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Former Mountaineer Silva Leads FOX Sports Digital’s World Cup Coverage in Qatar
January 16, 2023 01:39 PM | Women's Soccer, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Former West Virginia University standout women's soccer performer Frances Silva enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime experience covering the World Cup in Qatar last December.
Silva, now known as Frances Arthur, worked the month-long soccer championship for FOX Sports Digital as its Emmy award-winning Senior Producer who is based in Los Angeles.
Silva manages a team of about 10 content producers who collectively run all of FOX Sports' social platforms (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) for FOXSoccer, CFBonFOX, CBBonFOX, USFL and certain podcasts.
She also oversees FOX Sports' TikTok accounts.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Silva's post-collegiate success is not surprising, considering what she did as a standout player for coach Nikki Izzo-Brown's Mountaineers. She was named the NCAA's 2013 Senior Class Award Winner for her well-rounded efforts on the field, in the classroom and in the community.
On the field, the Overland Park, Kansas, Blue Valley North High product earned second team All-America honors in 2013 after scoring 15 goals, 13 assists and tallying 43 total points for the 16-4 Mountaineers, who won their first Big 12 championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for a fourth time in her four seasons at WVU.
"I have a ton of fond memories of playing for WVU for those four years," she said recently via email. "I'd say beating No. 1 Stanford will always stand out to me as one of the best moments. It also happened to be the day my now husband (Nick) and I recognized as the start of our relationship, so that's not too bad either."
Silva also was proud of West Virginia's dominant play in the Big 12, the Mountaineers winning seven of eight league matches including big triumphs over Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.
"My senior season, as a whole, was just good personally, and I felt like that was the year everything clicked and provided me the opportunity to get drafted and play professionally in the NSWL (National Women's Soccer League)," she noted.
In the classroom, Frances was a 3.97 student who graduated in three years with a degree in broadcast journalism. She was named to the President's List five times and the Dean's List once, and received the Dr. Gerald Lange award, which is the highest academic honor given by the Big 12 Conference.
Her community work included more than 118 service hours, elementary school appearances and numerous team fundraisers benefiting WVU Medicine's Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.
Following her collegiate career, she played three professional seasons for FC Kansas City, before the opportunity came about to pursue a career in journalism.
"Off the field, I was just looking for ways to set up my post-playing career, which I knew would be most important given the financial difficulties of being a female professional soccer player at that time," she recalled. "I was pretty clear that I wanted a job in media and once social media really started taking off, I narrowed that focus a bit more to wanting to have a career in that field."
Eventually, she hooked up with FOX Sports Digital.
"I started out doing a lot of the day-to-day on those accounts but as my team has grown, I've moved into a more strategic role where my team runs the day-to-day, with my guidance, while I take more of a big-picture perspective and focus on the biggest company priorities," she said.
Frances' first World Cup experience working for FOX Sports was in 2018, and she also covered the 2019 event with a much larger digital team.
During last December's World Cup, she assumed more of a managerial role for the network's 2022 social media coverage.
"Ahead of the tournament, there was a lot of prep work – content planning and just making sure my LA-based team had all of the resources and tools to be able to successfully cover the biggest sporting event in the world," she said. "During the tournament, I would do several check-ins with them and make sure the plan was being followed, as well as communicate any requests from other departments in our company as far as TV side, Sales, PR and Marketing."
She added, "I played a role in the social coverage and production of our Twitter Show, World Cup NOW, that streamed pre- and post-game for every single World Cup match. Additionally, since TikTok falls under my team, I worked with my TikTok specialist to make sure we created as much content in-country as possible."
As far as covering her third World Cup, Silva said it was once again another amazing personal experience.
"Being in Qatar for the World Cup was truly a dream come true," she said. "It's a ton of work both ahead of the tournament and during it, but there's just nothing like the World Cup. I also have traveled a lot of different places in my life so it was cool to experience a country I likely wouldn't have otherwise."
Her fondest memory was watching her all-time favorite player, Lionel Messi, win his first World Cup title.
"None of this would be possible without my team that was busting it back in LA," she admitted. "If they aren't as capable as they are, then I likely would have been with them leading that coverage and not had the opportunity to experience a World Cup in person.
