By: Joey Mullins

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Today, we continue our series named the S-Club Profile, focusing on former student-athletes and giving updates on what they have been up to since finishing their Samford playing careers. In this month's edition, we highlight former soccer standout and later assistant coach Sharon Young Abney.
 
Abney came to Samford in 2003 from Powder Springs, Ga. Despite being recruited by some Power 5 programs, Abney said she just felt at home when she visited Samford.
 
"When I went on my official visit, I stayed with some of the soccer players and I got the vibe from them that they loved playing for Coach Yelton and that it was just a fun school," Abney said. "I guess I kind of clicked with some of the people on the team from the get-go and then they took me on campus and showed me around and it was just a beautiful campus. I just felt in my heart that this feels good. I had already been to South Carolina, which is a big school and I had gone on several visits, but something about Samford, just the girls on the team that hosted me were super nice and then walking around campus, I didn't feel like I was going to get swallowed up in this massive school. So, I liked the small feel of the school."
 
Over the next four years, Abney would help lead Samford to four-straight Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championships. She was named third team All-OVC as a freshman, first team as a sophomore, second team as a junior, and she earned Co-OVC Player of the Year honors following her senior season.
 
Also, in her junior campaign in 2005, Abney and the Bulldogs won the program's first OVC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament bid. The Bulldogs faced Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Nashville, with the game ending in a 1-1 tie, and Samford advanced to the second round after winning a penalty kick shootout, 5-4 over the Commodores. Samford fell to Pepperdine in the second round. Abney said that was a special experience for her and her teammates.
 
"It was surreal," Abney said. "I still can think back to that exact moment and that memory of winning the OVC. There was just an overwhelming feeling of all the fans there and making that huge accomplishment with the girls that I played with and all year, working toward that goal and accomplishing it together. And then going through to the second round, I think we were just excited to go to the first round and play after winning the OVC. Then to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, being at the time a small school that really wasn't on the radar for soccer, it was so exciting, and I can still remember that feeling and the memory of it."
 
Abney said her experience at Samford was a great one. She praised head coach Todd Yelton and the type of people he recruits to his program for the sustained success the program has experienced over the years.
 
"It was so much fun, and it was just a special place to be, not just at Samford, but on the soccer team," Abney said. "I think it still has that special feel to it just based on what I've talked about with Coach Yelton and the girls that he has that come to that program. He recruits good people into the program so that makes it a special and unique place."
 
After graduating from Samford in the spring of 2007, Abney went into coaching, spending a fall as a graduate assistant at Lee University, working under then head coach Matt Yelton, the brother of Samford's head coach. Young said she enjoyed her first experience in coaching.
 
"I was at Lee for pretty much their fall semester, and it was fun," Abney said. "I got to coach with Matt Yelton and really got to know his assistant, she's been there for a while. It was just fun to jump in and start coaching and learning from Matt."
 
Following that season, Abney returned to Samford as an assistant coach for a couple of seasons. Abney said she really enjoyed her time being back at her alma mater as a full-time coach.
 
"I really learned the most about assistant coaching when I left there and went back to Samford after that first semester at Lee and started coaching with Coach Yelton and his brother, Jay," Abney said. "I had played with some of the girls that were seniors, so it was interesting because you have to have boundaries of, we're friends, but now I'm coaching. It was great though, they respected me because they knew I knew what they were going through. I knew how they felt, carrying the load of classes and academics, and these high expectations of performing at your highest level in practices and in games, and competing. I loved it and I learned a lot from Jay and Coach Yelton in my time being there and coaching with them."
 
After a couple of years on the Samford coaching staff, Abney decided that while she enjoyed coaching, she felt called to do something else. She decided physical therapy was what she wanted to do for a career. She said Yelton was extremely supportive of her choice.
 
"I had been assistant coaching and Coach Yelton was like, hey, if you want to be a head coach, I think you would be great at it," Abney said. "But I really wanted to have a family and I know you can do it with coaching, but my heart and my passion were more in playing the sport and not necessarily going further with a career as being a head coach of a college team. So, at that point, I just had a really honest conversation with Coach Yelton, and he was super supportive and said, if you know that's what you want to do then I support you. So, he helped me transition and allowed me to take some credit hours when I told him I was probably going to leave the coaching world to take some prerequisite classes to get into PT school. He was awesome, he helped me get a job at Dawson Memorial Rec Center, working there during that transition time of trying to get into physical therapy school."
 
After graduating from physical therapy school at Mercer University's Atlanta campus, Abney worked for BenchMark, an outpatient orthopedic clinic in the Atlanta area. However, for the last four years, she has been working for Mobility Physical Therapy, focused on working with children. She talked about what she likes most about her current job.
 
"I do home health physical therapy for kids," Abney said. "So, I get to go in their home and meet the family and just kind of be on their level and see what they need help with, just their everyday needs in life. Some of the kids have developmental delays and all kinds of different things. I get to come in, hone in on the areas of weakness that they may have, and I also help the family and coach the parents on how to help their child learn how to walk and get caught up with big developmental milestones that they have. It's fun to watch them progress and then graduate from PT. I get to know the family a lot better going into their homes versus them coming into a clinic."
 
Abney's husband, Bo, is a basketball coach at Walton High School in Marietta, Ga. The couple has four daughters, Grace (8), Madison (6), Payton (4) and Evelyn (1). She said she works part-time now while also taking care of their four daughters.
 
This past season, Abney was able to bring her family to Samford for the dedication of Shauna Yelton Field, in memory of the late wife of head coach Todd Yelton, who passed away from cancer in 2015. Shauna also worked at Samford in the on-campus health clinic while Abney was in school. She said she was thrilled to be able to attend the event.
 
"I think it just meant a lot to be there for Coach Yelton and just to be there to support him," Abney said. "And I think now that I'm a coach's wife, I see, wow, she really did so much for the program just by being supportive of him. And then she worked there too. There were several times that I went to student health to go get fixed up. So, she was awesome."
 
The 2021 Samford soccer team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a thrilling 2-0 win at Auburn, marking the first time a Samford team advanced to the second round since Abney's junior season. She said, while she is not able to follow the team as much as she would like with her responsibilities as a mother, wife and physical therapist, she was excited to see the team do so well this season.
 
"My husband is all into following stats too," Abney said. "So, I'm kind of like over my head with the kids because they're all very little now, so I don't necessarily see all of the stats and so he'll follow it and say, 'hey, did you know this?' Then he would go and look and we kind of kept track of them towards the end of the season for sure just to see how much they kept advancing. That was very exciting to watch them continue to do well."
 
For more information on the S-Club, contact Hal Langston at hlangst1@samford.edu. For giving opportunities, please contact Maggie Folker at mrountr1@samford.edu.