Calgary Wild bring in Forest Lawn students for club's first home game on Sunday
Students at a Forest Lawn school will get some of the best seats in the house when pro women's soccer arrives in Calgary this weekend.
Calgary Wild FC goalkeeper Sarah Keilty-Dilling visited Ian Bazalgette School in the city's southeast this week to launch the Keepers Corner campaign. Now a goalkeeper herself for Alberta's first pro women's soccer team, a founding club in the Northern Super League, Keilty-Dilling previously taught physical education at Ian Bazalgette.
Keepers Corner is an initiative through which Wild goalies will donate 20 tickets to the school for each of the club's 13 games at McMahon Stadium, where the club will make its home debut on Sunday against Ottawa Rapid FC.
WATCH | Former teacher returns to school as pro goalkeeper
"The kids at the school and the kids in this area are historically underprivileged and undervalued, and I see so much potential and value in these kids," said Keilty-Dilling, who visited the school alongside Wild midfielder Sonia O'Neill and goalkeeper Stephanie Bukovec.
The initiative will seat students from the program in a Keepers Corner section of the stadium by the home team's net. Following the game, students will get to meet the goalies.
Bazalgette principal Steven Pike considers Keilty-Dilling, who has committed to regularly visiting the school, an inspiration to students.
"I think professional sports is a good platform to give people an idea that there are opportunities in life," he said. "Especially in Canada, as long as you work hard and you pursue things, you can gain a lot of those opportunities."
After Keilty-Dilling, 31, got her start with the Calgary South West United and Chinook FC youth clubs, she joined the NCAA Division I soccer team at the University of Texas at El Paso Miners. Her final season in 2014 netted her MVP and Female Athlete of the Year awards, while her 82 games started and 41 wins in her college career made her the program's all-time leader in both categories.
After one year on the Women's Premier Soccer League's FC Tuscon in Arizona, she returned to Calgary and played with Calgary Foothills in the professional-amateur Women's United Soccer league, where she served as team captain and was named the Goalkeeper of the Year in 2022.
Now, she's playing a pivotal role for the Wild in the Northern Super League's first year.
"It's a dream come true," Keilty-Dilling said. "It's unreal, and to be able to do it in my hometown as well, it's really special."
WATCH | Calgarians lace up for Wild
The Wild made their debut on April 16 at B.C. Place against the Vancouver Rise, where they fell 1-0. They rebounded at their next game, hosted by the Halifax Tides on April 26, with a commanding 4-1 win. Calgary fell short in their third contest, losing 2-1 to AFC Toronto, but they hope to climb back to .500 during their home opener on Sunday.
Knowing they've got those students cheering them on could be the boost they need.
"I'd hope that they could be inspired by just a little bit of my journey and just the message of not giving up, not quitting and chasing your dreams," said Keilty-Dilling.
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