebrated,” said Stacey Enos, co-owner of Asheville City SC and member of the inaugural US Women's National Team. 

Schmid will be honored at halftime of the women’s match on Saturday May 31, 2025 as your first place Asheville City Blues take on perennial division powerhouse Tennessee SC at Greenwood Field at 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased here.