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13-Year-Old Santa Clarita Girl Makes History As Youngest Team Sports Athlete Ever To Go Pro In U.S.
13-year-old Olivia Moultrie. Photos courtesy of KC Moultrie via Instagram.

13-Year-Old Santa Clarita Girl Makes History As Youngest Team Sports Athlete Ever To Go Pro In U.S.

When Olivia Moultrie was just 8 years old, she looked up at her dad and told him she wanted to be the best soccer player in the world. Now just five years later, Olivia seems to be well on her way toward achieving her goal.


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Regarded by many as one of the best female youth soccer players ever, the 13-year-old Santa Clarita native made the life-changing decision to go pro earlier this year when she signed with the sports agency Wasserman in February. 

That same month, Olivia accepted a multiyear endorsement deal with Nike — appearing in a commercial for the brand’s “Dream Crazier” campaign that aired during the Academy Awards — and an offer from an elite National Women’s Soccer League team, the Portland Thorns.

Olivia Moultrie

The Moultrie family in 2015. Photo courtesy of KC Moultrie via Facebook.

While the last few years have been a whirlwind of activity for the entire Moultrie family, neither of her parents had any idea what was in store when their daughter kicked her first soccer ball in the yard of their Canyon Country home when she was 4 years old. 

“We’re definitely a family full of athletes. I played college basketball and my wife was a college soccer player,” Olivia’s dad, KC Moultrie, told KHTS on Thursday. “So for Liv, she was going to be involved in something athletic from a very young age. It’s just kind of our lifestyle.” 

Though she also tried out basketball and karate around the same time, there was something about the soccer field that seemed to captivate Olivia from the very beginning. It only took about a year for Moultrie to realize his daughter had inherited his competitive spirit, and by the time she was 7, an intense passion for soccer had been born. 

“She got almost obsessive about it, in a good way though,” Moultrie said. “She just loved it and wanted to work on her game every day, and started watching soccer. By the time she was 8, she was saying to me, ‘Dad, I want to be the best player in the world.’ And I just don’t think very many 8-year-olds say stuff like that.” 

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As Olivia upped her training and her skills continued to improve, Moultrie recalled noticing that it wasn’t just her athletic ability that stood out from other kids her age, but her unique sense of space and the way her mind worked on the soccer field too.  

Over the next few years, Olivia spent every single day training and playing in the most competitive club environments they could find in Southern California, often with older kids and even boys.

Olivia Moultrie

Photo courtesy of KC Moultrie via Facebook.

“It was just during that time, so much growth took place,” her father recalled. “I started having a lot of people that would come to me and say, ‘I’ve never seen a kid like this. I’ve never seen a 9-year-old girl like this ever in my life.’” 

Moultrie admitted he didn’t know enough about soccer to make any “claims” about how good his daughter was, but after hearing from coach after coach that they had never seen a youth player like her before, it became clear just how talented Olivia had become. 

As a result, she and her parents made the decision to start homeschooling her in fifth grade to give her even more time to devote to soccer while still continuing her education. 

“She loves soccer more than I’ve ever seen anybody love anything,” Moultrie said. “At some point along the way, she just became super obsessed with being the best player in the world, … and it’s very important to her. I think that everything we do and every decision we make, we try to make (it) with that being the goal.” 

With Olivia’s new school schedule allowing her to train for about five hours a day with two different teams, the Moultries continued to test her skills. She soon became the first girl in the history of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy to train and compete full-time with boys. 

“We just kept pushing the envelope, like what’s too much? At what point is she going to fail? And she just never really did,” Moultrie said. “She was able to handle every environment we placed her in and kind of rise to the level of it.”

Olivia Moultrie

Olivia wearing a University of North Carolina shirt. Photo courtesy of KC Moultrie via Instagram.

At 9 years old, Olivia was invited to her first college showcase camp at the University of Texas. A number of other schools followed suit over the next two years, and the Moultries set their sights on the University of North Carolina. After a single day of watching then 11-year-old Olivia play, she was personally offered a full scholarship by Coach Anson Dorrance, according to Moultrie.

