Playing With Heart

When Ryan Williams ’18 received an email in late 2024 advising her to keep her calendar clear for a possible opportunity to train with the U.S. Women’s National Team — essentially a tryout for the most decorated team in global women’s soccer — she initially thought someone was playing a joke on her.

Establishing herself as a professional soccer player had been a bit of a bumpy ride for the former TCU star. After being selected with the 40th and final pick in the National Women’s Soccer League draft in 2018, Williams barely played during her first three years as a defender for the North Carolina Courage. Part of that was due to injuries and the complications that came with the Covid-19 pandemic, but Williams grew so frustrated by her lack of playing time that, at one point, she considered exploring other options and debated whether staying in one place was best for her career.

“I struggled with my identity and my value and my self-worth,” Williams said of dealing with her injuries. “It was so hard because our team was so good, and I was sitting out watching practice from the side. I felt so disconnected.”

Williams responded by working even harder in team training sessions and on her own or with another teammate or two. She paid attention when coaches told her areas to work on, whether getting physically stronger or working on passes to teammates that could lead to goals.

Eventually, her efforts paid off with more playing time, initially as a reserve and then as a full-time starter in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Williams quickly became a fan favorite, using her speed and skills to shut down opposing players and ingraining herself as part of the Courage’s offensive attack.

Her strong play continued in 2025: In a match in April, Williams scored the first goal of her National Women’s Soccer League career and had the assist on the winning goal in extra time as the Courage earned a 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Current, which was undefeated coming into the game.

Williams was named one of the league’s best players following the 2024 season and landed on the league’s monthly honor roll for the first two months of the 2025 season. Following that initial contact from the U.S. Women’s National Team in late 2024, she received an invitation in early 2025 to train with them.

Nathan Thackeray, a longtime assistant coach for the Courage who was named interim head coach this season, said Williams initially needed to raise the level of her game to earn playing time. “She had to learn how to become a professional,” he said. “She had to watch and see how they did things.”

With those lessons learned, Williams has become a steady presence in the Courage’s starting lineup. “She’s resilient,” Thackeray said. “She’s hard to run by, she’s hard to get past. She’s ultra-competitive.”

Williams said she fell back on what had worked for her as a youth soccer player and, later, during her years at TCU. “I just want to go out every day and get better.”

Ready to Run

Growing up in a suburb of Denver, Williams was part of a soccer family. Her dad played on a semiprofessional team as a young man and coached his children when they played. Weekends would start with a quick stop at a bagel shop, then on to the soccer fields for games. “It just turned into our family thing,” Williams said.

Unlike many children who play at the top levels of youth soccer, Williams spent little time thinking about playing in college or dreaming of playing for the national team. She even quit playing club soccer her first year of high school — a critical time to start getting the attention of college coaches — to run cross-country instead.

“I don’t like to look too far ahead,” Williams said. “I just kind of like to see what I feel like at the moment and go with that.”

Williams returned to soccer the following year; she had missed the sport and the camaraderie of being part of a team. And if she was going to run — speed and stamina are among her strengths — Williams decided she would rather do it with a ball at her feet or chasing down a player from the other team.

It was late in the college recruiting process when Williams decided she wanted to play after high school. Williams has ties to Texas — she was born in Houston, and her older sister studied nursing and ran cross-country at TCU. She signed with TCU’s soccer team as a recruited walk-on but was good enough to play for the Horned Frogs in the first game of her first season.

Ryan Williams, a three-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree and one-time all-conference first teamer, was selected by the North Carolina Courage in the fourth round of the 2017 NWSL Draft. Photo by Sharon Ellman

Williams enjoyed her time at TCU, and it showed in her success on the field. She played in all but one game during her four years in Fort Worth and was named to the all-conference team her senior year. But again, Williams gave little thought to what was next until her college career was almost over. “I was just so present,” she said, “which I’m thankful for because it allowed me to enjoy my time there.”

As she worked to complete a bachelor’s in general studies, Williams realized she wasn’t ready to stop playing. She asked Eric Bell, head coach, and Ryan Higginbotham, associate head coach, if they could help her figure out a path to play professionally. They suggested that in addition to training with the team, she train individually with them to stay sharp and continue to improve. “She was beating down our doors all the time to do extra stuff,” Bell said. “Her work ethic was fantastic.”

‘My Own Favorite Player’

Williams said she was excited and nervous when she arrived for her first preseason training with the Courage. The team was loaded with big-name players like Lynn Williams (now Biyendolo), Sam Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper and Crystal Dunn, all of whom had or would play for the national team. The Courage won the National Women’s Soccer League championship during the first two years Ryan Williams was with the team. “The practices were so intense,” she said. “The girls were so talented, and I was just trying to keep up.”

Kaleigh Kurtz, also a defender, joined the team the same year as Williams. It didn’t take long for her to recognize Williams’ focus and determination to get better. “She was ready and willing to go above and beyond,” Kurtz said.

Another teammate, Meredith Speck, said Williams refused to make excuses for her initial lack of playing time. “She saw it as a positive opportunity and a way to grow,” said Speck, a midfielder who is the longest-tenured member of the Courage. “She was surrounded by a really great team … and it’s hard to complain when your team is winning every game. You look at the person who’s playing in front of you and say, ‘What can I learn from them?’ ”

Now that Williams is a mainstay for the Courage, she still puts in the extra work and is known among teammates for her relentless effort during training sessions and games. When the team did an exhausting series of runs at the end of a preseason practice earlier this year, Williams led the way while some players lagged behind, gasping for breath.

Kurtz, who typically plays alongside Williams on the defensive line, values her speed, communication and work ethic during games. “If someone gets past me, then [Williams’] name is getting screamed,” Kurtz said. “She’s the safety valve.”

While Williams trained with the national team for a week in January, she did not get called up when the team played a series of games in February. Still, she relished putting on the national team training gear and having the opportunity to test herself against a new group of players and get guidance from a new set of coaches. “That was a really cool moment for me,” she said.

Williams still gets excited about putting on the Courage training gear, walking onto the field to play and sticking around after the games to sign autographs for fans. When asked to sum up her journey in professional soccer, Williams took a few moments to consider the question.

“A word that sticks out to me is ‘patience,’ ” she said. “With that is a lot of resilience and determination. Even in moments when I was down or wasn’t feeling like I was getting anywhere, I still had this belief in myself, deep in me, that I would be the starting [defensive] right back for the Courage.

“I want to be my own favorite player,” she said. “My favorite player is someone that works so hard and, even if they make a mistake, they quickly react and they get it back. It sounds cheesy, but I always want to be someone that people look at and say, ‘Oh, she plays with a lot of heart.’ ”