"Also, a shout out to my husband and former WVU athletic department employee, Nick Arthur, for holding down the fort at home with our 18-month-old (son Lucas) while I was halfway across the world for 35 days," she concluded.
Olivia Sneed contributed to this story
Silva, now known as Frances Arthur, worked the month-long soccer championship for FOX Sports Digital as its Emmy award-winning Senior Producer who is based in Los Angeles.
Silva manages a team of about 10 content producers who collectively run all of FOX Sports' social platforms (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) for FOXSoccer, CFBonFOX, CBBonFOX, USFL and certain podcasts.
She also oversees FOX Sports' TikTok accounts.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Silva's post-collegiate success is not surprising, considering what she did as a standout player for coach Nikki Izzo-Brown's Mountaineers. She was named the NCAA's 2013 Senior Class Award Winner for her well-rounded efforts on the field, in the classroom and in the community.
On the field, the Overland Park, Kansas, Blue Valley North High product earned second team All-America honors in 2013 after scoring 15 goals, 13 assists and tallying 43 total points for the 16-4 Mountaineers, who won their first Big 12 championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for a fourth time in her four seasons at WVU.
"I have a ton of fond memories of playing for WVU for those four years," she said recently via email. "I'd say beating No. 1 Stanford will always stand out to me as one of the best moments. It also happened to be the day my now husband (Nick) and I recognized as the start of our relationship, so that's not too bad either."
Silva also was proud of West Virginia's dominant play in the Big 12, the Mountaineers winning seven of eight league matches including big triumphs over Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.
"My senior season, as a whole, was just good personally, and I felt like that was the year everything clicked and provided me the opportunity to get drafted and play professionally in the NSWL (National Women's Soccer League)," she noted.
In the classroom, Frances was a 3.97 student who graduated in three years with a degree in broadcast journalism. She was named to the President's List five times and the Dean's List once, and received the Dr. Gerald Lange award, which is the highest academic honor given by the Big 12 Conference.Her community work included more than 118 service hours, elementary school appearances and numerous team fundraisers benefiting WVU Medicine's Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.
Following her collegiate career, she played three professional seasons for FC Kansas City, before the opportunity came about to pursue a career in journalism.
"Off the field, I was just looking for ways to set up my post-playing career, which I knew would be most important given the financial difficulties of being a female professional soccer player at that time," she recalled. "I was pretty clear that I wanted a job in media and once social media really started taking off, I narrowed that focus a bit more to wanting to have a career in that field."
Eventually, she hooked up with FOX Sports Digital.
"I started out doing a lot of the day-to-day on those accounts but as my team has grown, I've moved into a more strategic role where my team runs the day-to-day, with my guidance, while I take more of a big-picture perspective and focus on the biggest company priorities," she said.
Frances' first World Cup experience working for FOX Sports was in 2018, and she also covered the 2019 event with a much larger digital team.
During last December's World Cup, she assumed more of a managerial role for the network's 2022 social media coverage.
"Ahead of the tournament, there was a lot of prep work – content planning and just making sure my LA-based team had all of the resources and tools to be able to successfully cover the biggest sporting event in the world," she said. "During the tournament, I would do several check-ins with them and make sure the plan was being followed, as well as communicate any requests from other departments in our company as far as TV side, Sales, PR and Marketing."
She added, "I played a role in the social coverage and production of our Twitter Show, World Cup NOW, that streamed pre- and post-game for every single World Cup match. Additionally, since TikTok falls under my team, I worked with my TikTok specialist to make sure we created as much content in-country as possible."
As far as covering her third World Cup, Silva said it was once again another amazing personal experience.
"Being in Qatar for the World Cup was truly a dream come true," she said. "It's a ton of work both ahead of the tournament and during it, but there's just nothing like the World Cup. I also have traveled a lot of different places in my life so it was cool to experience a country I likely wouldn't have otherwise."
Her fondest memory was watching her all-time favorite player, Lionel Messi, win his first World Cup title.
"None of this would be possible without my team that was busting it back in LA," she admitted. "If they aren't as capable as they are, then I likely would have been with them leading that coverage and not had the opportunity to experience a World Cup in person.
"Also, a shout out to my husband and former WVU athletic department employee, Nick Arthur, for holding down the fort at home with our 18-month-old (son Lucas) while I was halfway across the world for 35 days," she concluded.
Olivia Sneed contributed to this story
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