California leads the way for the 2019 US women’s soccer national team that will try to win the World Cup this month in France with five former high school players on the roster. Georgia is second with three. Two of the five from California are from Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton.
We’re not sure if a state’s origin is that important for anyone in any sport, but on the recent cover of Sports Illustrated distributed in the West that featured USA women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe, look closely and it’s easy to see a tatoo of the Golden State on her right arm.
Rapinoe hails from Foothill High in Palo Cedro, located in the CIF Northern Section and from a community just outside Redding. She is the veteran leader of the 2019 US team, which starts its quest for the 2019 World Cup with a match on Tuesday of this week vs. Thailand.
But Rapinoe is not the only US women’s soccer team member from California. Perhaps even more well known than her is Diamond Bar grad Alex Morgan, who is one of the top international players for the US team over the past decade. There’s also Chadwick of Palos Verdes Estates’ grad Christen Press.
Ane we also have the rarity of having two players on the U.S. roster from the same California high school. We know how rare it is to have two in the same Super Bowl (with 100 players on the two rosters) so for one school to have two on a 23-player US national team is even more unique.
The two are Abby Dahlkemper and Tierna Davidson, who both come from Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton. SHP is a small school in the CIF Central Coast Section, but there are a few teams that the Gators have had over the years in various sports that have competed as the highest levels of competition. Dahlkemper and Davidson were never teammates because Abby is five years older. She led the Gators to their first CCS title in 2009 during her sophomore season and by the time she was a senior she was the Gatorade State Player of the Year. Davidson is a 2016 graduate of the school and during her career there the Gators won CCS titles twice. She missed most of the 2018 college season at Stanford with an injury, but is regarded as one of the top young female defensive players in the world.
We don’t know if the World Cup for women’s soccer this year will provide an iconic moment like Archbishop Mitty’s Brandi Chastain winning it all with a shootout goal in overtime, but there should be several of the California players right in the middle of all of the action.
