AUSTIN, Texas - University of Texas soccer coach Angela Kelly knows a thing or two about playing at the World Cup.
Canadian native Kelly started in all of Canada's games at the World Cup in Sweden in 1995.
Now Kelly leads a Longhorns team that has a talented roster including Lexi Missimo who was the number 1 ranked player in the country according to Top Drawer Soccer from 2018 to 2021.
There are also a number of Youth National Team stars on the pitch.
Just 11 NCAA athletes appeared for their home country in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. One of them, Julia Grosso, was a UT women's soccer star that not only secured a spot on the Canadian roster but clinched gold for her country for the first time in the sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Grosso's college coach was Kelly who also once wore the same colors representing Canada during the women's soccer boom.
University of Texas Longhorns women's soccer coach Angela Kelly.
Kelly's story starts at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where she played with some names you may have heard of: Mia Hamm, Tisha Venturini, and Kristine Lilly. All three were some of the stars of the U.S. Women's National Team.
"I'd go and train with Canada we'd go to the World Cup and I'd be playing against my roommates," Kelly says. "We'd be flying from Chapel Hill together to get to the World Cup in Sweden and then we'd meet each other on the field."
Her World Cup days behind her, Kelly is now producing young stars who can go and claim the opportunities for which she helped pave the way.
"If I could switch places with any of them now I'd do it in a heartbeat they're getting sponsorships which we've tried to challenge corporations to support the women's side as well," Kelly says.
Grosso is now a midfielder at Juventus in Italy who has built a brand for herself.
"Corporations are understanding they're not just attractive, they're articulate they're well educated and they're also extremely successful on the field," Kelly says.
You can catch all the FIFA Women's World Cup action on FOX 7 Austin and FOX Sports and you can watch the Longhorns on August 12 as they take on Texas A&M Corpus Christi on the UT campus.