“He’s a legend. Not only has he won at the highest level, but he’s also coached the best women in the world for 30 years,” Moultrie said. “So when somebody like that looks at (Olivia) and says, ‘Hey, I think she can be the best player to ever play and we’d like to offer her a full-ride scholarship,’ that was one of the coolest moments. It is the ultimate validation.”

Although Olivia committed to UNC’s scholarship offer, Moultrie noted that he was repeatedly told by experienced coaches and trainers afterward that they firmly believed his daughter wouldn’t end up playing college soccer. 

The possibility of Olivia going pro at a young age instead became even more real when Olivia was invited to train with professional European soccer clubs like Paris Saint-Germain’s boys’ team, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern Munich and Olympique Lyon’s women’s clubs. 

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“Once we opened that door … it just didn’t make any sense for her to continue playing youth soccer for five years and then go to college for four years before she could ever be a pro, because the reality is, she probably could have played college soccer at 11 or 12,” Moultrie said. “It just would have been so stagnant.” 

Olivia Moultrie

Photo courtesy of KC Moultrie via Instagram.

With Europe in mind, the Moultries started having conversations with sports agents, while several top sports brands began sending Olivia soccer gear in apparent efforts to build a relationship for a future endorsement deal. 

Everything that had been in the works over the last few years seemed to culminate in Feb. 2019, when Olivia became the youngest team sports athlete ever to go pro in the U.S. by signing with Wasserman and Nike, and accepting an offer from the Portland Thorns.

While Moultrie admitted it was a risk to walk away from the UNC scholarship, making the move to Oregon so Olivia could train with the Portland Thorns, which he called “the best of the best” in the National Women’s Soccer League, was a “no brainer.”

Since the family’s move, 13-year-old Olivia has trained with the Thorns’ “first team” — where the next youngest player is 20 years old and the team captain is 35 — on a daily basis. However, due to age restrictions, Olivia can only officially play games with the Portland Thorns Development Academy’s youth team for now.

“(The league) has never had a situation like this, so hopefully the next step is the league evolves to adopt some of the same rules that the men’s side has,” Moultrie said. “Then hopefully the next step is, she officially signs with the Thorns.”

Olivia Moultrie

Photo courtesy of KC Moultrie via Facebook.

Over the last six months, Moultrie noted Olivia’s already elite skills have grown even more as she takes on her latest challenge of training with some of the best professional female soccer players in the world. 

“Her game has just grown tremendously. She’s absolutely thriving,” Moultrie said. “She’s better than she’s ever been, the happiest that she’s ever been, hungrier than she’s ever been. We just feel so good about the move because of what it’s meant for her.” 

Though Moultrie noted that he is incredibly proud of how hard his daughter works and how far she’s come at such a young age, he added that they’re continuing to focus on Olivia’s ultimate goal of becoming the best soccer player in the world.

“I’m just super proud, but also, it doesn’t feel like we’ve finished yet,” he said. “She is a relentless worker and she has a goal that is enormous — even almost scary. But she goes out every single day of her life and pushes towards accomplishing it, so obviously we’re very proud of her as a family, and me as her dad. We just view our role as doing whatever we can do to support her chasing her dream.” 

Follow Olivia Moultrie on Twitter: @olivia_moultrie. Follow her on Instagram: @olivia_moultrie. Watch Olivia Moultrie in Nike’s “Dream With Us” ad for the JDI campaign below:

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13-Year-Old Santa Clarita Girl Makes History As Youngest Team Sports Athlete Ever To Go Pro In U.S.

One comment

  1. Great story. As an avid soccer fan I will definitely be following her career. I wish her and her family the best in their quest.

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About Melissa Lampert-Abramovitch

Melissa Lampert-Abramovitch has been writing for KHTS since Feb. 2014. She currently writes “Community Spotlight” and feature stories, and coordinates all aspects of both the”KHTS Adopt a Pet” video feature series and “Top Things to Do in Santa Clarita.” She is the creator of “KHTS Adopt a Pet” and acted as News Editor from 2019-2020, as well as Features Director and Newsroom Manager from 2016-2018. A former Valley Publications Staff Writer, Melissa was a contributor to the Santa Clarita Gazette and Canyon Country Magazine from 2015-2016. She has published feature stories with Pet Me Magazine, The Pet Press, The Signal, COC's Cougar News, and KJAMS Radio.