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King's parents helped push Bay FC's youngest player to the edge of stardom
The United States Women's National Team, Bay FC and the University of North Carolina have this in common: They're lucky Savy King chose soccer.
King, who turned 20 last month, was Bay FC's first draft pick when the club selected her No. 2 overall in the National Women's Soccer League in January. On Sunday, she's expected to make her pro debut when the expansion team kicks off its inaugural NWSL season in Los Angeles, against Angel City FC.
Her parents, Kim and Karrie King — are still in awe of their daughter's athletic prowess, and still wondering where her soccer abilities come from — will be there watching.
“Neither of us played,” Kim said. “But once she started to play, she fell in love with it.”
Bay FC at Angel City FC, 4:30 p.m., NBCBA
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Savy is a candidate to be Bay FC's starting left back. She's also somewhat new to soccer — she didn't pick up the sport until she was 10, when she joined a recreational AYSO team.
Four years later, she was on the United States Under-15 team. Two years after that, she made the U-17 team that played in the World Cup in India.
That same year, she set school records in the 200- and 400-meter track events as a sophomore at Agoura High School in Southern California. As a senior, she had six interceptions in a single game on the flag football team. She was a cross country star, too.
“We put her in everything, but she chose soccer,” Kim King said. “We have videos of her playing flag football with the boys, and dads are yelling to their sons, `Get her, get her.' Nobody could catch her. On the baseball field, she did the same thing.
“No matter where we put her, she did well.” Her quick ascension to stardom parallels mom Karrie's meteoric rise as a runner and cyclist.
At 19, Karrie King became the youngest person on the Coors Light Biathlon Series pro tour in 1989. A Los Angeles Times profile that year noted that she was the only competitor on the tour too young to drink the sponsor's product.
For the longest time, Karrie said, she tried not to coach Savy and her twin brother,
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