Growing up, Kealia Ohai and her sisters would follow their father to Storm Mountain Park in Sandy, soccer balls under their arms. With craggy mountain peaks jutting up in the distance, they’d kick a ball around, take shots on goal and run sprints.
This Saturday, Ohai returns home. She’ll step into the stadium where she claimed the 2009 UHSAA girls’ soccer title, this time as a Houston Dash striker poised to take on the Utah Royals. Ohai missed the second half of last season with a ACL sprain and torn meniscus, but she worked back up to a full 90 minutes for last week’s 2-2 draw against Chicago.
“I know that it’s such a cool, special place to play,” Ohai said, relaying what she’d heard from her friends on the Utah Royals about the organization as a whole, “and so I think all of us at the Dash are just really excited to be there and to play with this expansion team. It’s going to be fun.”
Ohai said she’s believed Utah was a perfect place for an NWSL team for years. The Draper native grew up going to Real Salt Lake matches and was in high school when RSL won the 2009 MLS Cup. At the same time, she saw the large crowds BYU women’s soccer was drawing and saw a future for the sport.
HOUSTON DASH AT UTAH ROYALS<br>When • Saturday, 1:30 p.m.<br>TV • Lifetime
When she heard this fall through whisperings around the league that RSL owner Dell Loy Hansen was set to launch an NWSL team she was excited.
Hansen’s acquisition of a women’s team meant another trip home every year. Based in Houston in the offseason, Ohai said she still makes sure to visit Utah at least once or twice a year.
“I always forget how beautiful it is,” Ohai said. “Every time I come back I’m like, I cannot believe I grew up here. The mountains, that’s the No. 1 thing. … I think growing up there you don’t even really think about it. It’s just normal.”
Utah scenery is the opposite of flat, snowless Houston, where Ohai has spent her entire professional career. The former North Carolina Tar Heel was drafted second overall in the 2014 NWSL draft. She had a breakout year in 2016, when she scored 11 goals in 20 matches.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Kealia Ohai, center, a former star at Alta High School, received her first call-up to the U.S. women's national team roster for matches against Switzerland this week as she practices with the team recently in Sandy.
“Kaelia is a very special player,” said Alta High soccer coach Lee Mitchell, who tutored Ohai beginning with her freshman year. “A coach is lucky if they get one like that in their careers. And yeah, I could see that she was going to be very, very good from the very beginning. She just had that passion, and along with it she had skills and the heart to go where she’s gone.”
During her freshman year, Ohai missed varsity tryouts for U-15 national team camp, but after just two matches on the JV squad, Mitchell brought her up to varsity. There she and her sister Megan led the team’s attack.
They went on to claim the state title, finishing the season ranked No. 2 in the nation after going undefeated (20-0). Megan scored four goals for a comeback win in the state championship match.
“I don’t remember games a lot,” Kealia said, “... but that game I remember so well.”
Kealia Ohai went on to win state every year, becoming a three-time first team high school All-American.
“As great a player as she is,” Mitchell said, “I think she’s a better person than a player. I don’t know if i can give her a higher compliment than that.”
Mitchell, already a Royals season ticket holder, said he plans to be be at the match Saturday. Ohai’s whole family also plan to be in the stands to watch the Dash take on the Royals.
“They’ve become a lot more of a counter-attacking team,” Royal coach Laura Harvey said of Houston’s changes since the last time the two teams met. “And that plays into Kealia’s game. When she can get one-v-one and get at someone is where I think she feels most confident.”