Former North Texas Soccer players Trinity Byars, Samar Guidry and Samantha Meza have been selected to the 21-player roster, which will represent the United States at the 2018 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup to be held in Uruguay from Nov. 13 – Dec. 1. Current North Texas Soccer player Former North Texas Soccer player Reyna Reyes is also headed to Uruguay to represent Mexico.
The United States will compete in Group C, which will feature matches against Cameroon on Nov. 14, Korea DPR on Nov. 17 before finishing group play against Germany on Nov. 21. All of the USA’s games will be broadcasted on FS2.
Meza enters the tournament as one of the veterans of the squad, having scored two goals in 19 caps for the Under-17 team, while Byars and Guidry have four and three caps respectively, but each have been staples in the U.S. Youth National Team pipeline for years.
Meza was a part of the Dallas Kicks FC team that claimed three North Texas State Cups, four US Youth Soccer National League Frontier Conference titles, a pair of US Youth Soccer Southern Regional Championships and a National League Blue title. The Kicks reached the finals of the 2015 US Youth Soccer National Championships, and the Dallas native has twice been named to the US Youth Soccer National Championships Best XI team. Meza currently plays for Solar Soccer Club.
Byars was a member of the Solar SC team that won the 2016 National Championships in Frisco, Texas. Byars tied for the most goals in the age group with four, and the Richardson, Texas native also scored all three of her goals at the 2016 Southern Regional Championships after the group stage, including one goal in the final. Byars also won two North Texas State Cup titles with Solar.
Guidry has played her youth soccer with Solar and FC Dallas. Like Byars, the McKinney, Texas native has spent multiple years playing in the Classic League and reached the finals of the 2014 and 2015 North Texas State Cups with Solar SC.
Reyes competed with the North Texas Soccer Olympic Development Program (ODP) from 2011-2014 and was also a fixture on the South Region ODP team during the same time. The University of Alabama commit, who plays her club soccer for FC Dallas, competed in the 2013 and 2014 North Texas State Cup.