If other coaches in the Texas athletic department need a guide as they explore new avenues in the SEC, Angela Kelly can help.
The coach of the Longhorns women’s soccer team spent 16 years in the SEC, including 12 as head coach at Tennessee, and she may be more eager than any other Texas coach to join the SEC, especially since her program seems primed to compete for a conference title right away.
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“I’m really excited to be back in the SEC,” Kelly said. “I’ve had some success there in the league and I think it’s very professional. I think they really make their sport special. ‘It means more’ is their motto and we’re excited to come into an environment where it means as much as possible.”
Texas looks like an SEC football contender
Kelly should be excited about the Longhorns’ chances after comparing the SEC to Texas’ previous conference. No. 3 BYU and No. 8 Texas Tech, two of the Longhorns’ toughest opponents last Big 12 season, are both ranked in the top 10 in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll. Georgia is the first SEC team to appear in the poll at No. 14, suggesting that national experts do not expect the conference to produce a national championship contender.
“I think there’s a TCU in there, I think there’s a Texas Tech in there, and I don’t know if there’s a BYU in there, to be honest,” Kelly said. “I’ve played this game quite a bit over the last six months as I’ve been preparing. But they (the SEC) are good from top to bottom. They’re in there, but I don’t think it’s going to be a drastic change from the Big 12.”
Texas will open the season ranked 17th
Like any football coach, Kelly values a high-quality playing surface, and that’s one aspect of the SEC that she particularly welcomes.
“Almost every school plays on grass, which I really appreciate,” she said. “It (surface) is important to the way we play.”
Oh, and that preseason poll. Texas starts the season ranked 17th, which could be considered low. The Longhorns welcome back two All-Americans in midfielder Lexi Missimo and forward Trinity Byars and don’t lose a single starter from a team that was 17-5-2 last year, won the Big 12 tournament and reached the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.
On paper, the team looks even stronger. Center back EmJ Cox returns after missing the entire 2023 season with an injury, and Missimo said Cox, a senior from Highland Park, looks like the same player who earned All-Big 12 honors in 2022.
“Oh man, it was just great to have her back and feel her impact on the field,” Missimo said. “She has a great presence.”
The same goes for forwards Rosa Maalouf and Amalia Villarreal, two newcomers who should see plenty of playing time on the experienced team when it opens its season against Houston on Thursday night at Myers Stadium. Villarreal, a 5-foot-10 dynamo from Michigan, has international experience with the U.S. under-19 team, while Maalouf, like her new coach, grew up in the Canadian province of Ontario and has also competed internationally.
Lexi Missimo, Trinity Byars: Unfinished Business
Of course, any hopes for a title in the Longhorns’ new league start with Missimo and Byars, best friends since they played together as young prodigies in the Dallas suburbs. Missimo has 51 assists and 139 points in her four-year career, making her the most of any active player in NCAA Division I women’s soccer and also the all-time best player in Texas. Byars holds the program record for goals with 47, despite starting alongside Missimo all four years.
But all these numbers are not enough to achieve the ultimate goal of the dynamic duo from Texas, who want to end their careers with a run at the program’s first national championship title.
“I think we have a lot of work to do,” Byars said. “I think we’re coming into a new conference and we have a lot to prove. I think we have a really good chance to win some titles.”
Missimo agreed, saying her college career is “not over yet.”
“I think when we get to the SEC, we want to win a national championship and also the SEC championship,” she said. “It would be cool to leave the Big 12 with the (tournament) championship and go to the SEC and get a championship.”
