Keen on Kentucky women’s soccer
September 17, 2015
// <![CDATA[ _psEmbed(“http://kykernel.photoshelter.com”); // ]]> By Jordan Ondrof [email protected] Katy Keen isn’t afraid of change — she isn’t afraid to take criticism, and she isn’t afraid to transfer. Keen left a top 10 program in Penn State to come to UK and play under head coach Jon Lipsitz, someone she has known since her early teens. “Katy is so much fun to coach,” Lipsitz said. “I’ve known her since she was 15-years-old and we’re very fortunate that she made the decision to come here. She has impacted our program tremendously.” The Cats were ranked No. 16 in the preseason while Penn State was ranked No. 6. Why would Keen leave a national championship contending team? A family atmosphere. “The thing about UK that stood out to me when I was looking to transfer to another school was the team environment. The team was so much like a family — they had each others back,” Keen said. “The coaches really make it a family environment. To have that kind of culture around you all of the time is really cool.” Family is what drove the Indiana native to play soccer in the first place. “I started playing soccer when I was 4. I started playing because my sister played soccer and everything she did, I wanted to do,” Keen said. Like many girls, Keen looked up to Mia Hamm when she was growing up. Hamm was a goal-scorer, leading her to become the face of women’s sports, inspiring young girls like Keen to pursue the sport. The former SEC player of the week got her first goal of her college career in a Kentucky jersey. Kentucky has been the right fit for the midfielder thus far, and Lipsitz credits that to her work ethic and willingness to learn from him. “What I really like is that she loves to learn. When she got here for preseason, I was coaching a lot of little details and she didn’t quite know how to take that and now she will go, ‘Yeah, yeah. Tell me what to do in that situation.’ Isn’t that what every coach dreams of? A player that wants to know every little detail,” Lipsitz said. Her work ethic and passion for soccer became evident to Katy and everyone around her when she was 14, coming
sildenafil citrate 100mg – gabapentin 300 mg – furosemide classification – http://lisinopril-hctz-dosage.com/ – furosemide 20 mg – lisinopril blood thinner – sildenafil 100mg – gabapentin 100mg – augmentin 875 – http://augmentin875-dosage.com/ to the realization that soccer was something she wanted to pursue past the club level. “When I was about 13 or 14, I started getting really serious and interested in soccer. I figured out that I wanted to play past club and go on to play in college and then see where I can go from there,” Keen said. She began dedicating herself to the sport, leading to her becoming a part of the Olympic Development Program Region II Team in 2010. At age 15, around the time she met Lipsitz, Keen played for coach Rory Dames and together, they made it to the U-15 National Championship. Dames is now the head coach of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Chicago Red Stars. The NWSL is something that Keen is interested in persuing after college, if the opportunity presents itself. Regardless, Keen wants to stay involved with the game past college, “I’ll have to wait and see the kinds of opportunities and doors that can open for me but in the future I would love to be able to play soccer or coach.” Keen has already had a taste of what it felt like to play soccer at a high level when she had the opportunity to train with the United States Women’s National Team in 2013. “In 2013 I got to play with (the national team). There is nothing quite like playing with a USA jersey on after all of the hard work that you have put into the game. It’s the top thing that you want to get to and once you get to it, there’s no looking back — it’s all that you want to do,” Keen said. Proudly wearing the ‘Kentucky’ across her chest, Keen is not looking back.
