Kate Sobrero-Markgraf

Kate Sobrero-Markgraf was a soccer (football) defender who earned 201 international caps during her time with the US National Team from 1998-2010. This included winning Olympic gold medals in 2004 and 2008 and a silver in 2000. She added three medals at the FIFA Women’s World Cup with gold in 1999 and bronze medals in 2003 and 2007.

Sobrero-Markgraf played at Notre Dame, graduating in 1997 with a science-business degree. She then played professionally, starting with the Boston Breakers in the WUSA in 2001-03. She later played in the US with the Michigan Hawks (2006-09) and Chicago Red Stars (2010). In 2015 she played with KIF Örebro DFF in Sweden.

After leaving the pitch Sobrero-Markgraf worked as a color commentator on soccer matches for NBC, ESPN, and Fox Sports. She earned a master’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. She also did some coaching, as a volunteer assistant for Marquette University in 2009.

As Kate Markgraf she been involved in international diplomacy through soccer, traveling to Ethiopia, Somalia, Chile, and Peru on behalf of the United States Department of State and US Soccer. At her alma mater, Sobrero-Markgraf was named President of the Monogram Club for Notre Dame in 2022, after serving on the Monogram Club Board since 2009. She was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.