Julia Schmidberger Finds Success Bouncing Around New York City

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After graduating from Somers, Julia Schmidberger chose the College of Staten Island. Acclaimed academically, the college had the biochemistry major busy on both football fields of play.  Only 50% successful, though, the return still went a very long way.

“It didn’t go great,” she said of the soccer part. Conversely, her gridiron game yielded a scholarship to Manhattan University, where the 2025 Somers grad will play wide receiver.

Even so, soccer season was far from a wash out.  “I met some really good people and had a great time,” she assured.

Only getting in one contest didn’t knock the goalie off her overall game either.  A mindset instilled by my parents, said the future Jasper, “You can always try to be better than what’s assumed of you.”

So giving 110% and putting in extra work before and after practice came second nature. “In the spring, I played well and probably would have continued to play in our conference games in the fall,” Schmidberger reasoned.

Flag Football obviously intervened, though. Schmidberger played club in the fall and doing well gave her an inside track. Her future Manhattan coach was the Staten Island club coach, and after taking the job with the Jaspers, his knowledge forced a response. “He was like, I want you to come to Manhattan,” she revealed.

As for the spring flag football season, Staten Island ended on a pretty high note. Despite only landing the seventh of eight seeds, they beat Rutgers in the second round. “Back and forth, Rutgers has a lot of nationally ranked girls,” said Schmidberger.

Losing in the next round, the destination was as good as the journey. “I have no regrets,” said Schmidberger.

The same goes for the road traveled on the gridiron. She started at center, expanded to middle linebacker and ended up at wide receiver. “My coach then changed my recruitment profile,” she said, and Manhattan will have her sure hands in the air.

Of course, the Tusker also went to school, and the educational dive was a double down. Inside the University of Staten Island, the scholar was accepted into the Macaulay Honors College. “All the students there have a home campus, and mine was CSI,” she explained. “It’s pretty selective, I think the acceptance rate my year was 7%, and it’s a liberal arts-based program to create the next leaders of NYC.” 

A 4.0 made a pretty good case. The student didn’t just ride in the ferry as a blank slate, though. “There’s definitely high academic standards at Somers, and it prepared me for college,” she clarified.

So the curriculum proved pretty manageable, but there was one course of study that threw her a curve. “It took some adjustment for the seminar courses I took at Macaulay,” said Schmidberger, who hopes to someday be a doctor of Osteopathic medicine.

Philosophy in this case, she set off in NYC to get introspective about immigration and the arts in the metropolis. “They sent us to Broadway, they sent us to the ballet and to the opera,” she recalled.

A thought provoking exercise, the idea was to make an argument for each point of view. “The course taught me a lot about how to present myself in front of an audience,” said the young philosopher. 

Another A, she made the grade on the social scene too. But Schmidberger made it there in her own way.  “I went to one party, and that was it,” she joked.

Instead, her entourage made the bounce their main thing.  “We just decided we’re going to have our own fun,” said Schmidberger. “So we did a lot of cafe hopping.”

Off to Manhattan in a few weeks, mostly free college has her remembering one key figure. Aside from getting flag football off the ground in Somers and convincing Schmidberger to play the sport, Katie DiChiaro was the perfect coach, according to the alum.  “There were times as captain and as a player where I really struggled. She always knew how to uplift us,” she said.

Not just herself, Schmidberger expressed the big picture. “There always needs to be somebody like that in the world,” said Schmidberger. “What if this girl can be the next Simone Biles, and they just need a little support.”

This young NYC woman proves the point. “I owe it all to her,” she concluded.

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