Scholar Stories: McNamara Giving Back Through Academics, Community Engagement
2/26/2025 10:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each week MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Absopure.
By Mya Fromwiller
A fifth-year athlete on the University of Michigan women's track and field team and a Master's student studying business analytics, Clare McNamara first discovered her career path through a club soccer event in high school that utilized data to improve athletic performance. In high school, she played three sports, including soccer, and during practice, her team would utilize a sports performance analytics platform to collect data and provide insights for each player.
"Our soccer team used Catapult, and we got pods that hooked up to game film," McNamara said. "Then we got all of our numbers on max speed, total mileage and all of that, and then it aggregated the data. We went into a classroom and looked it over, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever."
Although she always liked numbers and quantitative analysis, this demonstration of the real-world applications of data analytics sparked an interest that she carried into her time in college. As a result, she earned a Bachelor's degree in information analysis through the School of Information, where she learned various programming languages, such as Python, and gained the tools needed to solve problems using data.
"There were a lot of programming classes which I had never done before, but I've always been a numbers person, so it was cool seeing how data can be used in the real world," McNamara said.
This degree also allowed her to gain hands-on experience in data analysis and better understand what a career in this field could look like. During her senior year, she used energy data to improve efficiency at DTE Energy as part of a capstone project to earn her degree.
"I did my capstone project with DTE," she said. "We got a lot of their energy data and were figuring out how much energy they use and how they can optimize that. It was a really good project to work on because I got to see the real-world application of what I had learned."
After completing her Bachelor's degree, McNamara decided to pursue a graduate degree to advance her understanding of the subject. She ultimately decided on the one-year Master's in Business Analytics program through the Ross School of Business, a 10-month program with an action-based curriculum. In this program, she has been able to build on undergraduate courses and learn more about data visualization through the teaching of platforms such as Tableau.
"It's really important to see the numbers and work with them, but it's also important to be able to visualize it and show it in a way that people that don't have a data background can understand," she said.
As a Ross student, McNamara is contributing to a family legacy started by her siblings -- her older sister, Gina, who is seven years older and was a captain of the U-M track and field team, and her brother, Ryan, who is two years older and graduated from Ross as well. Once she graduates from Ross, Clare will be moving to Washington, D.C., as a data analyst for a government contractor. However, this is not her first time performing data analytics for a government role.
When she was growing up, her dad was extremely involved in local government through the city council, mentoring programs and other public positions. After years of extensive community engagement, her dad decided to run for a local judicial position. But to get on the ballot, he needed a certain number of signatures, so to help him with this McNamara used her experience in data analytics to discover the most effective way to get the signatures needed. She ultimately decided to use census data from past elections to aggregate in-person voter turnout for each precinct to maximize efficiency.
"I aggregated the data based on in-person voters, and we found the precincts with the most in-person voter turnout because we had to go to the polls since you have to get a certain number of signatures on the ballot," she said. "Then we went to those precincts, and a bunch of people showed up. We were able to get all the signatures we needed in one day, so that was really cool."
As she approaches graduation and prepares to finish her final semester at Michigan, McNamara also prepares to finish her final season as a track and field athlete. She began competing when she was in middle school, looking for another sport to participate in while following in the footsteps of her older sister. She initially favored the high jump but unexpectedly broke the long jump record at her middle school, which garnered attention from high school coaches. McNamara continued to run track throughout high school, in addition to playing volleyball and soccer, but ultimately decided to run track at the collegiate level after successfully navigating the recruiting process.
Although she had multiple Division I offers, she chose Michigan because she could compete in the heptathlon -- an opportunity that appealed to her after years of cross-training. Five years later, she proved she could excel in the heptathlon at the collegiate level, scoring eighth at the Big Ten Championships in two seasons. She also has experienced success at the team level as a member of the 2023 Big Ten Women's Track and Field Championships-winning Wolverines squad.
"It was really cool being a part of a team that won a championship, especially because it was decided by a couple of points," said McNamara. "One of my close friends and I had a piece of paper where we were keeping track of every single event and all the points we were getting. We were doing the calculations on the sheet, and were like 'That's it. No teams can come back, no matter what happens.'"
Aside from her studies and time on the track, McNamara is extremely passionate about coaching and giving back to other athletes. For the past four years, she has coached track at her former high school in her hometown of Northville, Mich., driving there after practice to ensure that the students receive the same support she did at their age. She also coaches track athletes through Adaptive Sports at Michigan after a high school friend connected her with the program.
"I ended up reaching out to her, and I went to one of the events this fall," she said. "And it was super cool, so I asked her how I could get more involved. This was an opportunity to coach as well as get involved with the Michigan community, which has been really cool. One of the athletes that I coach just broke the American record for indoor shot put for his classification!"
Aside from these coaching opportunities, McNamara also participates in a program called The SunBundle, which cleans, upcycles and donates sporting gear from the Ann Arbor community to students in need. One of her teammates started the program two years ago and ever since has been a dedicated member, seeing the impacts that proper equipment can make in the lives and careers of the athletes she coaches.
"I was coaching some athletes where they didn't have the right spikes," McNamara said. "It worked out that one of the guys I was coaching wore the same size as me, so I gave him my high jump spikes from the previous year. The next meet he set a personal best, and he told me, 'These spikes are great. I think that's why I'm jumping so much higher.' They were literally just sitting in my locker, so I was glad they could be put to use."
Over the past two years, McNamara and the others in the organization have sent bundles of track equipment, including spikes, running shoes and clothing, to various schools across the country, providing resources to athletes of all ages. Through her involvement with this organization and her coaching opportunities, Clare has given back immensely to the track and field community, providing others with the support that allowed her to reach success in the sport.
Whether through her experience as a student-athlete or professional interests, McNamara continuously uses her time to impact the lives of those around her. Although her time at Michigan is nearly over, this is a passion she will carry with her as she moves to Washington, D.C., to begin the next chapter of her life.
Players Mentioned
