Kelly Wilson Of Manhattan Beach Signs To Join Duke Blue Devils

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Duke Univiersity's Blue Devils women's soccer team will get another Wilson on its squad come 2021 with the signing of Kelly Wilson of Manhattan Beach. Kelly's sister Emily, who graduated from Duke in 2020, also was a member of the Duke women's soccer team, as was her sister Kara, a 2016 Duke grad.

Duke's women's soccer head coach Robbie Church made the announcement last Thursday [Nov. 19] in a news release. Wilson was one of four future Blue Devils named.

"We're excited to have these four young ladies join our program," said Church. "We think that they have an opportunity to come in and make a major impact. They have an opportunity to come in and play early in our program if they continue to work hard and continue to grow as they have the last couple years.

"We have four student-athletes that we feel very, very good about," Church added. "Number one, they're high character young ladies, they're Duke people and they really do a good job both in the classroom and on the soccer field. Academically, they're all very good students, which is something that we obviously look for in our incoming classes too. Then athletically, they all bring something different to the table.

It's just so exciting how we can continue to add such quality people, athletes and young ladies into our program. I think that's what has really helped our program grow over the last 20 years, just the character of young ladies that we have."

Kelly, at 5'10", is a defender and attended the U-17 National Team camp in 2019. She is listed at No. 92 in the TopDrawerSoccer class of 2021 rankings and ranked as the 28th among defenders in the class. Kelly played for McLean Youth Soccer Elite Clubs League before moving to California the summer before junior year. She currently plays for Beach Futbol Club.