O’HARA KELLEY

• Kelley Maureen O’Hara, KO or KOH, majored in science, technology and society with a focus in environmental engineering at Stanford.


• Water is her favorite drink, but also loves “a nice cold brewski.”


• Says she can listen to one song on repeat for days.


• Likes being a middle child with older sister Erin and younger brother Jerry.


• Loves to cook and bake and would like to attend culinary school after she finishes playing.


• Aspires to one day be on the Food Network.


• Loves donuts and coffee, in particular cortados, that said, she endeavors to eat healthy, regularly indulging in green smoothies and is known to prepare magnificent salads.

At Home in the Bay
Kelley O’Hara was the kid who was afraid of sleepovers. But the self-described “home body” saw her world open up when she began playing with the U.S. Youth National Teams and began traveling the world. While she’d once thought of college – where you sleep in a room with a stranger – as the “worst idea in the whole world,” now she was going on recruiting trips to colleges across the country. Yet, she was still attached to home. When she boarded the plane to California for a trip to Stanford, she turned to her father with dread, “What if I like it?”

The kid who did not like sleeping even one mile from home ended up signing with a college on the other side of the country. At Stanford, she scored 57 goals, tallied 23 assists, and won the 2009 Hermann Trophy as the top collegiate soccer player in the country.

O’Hara was a lifelong forward, but when Ali Krieger tore her ACL in 2012, the National Team was short on outside backs, and head coach Pia Sundhage wondered what O’Hara thought about playing the position. Having learned how to step out of her comfort zone when she chose to attend Stanford, O’Hara stepped up to the challenge. On January 22, 2012, in Olympic Qualifying against Guatemala, she started her first game at left back, registering three assists. She went on to play every minute at outside back for the USA at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

CAPS/GOALS - 108/2