Calgary natives Sarah Keilty-Dilling and Grace Stordy will participate in Calgary Wild FC’s inaugural 2025 season in the new Northern Super League.

The new professional women’s football team made the announcement on Wednesday.

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

Goalkeeper Keilty-Dilling told reporters at a press briefing that it was a childhood dream come true to be able to play for her hometown.

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

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

“To have this dream now become a concrete thing that young girls in Calgary can really dream of… is so special and so incredible,” she said.

Keilty-Dilling, who grew up in the community of Oakridge in southwest Calgary, began playing soccer at Calgary South West United. From there, she spent time with Chinooks FC before returning to South West United and eventually 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 All-Star of the Women’s Professional Soccer League. After that, she joined the coaching staff of the University of Calgary Dinos for a while before playing for the Calgary Foothills WFC in the United Women’s Soccer league.

Keilty-Dilling says having a professional 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.

“Having the opportunity to potentially be able to play in your home country after you finish your college career is huge,” she said.

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

“Marco talked a lot about how special it was 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 said . -Dilling said.

What dreams are made of

Stordy, a 22-year-old right back born and raised in Willow Park, Calgary, described being able to play professionally in Calgary as “absolutely incredible.”

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

“There really wasn’t anyone or anything that I could look up to when I was young,” Stordy said.

“But now that we’re here, I’m definitely going to put it out there…for these young girls to look up to people like me and all the other girls on this team, and let them know that it’s definitely possible.”

She added that it was a bittersweet experience playing soccer in the United States, but now that she is able to play professionally in Calgary, she said, “there’s no place like home.” yourself…I can’t wait to get started.”

The young defender started playing soccer at Willow Ridge, eventually making her way to the Calgary Foothills, where she won the national championships in 2016. Stordy also led her high school team to a division 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 general manager of the Calgary Wild FC, told reporters Wednesday she was excited to have two local Calgarians on the roster.

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

“When the whistle blows on the first day of our match, they will be yelling and screaming, saying Sarah and Grace’s names.”

Murphy said she hopes having players like Keilty-Dilling and Stordy at Calgary Wild FC will show young girls they have more than Canadian soccer legends Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson to look to as role models.

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