JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Two former Carson-Newman women's soccer All-Americans have inked new professional contracts.
Helen Seed has signed with Burnley FC, an English women's soccer club, while Lauren Wade has signed with Heart of Midlothian, a Scottish women's soccer club.
Seed joined Blackburn Rovers in 2020 and recorded the club's most Player of the Match awards. After returning to England, a first professional contract came in May 2022, with the 28-year-old netting her first goal with a volley in the League Cup in October 2023.
In her career as an Eagle, Seed finished with the fourth-most minutes played in program history at 6,821. She started in 77 games for C-N which is third-best all-time. During the historic 2017 campaign, she tied a program record for single-season starts as she was part of the starting XI in 23 games that season, amassing a team-leading 2079 minutes. Throughout her four-year career in Mossy Creek, Seed saw a sleuth of individual honors bestowed upon her, including:
- 2017 D2CCA Second-Team All-America
- 2017 USC Third-Team All-America
- 2017 D2CCA First-team All-Region
- 2017 USC First-team All-Region
- 2017 CoSIDA Scholar First-team All-America
- 2017 SAC All-Tournament Team
- 2017 NCAA All-Tournament Team
- 2017 SAC First-Team
- 2016 All-SAC second-team
- 2016 SAC All-Tournament Team
Wade has previously played for Coleraine, Glentoran, Umea Ik, Glasgow City and most recently with Reading. The past two seasons, Wade has appeared in 49 games, scoring five goals.
The former 2017 South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year has played for Northern Ireland's national team since 2015, making 63 appearances with 12 goals scored.
Wade (Coleraine, Northern Ireland) finished her career at Carson-Newman with an abundance of records. She ranks first all-time in assists per game (.60), shots per game (6.20) and shots on goal per game (3.35).
Notably, she is third all-time in assists with 24 and goals with 38. She collected a point total of an even 100 in just two seasons. In 2017, her 81 shots on goal and seven game-winning goals pen her name at the top for single-season records.
Similar to Seed, Wade a plethora of honors come her way in two seasons:
- 2016/2017 SAC Player of the Year
- 2017 SAC Female Athlete of the Year
- 2016/2017 First-Team All-SAC
- 2016/2017 D2CCA Southeast Region Player of the Year (second-straight year, only player in program history to earn the award).
- 2016/2017 D2CCA First-team All-American
- 2016/2017 D2CCA First-team All-Southeast Region
- 2017 USC First-team All-American
- 2016 D2CCA First-team All-American
- 2016 NSCAA Second-team All-American
- 2017 USC First-team All-Southeast Region
- 2017 USC Scholar First-team All-America
- 2017 CoSIDA First-team Academic All-District
- 2017 CoSIDA Second-team Academic All-America
- 2017 SAC All-Tournament Team
- 2017 NCAA D2 Women's Soccer Championships Tournament Team
