Keeley Kathleen Dowling (born February 17, 1983) is an 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 is currently the head women's soccer coach at
Colorado State University
Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...
.
Early life
Born and raised in
Carmel
Carmel may refer to:
* Carmel (biblical settlement), an ancient Israelite town in Judea
* Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea
* Carmelites, a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order
Carmel may also ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, Dowling attended
Carmel High School where she captained the soccer team to the state championship as a senior. She was named the 2000 Indiana Player of the Year the same year. Dowling earned Parade All-American honors and was named Hamilton County and Metro Player of the Year. She was named to the 2000 NSCAA/adidas High School All-America team and to the organization's Youth All-America unit. Dowling set her school's all-time assist record and was an all-state selection in 1999 and 2000.
Dowling also played for the club team, Carmel Cosmos, and helped them win the state championship multiple times. The team was the national runner-up in 2000.
University of Tennessee
Dowling attended the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...
where she played for the Lady Vols from 2001 to 2004. She earned three consecutive All-America selections during her playing career at Tennessee and helped lead the Lady Vols to their first Sweet 16 in 2002. During her career, the Lady Vols compiled a 63–22–6 overall record.
Dowling was twice named Central Regional Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004 and earned back-to-back SEC Defensive Player of the Year awards the same years. She was a four-time All-SEC selection and two-time National Player of the Year semifinalist. Dowling also earned All-American honors (a first for the school's program).
During her collegiate career, Dowling scored 25 goals and served 15 assists for 65 points. She started all 89 games in which she played. She was added to the school's top 10 lists for career matches played, matches started, points and goals.
Playing career
Club
Sky Blue FC
In October 2008, Dowling was the eighth overall pick of the
WPS Allocation Draft by
Sky Blue FC
NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...
. After earning a starting spot as a defender, Dowling helped Sky Blue win the 2009 WPS championship title with her game-winning goal during a 1–0 semifinal 1–0 victory over the
St. Louis Athletica. She later joined her team at the White House in the summer of 2010 when the team was honored by President Barack Obama.
During the 2009 season, Dowling played in 22 games, starting 21. She returned to the squad in 2010 and appeared in 20 games with 18 starts.
Atlanta Beat
Dowling signed with the
Atlanta Beat for the 2011 season. Towards the end of the season, she tore the
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 ...
in her right knee when she landed awkwardly after attempting to play a long ball downfield during a match against the
Boston Breakers
The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...
. The injury required season-ending surgery. Dowling ended the season prematurely with 11 starts in 11 games played.
International
Dowling represented the United States on the under-19 women's national soccer team and captained the gold-winning team to the first-ever
FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship
The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament, organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), for national teams of women under the age of 20. The tournament is held in even-numbere ...
.
Two years later, she helped the United States under-21 team win gold at the Nordic Cup. She was called up for training camps for the senior national team in preparation for the 2007 Algarve Cup in Portugal in 2007 and 2008 Olympics, but did not make the final rosters.
Coaching career
Dowling began her coaching career as a student assistant at Tennessee in 2005. In 2007, she was elevated to interim assistant coach, and in 2008, the interim tag was removed. When then-head coach
Ange Kelly was hired by Texas in 2011, Dowling joined her as an assistant coach.
On June 1, 2021, Dowling was named the second-ever head coach a
Colorado State.
References
External links
*
Sky Blue FC player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowling, Keeley
1983 births
Living people
Tennessee Volunteers women's soccer players
NJ/NY Gotham FC players
Atlanta Beat (WPS) players
Expatriate footballers in Sweden
People from Carmel, Indiana
Parade High School All-Americans (girls' soccer)
KIF Örebro DFF players
Damallsvenskan players
American women's soccer players
Texas Longhorns women's soccer coaches
Women's association football defenders
Female sports coaches
American soccer coaches
Women's Professional Soccer players
Charlotte Lady Eagles players
USL W-League (1995–2015) players