Julie Johnston Ertz was moving on with her life. The soccer career she began as a youngster, that blossomed through four seasons at Santa Clara and led her to the World Cup and the Olympics, was over. She became a mother in August 2022 and her priorities understandably changed.
“I don’t think it’s easy to hang up something that you’ve done most in your life and something that brings you so much joy,” Ertz said. “Obviously, it was hard. But my new journey of motherhood brought me even more joy.”
Jerry Smith, her head coach at Santa Clara, was convinced Ertz had turned the page on her soccer days, and he was happy for her. “When Julie gave birth to little Madden, she retired from soccer, 100 percent,” he said. “Like, `I have no regrets, I’m not looking back, I’m so looking forward to being a mom and a wife. I’m done with soccer.’ ”
But the 2023 Women’s World Cup was approaching and then-U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski reached out to Ertz just months after childbirth. He needed a center-back. Would Ertz consider coming out of retirement for one last event?
Married to Stanford alum and Super Bowl-winning tight end Zach Ertz since 2017, she weighed the time away her husband and son before making a decision. She said yes, resumed training and embraced the unknown. “It’s no shock that your body changes,” Ertzsaid of the effect of her pregnancy. “There were so many challenges I saw so I didn’t know if it was a possibility.”
Ertz not only played at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, she excelled. She anchored a defense that allowed just two on-target shots and one goal in four games. Unfortunately, the USWNT struggled offensively and was knocked out by Sweden after penalty kicks in a scoreless draw in the round of 16.
“I definitely can walk away satisfied,” she said. “The hard thing in sports is you’re always thinking, what’s next? I stepped away with so much gratitude for my family and all those that got me there. I was able to step away with a lot of peace.”
Now 31, Ertz assembled a career that has earned her Santa Clara’s selection to the 2024 West Coast Conference Hall of Honor. She is the fifth player from the Broncos’ soccer program to get the nod, joining Brandi Chastain (2009), Leslie Osborne (2014), Aly Wagner (2020) and Danielle Slaton (2023).
Ertz's time with the U.S. National Team spanned 10 years, during which she helped her squad win two World Cup crowns and an Olympic bronze medal. She started all 122 games over that decade and was part of 100 wins, 17 draws and just five losses. Besides her role as a fierce defender, Ertz scored 20 goals against 15 different opponents.
“Obviously, I was honored,” Ertz said of her Hall of Honor selection. “I was kind of shocked because I felt like I was still recovering from my announcement of retiring. It was already an emotional time, saying bye to what I’ve done my entire life. It was kind of a cherry-on-top time for me.”
The new Hall of Honor inductees from all nine conference schools will be recognized on March 9 during an event at the Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championship in Las Vegas.
Ertz arrived at Santa Clara in 2010 and became an immediate star for the Broncos. She was WCC Freshman of the Year and second-team all-conference in her debut and wound up the WCC Player of the Year and a first-team All-America pick for the third straight season as a senior.
She totaled 31 goals, leading the Broncos in scoring as a sophomore and a senior, and played for teams that were 54-17-16 and competed in the NCAA Tournament all four years. Ertz was a three-time semifinalist for the prestigious MAC Hermann Trophy, awarded to the nation’s top college player.
She also proved herself to be a versatile player, which set her up for a long professional and international career. Primarily an offensive midfielder during her collegiate days, Ertz pretty much wound up playing wherever Smith needed her.
During her sophomore season, Smith moved Ertz to center-back to shore up the Broncos’ defense. "Julie was equally good at the college level as a forward, as a midfielder or as a back,” Smith said. “As it turned out her experience with us at center-back had a lot to do with her making her first U.S. team.”
That was in 2012, after her sophomore season, and Ertz initially attempted to earn a spot on the U20 national-team roster as a midfielder. Smith called the team’s coach to see how Ertz fared at the first camp and was told, “Outside looking in.” Smith was stunned. `Really? Julie? Gosh, she’s killing it for us,’ “ Smith said.
So, Smith suggested having Ertz play center-back during the next camp, and the result was dramatic. She made the roster, was voted a team captain, led the Americans to the U20 World Cup title and secured the Silver Ball award as the tournament’s second-best player.
Ertz said she appreciates how Smith pushed her to become adept at every position. “He always says embrace the opportunity and that would sum up my whole career,” she said. “Here I am as like a forward/midfielder and my only way to make the team is to be a center-back. Not that any offensive player wants to do that but just making me understand being a well-rounded soccer player in all aspects is a huge benefit. I realized that was my biggest strength.”
Ertz’s willingness to not only accept different roles but to embrace them is a rare trait, Smith said. “There’s different degrees of team-first. Julie takes it to another level,” Smith said. “It’s the thing she did better than anyone I’ve ever coached. . . . Nobody has a team-first attitude like Julie.”
Her professional career began in 2014, when Ertz was named Rookie of the Year while playing for the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League.
A year later, Ertz made her first senior World Cup team and she played every minute of every game in Canada, helping the USWNT capture its first title since 1999. She also was named to the 11-player All-FIFA team.
She played in the first of two Olympics at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, later helping the Americans win a bronze medal at the delayed 2021 Tokyo Games. In the meantime, Ertz was voted U.S. Female Soccer Player of the Year in both 2017 and ’19.
At the 2019 World Cup in France, Ertz played a defensive midfield role as the USWNT repeated as champions. Ertz was among four U.S. players, including Megan Rapinoe, named to the FIFA Technical Study Group’s lost of 10 players “who dared to shine.”
That’s perhaps as good a way as any to explain why Ertz was willing to make one last stand for the national team at the World Cup last summer, when she played every minute of four games. In doing so, she joined a growing legacy of women who have excelled in athletics after becoming mothers, including U.S. teammate Alex Morgan and tennis legends Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka.
“Honestly, it’s huge. Because of the way players before me have paved the way for making it more accessible and having the support to do that, I felt like I was just full of gratitude,” said Ertz, adding that so many people helped with her comeback.
“I was there early in my career with moms who didn’t have the support that I had. That was just from their fight to say, `Hey, a mom is only a superpower. It doesn’t hinder me.’ That was really the most beautiful time for me. My appreciation for being a woman, my appreciation for sports, for being a mom, allowed me to enjoy the journey way more.”
Among those most proud of Ertz is her old Santa Clara coach.
“Julie was just a rock star,” Smith said of her performance one year after giving birth. “I think she could do anything she sets her mind to. One of the things I try to explain to people about Julie is you think you’re tough, she’s tougher. You think you work hard, she works harder. You think you can multi-task, she can do it better.”