Megan "Meggie" Dougherty Howard (born July 27, 1995) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

San Diego Wave FC San Diego Wave FC is a National Women's Soccer League expansion team that began play in 2022. The team is based in San Diego, California. The team is owned by Ron Burkle. The team is the San Diego area's first women's professional soccer team si ...

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federati ...

(NWSL).

Early life

Howard played soccer as a freshman and senior at

St. Petersburg Catholic High School St. Petersburg Catholic High School is a private, co-educational Roman Catholic high school in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Petersburg. The campus was originally opened in February 1957 as Bishop Ba ...

, reaching the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A regional final in 2013. She also played club soccer with Tampa Bay United Premier Girls 94 team, which won the 2011 and 2012 Disney Qualifier.

Florida Gators

Howard was a four-year starter for the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as th ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

from 2013 to 2016 while also earning a degree in management. She totaled 89 career starts in 94 appearances and scored 14 goals, playing mostly as a holding midfielder. In 2016, Howard saw a career high in minutes, goals and assists as a senior and was recognized with All-SEC first team and All-American third team selections, and was named

SEC Tournament The Southeastern Conference (SEC) sponsors nine men's sports and twelve women's sports. This is a list of conference champions for each sport. Also see the list of SEC national champions. Members The SEC was established on December 1932, when ...

MVP after registering an assist in each tournament match including on the match-winning golden goal in the final.

Club career

In 2015 and 2016, while still in college, Howard played for Washington Spirit Reserves in the W-League and in the

Women's Premier Soccer League The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is the top amateur league for women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, below only National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) ...

. With team she won the W-League title in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

and the Women's Premier Soccer League East Conference in 2016. In 2015, she was named to the W-League All-League Team.

Washington Spirit, 2017–2020

In 2017, Howard was selected in the third round (29th overall) of the

2017 NWSL College Draft The 2017 NWSL College Draft was the fifth annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on January 12, 2017 at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Convention in ...

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and con ...

. She was signed to the team on March 12 and made her professional debut on April 22 as a 67th minute substitute for

Kristie Mewis Kristen Anne Mewis (born February 25, 1991) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the United States national team. Early life Mewis grew up in Hanson, ...

in a 1–1 draw with

Orlando Pride The Orlando Pride is a professional women's soccer team based in Orlando, Florida. The team joined the National Women's Soccer League, the top level of women's soccer in the US, for the 2016 season. It became the tenth team to be added to the ...

. She scored her first goal as a rookie on August 4, 2017, in a 4–1 victory over

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 201 ...

Orlando Pride, 2021–2022

On December 24, 2020, Howard was traded along with two first-round picks and $140,000 in allocation money to

in exchange for

Emily Sonnett Emily Ann Sonnett (born November 25, 1993) is an American soccer player who plays as a defender for OL Reign of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) as well as the United States women's national soccer team. Early life and education Sonne ...

. She made her debut for the club on April 10, 2021, starting and assisting both goals in a 2–2 draw with

Racing Louisville Racing Louisville Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League team based in Louisville, Kentucky. It began playing in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium. The team is owned by Soccer Holdings LLC, which also owns Louisville City FC of the USL C ...

in the

2021 NWSL Challenge Cup The 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup was a league cup tournament that took place during the 2021 National Women's Soccer League season. It began on April 9 and ended May 8, one week before the start of the regular season. It was the second iteration of th ...

opening round.

San Diego Wave FC, 2023–present

On January 12, 2023, Howard signed a two year contract as a free agent with

International career

In November 2011, Howard was called up to the United States under-15 team. In April 2016 she was called up to the under-23 training camp in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...

that featured only collegiate players. The following month she was part of the 20-player roster that won the U23 Nordic Tournament. In January 2017 Howard was again called up to the under-23 team, the first camp of the year that included a mixture of top players from the U.S. youth teams, elite college players and four NWSL players. It was overseen by senior team head coach

Jill Ellis Jillian Anne Ellis (born 6 September 1966) is an English-American soccer coach and executive who is currently the president of San Diego Wave FC. Ellis coached the United States women's national soccer team from 2014 to October 2019 and won two ...

to evaluate players for potential senior call-ups.

Career statistics

Club

Honors

College

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

regular season: 2013, 2015 * SEC Women's Soccer Tournament: 2015, 2016

Individual

USL W-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

All-League team:

References

External links

Meggie Dougherty Howard
at National Women's Soccer League
Meggie Dougherty Howard
at Florida Gators * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dougherty Howard, Meggie Living people 1995 births People from Largo, Florida Soccer players from Florida Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida Washington Spirit players University of Florida alumni Florida Gators women's soccer players American women's soccer players Women's association football midfielders National Women's Soccer League players Washington Spirit draft picks Orlando Pride players