Two born-and-raised Calgarians will play for Calgary's new women's pro soccer team

Calgary natives Sarah Keilty-Dilling and Grace Stordy will lace up for Calgary Wild FC's 2025 inaugural season in the newly formed Northern Super League.

The new women's professional soccer team made the announcement on Wednesday. 

Keilty-Dilling and Stordy's addition brings the total number of players on the roster to four, joining Meikayla Moore and Farkhunda Muhtaj.

Goalkeeper Keilty-Dilling told reporters at a media availability it is a childhood dream come true to be able to play for her hometown.

"How do you actually put that into words, like the emotions and the feelings that it gives you? But yeah, it honestly means everything to me to sign with Calgary Wild," Keilty-Dilling said.

The 31-year-old says the reality of the situation hasn't fully set in for her yet, because when she was growing up there were no professional women's soccer leagues in Canada for her to aspire to play in.

"To have that dream now being an actual tangible thing that young girls in Calgary can really dream of ... is so special and so amazing," she said.

Keilty-Dilling, who grew up in the southwest Calgary community of Oakridge, started playing soccer at Calgary South West United. From there, she spent some time with Chinooks FC before making her way back to South West United and eventually to the University of Texas at El Paso where she played in NCAA Division I.

After graduating, she played a year with FC Tuscon in the United States where she was named team MVP and a Women's Professional Soccer League All-Star. After that, she joined the coaching staff of the University of Calgary Dinos for a time before playing for Calgary Foothills WFC in the United Women's Soccer league.

Keilty-Dilling says having a pro women's soccer league in Canada gives young women in the country a path to a professional career without necessarily having to leave their hometown.

"To have the opportunity to potentially be able to play in your home country after finishing your collegiate career is massive," she said.

Keilty-Dilling added she shares her joy of being able to play professionally for the city she calls home with Cavalry FC goalkeeper and fellow Calgarian, Marco Carducci. She says she and Carducci are connected through the same goalkeeping academy and grew up attending the same training camps in Calgary.

"Marco talked a lot about how special it is to play in front of his family, in front of his friends ... it's just such a special opportunity. And for me, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Keilty-Dilling said.

What dreams are made of

Stordy, a 22-year-old right full-back who was born-and-raised in Calgary's Willow Park, described being able to play professionally in Calgary as "absolutely incredible."

She said seeing Calgarians rally behind Cavalry FC after their first-ever North Star Cup win is inspiring and she hopes to achieve the same level of success with Calgary Wild FC.

"There wasn't really anyone or anything I could look up to at a young age," Stordy said. 

"But now that we're here, I'm definitely going to make it known ... for those young girls to look up to people like me and all the other girls on this team, and let them know that it's totally possible."

She added it was a bittersweet experience playing soccer in the U.S., but now that she is able to play professionally in Calgary, she said "there's no place like home ... I'm itching to get started."

The young defender started playing soccer at Willow Ridge, eventually making her way to Calgary Foothills, where she won the National Championships in 2016. Stordy also led her high school team to a divisional championship in 2018 before playing in NCAA Division I with the University of Memphis Tigers. 

She made her professional debut in Europe at SC Braga in Portugal.

Lara Murphy, president and CEO of Calgary Wild FC, told reporters Wednesday she's thrilled to have two homegrown Calgarians on the roster.

"It means that the young women today and young girls growing up will have heroes to look up to, people that they can strive to be," she said. 

"When that whistle blows the first day of our game, they will be screeching and hollering, saying Sarah and Grace's names."

Murphy said she hopes the presence of players such as Keilty-Dilling and Stordy on Calgary Wild FC will show young girls that they have more than Canada soccer legends Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson to look up to as role models.

Murphy added she is excited to share more information about the new women's team in the near future.