Kathryn Emily Williamson (born August 1, 1989) is a former American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender who played for the

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

of the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

(NWSL).

Career

College career

Williamson was born in

McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. The U.S. Census Bureau l ...

. She accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where she played for coach Becky Burleigh's

Florida Gators women's soccer The Florida Gators women's soccer team represents the University of Florida in the sport of college soccer. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They a ...

team from 2008 to 2012. She played 81 games for the Gators between 2009 and 2012, after red-shirting her 2008 freshman season as a result of tearing two

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

s (ACLs). She received All-American and All-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) honors in 2010 and 2011, was recognized as the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2010, and was named to the 2009 SEC All-Freshman Team.

Professional career

Williamson was selected by the

in the

2013 NWSL College Draft The 2013 NWSL College Draft was the first annual college draft held by the National Women's Soccer League to assign the NWSL rights of college players to the eight NWSL teams. It took place on January 18, 2013 at the National Soccer Coaches Asso ...

as the 8th overall pick out of the 10 young talents the NCAA had to offer, becoming the team's first ever college draft selection. She made a strong contribution in her rookie campaign by starting all of the team's 24 matches (one of only three players to do so) and racking up 1,944 minutes of playing time (second-highest tally on the squad). Before the start of her second season, Williamson was traded on April 5, 2014, along with

Courtney Wetzel Courtney Rashelle Wetzel (born February 25, 1989) is an American soccer midfielder. She played for the Western New York Flash and Portland Thorns FC of the NWSL, and the Ottawa Fury Women and Seattle Sounders Women in the W-League. Early lif ...

and Portland's first-round pick in the 2015 NWSL College Draft to the

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Profess ...

in exchange for Sarah Huffman and a player to be named later. Two days later, the Portland Thorns revealed the player to be named later as

Verónica Boquete Verónica Boquete Giadans (born 9 April 1987) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a forward or midfielder for Italian Serie A club Fiorentina. As well as in her native Spain, she has played professionally for clubs in the United ...

. The pick later became Jaelene Hinkle. Williamson would appear 21 times for the Flash in 2014, playing 1,699 minutes. Williamson was traded back to the Thorns on November 6, 2014, along with midfielder

McCall Zerboni McCall RaNae Zerboni (born December 13, 1986) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for and captains NJ/NY Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Early life Born in Camarillo, California, to par ...

in order to acquire midfielder

Amber Brooks Amber Jean Brooks (born January 23, 1991) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She has previously played for Adelaide United, Houston Dash, OL Re ...

Personal

Williamson graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Florida in December 2012.

References

External links

Portland Thorns player profile
* * 1989 births Living people American women's soccer players Florida Gators women's soccer players National Women's Soccer League players Portland Thorns FC players Women's association football defenders Western New York Flash players Portland Thorns FC draft picks Ottawa Fury (women) players USL W-League (1995–2015) players Expatriate women's soccer players in Canada American expatriate sportspeople in Canada {{US-women-footy-bio-stub