The OSU Women's Soccer Team Has All Kinds Of Family Connections

The Oklahoma State University Women's Soccer team has a long list of tournament appearances and conference championships. This year's team has only one loss and is ranked 4th in the country.

I discovered on a trip to Stillwater this week, their family trees may be more even more impressive.

If you want to see the success that Oklahoma State women's soccer team has had over the years, you can just look around campus. The Big 12 Championship banners are everywhere.

But the story behind the story may be the Cowgirls' family connections.

Senior mid-fielder Sarah Brown's dad, Scott, played quarterback at the University of Tulsa in the early 1980's.

"He always knows what to say to me before and after games," said Sarah Brown. "He knows how to get me pumped up, and things like that."

Junior Becky Garrett estimates she has had about 14 family members who have either attended or taught at OSU.

Sophomore Kristen Kelley has 7 siblings. "I come to college and it's quiet," said Kristen Kelley. "[My friends] just don't understand what it's like to be loud all the time."

Senior Colleen Dougherty has a sister, Kaylie Garcia, who plays for TCU.

"When you play your sister, you have to win," Colleen Dougherty said. "You have to prove that your team is better."

When asked who the better soccer player was, Dougherty laughed.

"Oh, I don't know. We're both good," said Colleen Dougherty.

 Kelley Leggett started playing soccer when she was five after watching her sister, Allyson, play.

"I saw how well she was doing," Kelley Leggett said. "And I wanted to get a piece of my own."

Allyson Leggett played for the Cowgirls for four years, from 2007 to 2010.

Freshman Abbey Akin's grandfather, Harold, played football at OSU in the mid-1960's. After graduating, he went on to play for San Diego Chargers.

Senior Annika Niemeier has Olympic blood. Her mother, Iris, was a cross-country skier for West Germany at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games.

"I think she actually wanted me to be a cross-country skier," admits Annika Niemeier. "But I liked soccer a lot better. Skiing was just so hard. Soccer was a lot more fun," said Annika Niemeier.

And finally, senior Elizabeth DeLozier may have the most famous family tree of them all.

Her grandfather was Dr. Henry G. Bennett, President of Oklahoma A & M from 1928-1951. He has a room dedicated to him in the Edmon Low Library on campus.

"I don't go around saying it," said Elizabeth DeLozier. "But it obviously means a lot to me, a lot of family legacy. [The Henry Bennett Room] is something that I've been to every reunion that we had when I was little, we'd always go and visit it. You know, when I walk by it on campus, it's something I take an extra look at."

Oklahoma State hosts Arkansas Pine-Bluff in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night at 7 p.m. in Stillwater.