MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Sammie Brown is becoming accustomed to getting a chance to watch the best women’s soccer players in the world every four years.
Brown, who is set to enter her senior season at Morgantown High, went to her first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015 north of the border in Canada. This year, she, along with her family, made the trip overseas to see the 2019 edition in France.
Over the course of 10 days, Brown not only got to see players her mother, Nikki Izzo-Brown, coached at WVU, but she watched eventual champions, the U.S. Women’s National Team, continue its march to the title.
“I love watching soccer, and being able to see the best of the best do it live is unreal,” Brown said. “It’s great to see the women’s game and especially USA do so well on the world stage.”
In a pairing coincidence, Canada played Cameroon on June 10 in Montpellier, near the Mediterranean coast, which featured three former Mountaineers — Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence, for Canada, and Michaela Abam, for Cameroon.
The trio helped guide West Virginia to a national runner-up finish in 2016, but in June, it was head-to-head at the international level. Canada advanced with a 1-0 win — the lone goal scored by Buchanan — but it was thrilling for Brown to see players she looked up to playing on the biggest stage.
“Knowing Kadeisha, Ashley and Michaela were all going to be playing in this World Cup, we as a family were super excited to get to their games,” Brown said. “It was really cool to see them all perform at the highest level and see how much they’ve grown since WVU.”
On June 16 in Paris, Brown watched the USWNT knock off Chile 3-0 thanks to two goals by Carli Lloyd and one by Julie Ertz.
The USWNT has been nothing short of polarizing after winning back-to-back World Cup titles, but to Brown, as someone still in her prep years, this team is something she will always remember.
“It’s great to have a team, especially from your own country, to look up to and be able to learn from and inspire you,” she said.
Outside of soccer, Brown, along with her grandmother Rosie; parents, Nikki and Joe; and sisters, Gracie and Gabbie, visited the French Riviera and went sight-seeing while in Paris.
Brown said the best food she had were the croissants and she would definitely want to go back if the opportunity arose.
“I loved it there,” she said. “It was very cool to be able to see the beautiful beaches and the old historic towns.”
Now back in the states, Brown is gearing up for her final season with the Mohigans, coming off an outstanding junior campaign where she won the West Virginia High School Soccer Coaches Association girls’ player of the year and was named a first team all-state midfielder by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
Brown tallied 15 goals and 14 assists as she helped MHS to a 16-5 record and won the sectional title before falling in regionals.
In April, Brown announced she committed to Auburn to play at the next level after fielding many Division-I offers, but Auburn just felt right.
“It was definitely a hard decision that took a lot of thought, but it just came down to where I felt I would excel on the field and in the classroom,” she said. “After visiting Auburn, I fell in love with the campus, staff and players.”
Karen Hoppa has been the head coach with the Tigers since 1999 and collected a 237-153-39 record.
