The 9th Annual She Believes Cup will feature a familiar face, Darlington alumna and Soccer Academy standout Jane Campbell ('13). She will compete in the USA vs. Japan game on Saturday, April 6, at 12:30 p.m. at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Jane currently plays professionally with the Houston Dash of the NWSL and was voted the best goalkeeper in the NWSL. While at Darlington, she trained and played in the FIFA U17 World Cup for the U.S. National Team. Her senior year, she played in the U20 World Cup for US Soccer and at age 17, she became the youngest goalkeeper ever called to a national training camp for the senior U.S. Women’s National Team. She was named a “Women’s Soccer Game-Changer” by Sports Illustrated and the 2012 National Youth Player of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, all before she graduated from Darlington May of 2013.
Jane was also a Bronze Medal winner at the Japan Olympics in 2021.
The United States will be looking to defend their title and win their seventh She Believes Cup title. If they defeat Japan, they will play the final against winner of the Brazil vs. Canada game (which will take place on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.) The championship will be in Columbus Ohio, on April 9.
Talking with Jane earlier this week, I told her that she helped start a unbelieveable line of great college women's goalkeepers. On the women's side of the Darlington Soccer Academy, goalkeepers have gone on to play at Stanford, Texas A&M, LSU, Unviersity of Texas-San Antino, UNC Ashville, Creighton, and NC Sate, to name a few.
It was so awesome to see Jane chosen as the hometown player to be featured in the U.S. Soccer's email about this weekend's game (see graphic next to my blog).
After playing in college and beyond and coaching for almost two decades, I Googled my name and then Googled Jane's name her first year at Stanford. Let's just say the results were humbling. Jane's career just 11 years after walking across the graduation stage here at Darlington in May 2013 has been astounding to watch.
