‘Grateful to be home’: At Bay FC, World Cup winner Dahlkemper reunites with youth coach Montoya

SAN JOSE — Menlo Park’s Abby Dahlkemper circled the globe, winning a World Cup, an Olympic medal, an NCAA title and multiple NWSL championships, but no phase of her life has been as enjoyable for her as this one.

She’s finally home.

Dahlkemper, one of the most accomplished American-born defenders in women’s soccer, was traded from the San Diego Wave to Bay FC in August. Now she gets to play professional soccer for her hometown team one night and attend her dad’s family barbeque the next day.

“It makes my heart so happy,” said the 31-year-old. “I’ve seen my parents more in the past month than I have in the past year. I can focus on being a sister, an aunt to my two nieces, a daughter to my parents.

“It’s hard for pro athletes. You sacrifice so much time you can’t get back. To be able to continue playing and to see family on a week-to-week basis is incredible and something I’m not taking for granted.”

As if that wasn’t amazing enough, Dahlkemper was also reunited with her childhood coach, Albertin Montoya, who has led expansion side Bay FC to the brink of a playoff spot in its inaugural season in the NWSL.

“It’s incredible,” said Montoya. “From the very beginning, I knew how good of a leader she’d be.”

Montoya and his wife, Erin, coached Dahlkemper for eight years when she played for their club teams at Mountain View Los Altos (MVLA), one of the most successful soccer clubs in California.

“They’re the best coaches I ever had,” said Dahlkemper, who also played for longtime United States women’s national team coach Jill Ellis, among others. “Albertin hasn’t changed at all. He’s still so passionate about the game. He wants us to play freely and express ourselves.”

Dahlkemper’s dad, Andrew, remembers being in awe of the Montoyas the first time he saw them lead a practice.

He had moved the family from a small Texas town to Menlo Park when she was 11 and wasn’t sure how Abby would transition to the ultra-competitive soccer landscape in Northern California.

“It was a risky move; we went from a big house in Texas to a small house here,” he said. “The very first year in Menlo Park was challenging for the family, but Abby always had soccer, that was the main way for her to make friends and how she found confidence. That helped her a ton.”

Albertin said he knew he could help Abby develop her technical and tactical skills, but she already had the most important ingredient.

“Great players have a mentality that they’re just winners,” he said. “They don’t let anything get in their way.”

The Montoyas developed her as a forward and helped improve her ball skills and ball-striking ability as she led the MVLA team to four consecutive state championships in her age group.

And when Abby’s success earned her opportunities to play for the youth national team camps, which meant she’d have to miss some MVLA competitions, she found a way to balance her responsibilities for both teams.

“One time she got called into camp and decided not to go so she could be with us for a state cup final, which was really important back in the day,” Erin said. “It was never all about Abby. It was always about everyone else.”

Dahlkemper’s success continued at Atherton’s Sacred Heart, where she set goal-scoring records, then at UCLA, where she won the school’s first national championship while playing primarily as a defender for the first time in her career.

She was drafted into the NWSL, led the North Carolina Courage to three consecutive finals and won the league’s defender of the year honors in 2017 before finally getting her first chance with the senior women’s national team for an October call-up.

That’s when her career — and her life — came to a crashing halt.

She suffered a devastating ankle injury during a USWNT practice. Her ankle was “wrecked,” her dad said. But the healing took a turn when doctors discovered a serious sepsis infection in her toe. The infection was spreading and doctors wondered if she’d keep her foot, her dad said.

“She almost died,” he said. “Her doctor said, ‘You got here just in time.’”

Abby had surgery right away and couldn’t walk for six weeks.

“It put things into perspective,” she said. “It’s a privilege to play pro soccer. I don’t take it for granted. You just have gratitude. You can’t have happiness without gratitude.”

She was nursed back to health and became a mainstay for the national team.

In 2019, she was the starting center back while playing every minute for the team that won the World Cup in France.

“It’s hard to describe the pride you feel as a parent when your kid is out there doing that,” Andrew said. “And you’re nervous as heck. Mostly it’s just a feeling of elation. She’s achieving her dreams. It makes you emotional.”

She won a bronze medal with the team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, later suffered a devastating back injury that nearly ended her career, rehabbed herself back to form and was one of the last players cut from the 2024 Paris Olympics roster.

After returning to her NWSL team in San Diego following the Olympic break, she decided she was ready to come home and requested a trade to Bay FC.

“It just felt like the right time,” she said.

Bay FC defender Caprice Dydasco, who played with Dahlkemper across various youth national team camps and at UCLA, had been dreaming of being her teammate again.

“I get to hang out with my best friend every day and we play soccer together,” Dydasco said.

With Dydasco at left back and Dahlkemper at center back, “we are almost telepathic; we don’t even have to talk,” Dydasco said.

Since making her Bay FC debut on Aug. 30, Dahlkemper has started every match and played every minute as the club has gone 3-2-1 to put itself in position for a playoff spot, a rare feat for an expansion team. The San Diego Wave is the only expansion side to make the NWSL playoffs.

Montoya isn’t surprised that Dahlkemper, once his star pupil at MVLA, has been at the center of the turnaround.

“It’s been evident since she came on,” he said. “Good things happened.”

Erin was surprised last week when she was coaching one of MVLA’s U13 teams and she noticed the World Cup winner on the sidelines.

“Abby and her husband were there with the dog just watching, cheering on the girls,” Erin said. “I had no idea she was coming. She’s like, ‘I remember playing on this field.’ With how big she’s become, she’s still so humble.”

Dahlkemper smiles ear to ear when talking about her new team. She already signed a contract extension to play with Bay FC through 2027, which could make this the last step in her glorified career.

“The sky’s the limit for this team,” she said.

And she’s never been happier.

“I’m just extremely grateful to be home,” she said. “I think that translates to my on-the-field play, playing with freedom, happiness, knowing I have my friends and families watching. They’ve been there since the beginning.”