Giovanna Dionicio, a graduate of West Hartford’s Hall High School, is now playing professional soccer in Ireland.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

The road to being a pro soccer player had plenty of twists and turns for Giovanna Dionicio.

It began in West Hartford, then to New Haven, up to Storrs, off to the Dominican Republic, and finally a home in Sligo, Ireland. The former Hall girls soccer standout is playing her first season of pro soccer for the Sligo Rovers, FC in the League of Ireland Women’s Premier Division. She also shares a place to live with former Sheehan High school goalie Emma Malone of Wallingford and former Cromwell High School and UConn soccer teammate Cara Jordan.

“An agent got a message from a coach we were training with here looking for players. Cara was able to go and I had to figure out visa and then I came over in July,” said Dionicio.

Before graduating from Hall in 2019, Dionicio was a three-time All-Conference selection, and in her senior year she was named All-State. She served as a Hall captain for two seasons, including her junior year where she was the first junior to be a girls soccer captain. She also ran track at Hall – earning an individual title in the outdoor season.

“Hall soccer was really big for me and so was track. The coaches I had were very supportive of me as a student and as athlete and that shaped me to be ready for life. Coach Ferg, [Hall girls soccer coach Scott Ferguson] was supportive and always kept pushing me to reach for the stars,” said the now 24-year-old.

For her undergraduate degree and college soccer she became a Yale Bulldog and somewhere along the way picked up the nickname  “Gio.” She was among the high school and college athletes who lost a season to COVID in 2020, but was on the pitch for Yale in her other three years.

“I don’t think it was until I was in college did I realize I would want to play professionally,” she said. It was also at Yale where she said a change in position made her a better and more versatile player. “The biggest thing for me was changing from center back to outside back at Yale. I had to adjust quickly to that and adjust to the speed of play and physicality. Trying to get used to a new position was a lot but having that versatility has helped me now,” Dionicio said.

What also helped fuel the dream was getting the nod to play internationally when she was called up by the Dominican Republic U20 team for an Under 20-World Cup Qualifier after her freshman season at Yale. Both of her parents are Dominican. “When I got called up to the national team I saw this was something I could really do and I thought this is something I would like to try to do after I graduate.”

She finished up her degree in biomedical engineering in 2023 and moved onto UConn to get a master’s in the same field. Because she had lost one season to COVID, she still had a year of NCAA eligibility and that allowed her to play for the Huskies that fall. Balancing the two degrees along with being a fulltime D1 athlete consumed most of her time, but also helped her manage her time.

“Having the athlete schedule helped keep me organized as a student. I knew when I had time to get my work done around sports,” she said. “There was also a lot of time to walk through projects at Yale and UConn too, and I always took advantage of that.” She called having time on the soccer pitch after a tough day in school a chance to – quote – “flush my brain.”

After UConn she kept training and working connections trying to land that coveted spot on a foreign club. She also had time to do some other things. “I was waiting for windows to go play internationally and I had a lot of time with the national team. But I was also around the house doing my tasks here.”

She played for the senior Dominican Republic National side in 10 matches in 2025 and 2026, scoring one goal from her defensive spot. “It’s a really good feeling to represent your country. There is a lot of pride and I felt really connected. Some of the senior games have been played in my mom and my dad’s hometowns and to be there and represent them makes me proud to do so.”

All the hard work paid off this summer when she got the call to pack her bags and travel the nearly 3,000 miles from WeHa to Sligo to finally make her dream of playing professionally a reality. “The pro journey has taken a couple of years of working hard in the background. Getting here [Sligo] and stepping on the field and getting messages from friends and family made it feel like I was doing the right things and it was really worth it. Seeing my parents and friends screaming for me and being excited and everyone being so happy that makes it really worth it that people are always rooting for me,” said Dionicio.

She describes Sligo – a coastal seaport town with a population of 20,000 – as someplace that is a lot like West Hartford, minus the Whole Foods she joked. It also boasts a men’s professional team in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Nicknamed “The Bit o’ Red,” the men’s club has won three League of Ireland Premier Division championships, with the last coming in 2012. The women’s side was formed in 2021 and shares the facilities and grounds of a stadium dubbed ‘The Showgrounds.”

“The stadium is awesome and we have good facilities. The stadium is beautiful, and it sounds really loud in the stadium.” One of the other things “Gio” loves about playing in Sligo is the community support and the opportunity to spend time with young girls who have the same dream she carried. “I love seeing kids get excited about watching women’s soccer and little kids wanting to see you and get your autograph, and to see them excited to think they can play at that level, too.”

She will finish up the season in the fall and then return to Connecticut. She is hoping that Sligo is just the first step on a longer journey in professional soccer. “I want to play in Spain – that would be a dream come true to play in their top division and then maybe come back and play in the States and end it there,” she said. She has not forgotten about those biomedical engineering degrees she earned. “I’ve decided I want to get a PhD after I finish playing. I really want to do research and from there to work in a lab or on medical devices or in the stem cell area.”

As for that long road from the fields of West Hartford to The Showgrounds in Sligo, Dionicio said that she has no regrets. “Seeing my parents and friends screaming for me and being excited and everyone being so happy that, makes it really worth it that people are always rooting for me.”

And if she could go back in time, what would she tell a younger Giovanna? “It takes a lot of individual work to get better and it is not always easy. Some of the things you will miss to play and train will be worth it.”

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