Jon Dunning
Staff Writer
jdunning1@murraystate.edu
Aiming to take her soccer career to new heights, senior forward Miyah Watford signed a professional contract with Iceland’s Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland.
IBV competes in Úrvalsdeild kvenna, Iceland’s highest-ranked professional women’s soccer league.
Watford should be a good fit for IBV, as she is one of Murray State’s all time top-tier soccer players. She sits at third in program history for Murray State’s women’s soccer in both points and goals, scoring 76 and 31, respectively. During the 2019 season, Watford set new single-season records for the program with 15 goals and 35 points.
Outside of Murray State, Watford is also a high achieving athlete. She was named the 2019 OVC Offensive Player of the Year, and she led the OVC in goals and points.
Watford found the opportunity to join IBV through a roommate’s agent on Feb. 19. While taking the chance to play professionally may seem like a no-brainer, it was a big decision for Watford. She wanted to finish out her academic college career before reaping the rewards for the hard work as a college athlete.
“My roommate’s agent reached out to my agent and said…there’s this offer,” Watford said. “I discussed it with my mom, my dad and my agent, and we basically were like, ‘alright, we got to see if we can graduate,’ so I had to talk to all my teachers and to make a decision.”
Watford said her teachers were able to work with her to help her graduate.
“I worked out a way with my teachers to figure out how we are going to make it work,” Watford said. “They were very helpful and they made it a lot easier on my decisions, because at the end of the day, I wanted to graduate.”
For Watford, who is from Indianapolis, Indiana, the journey to Iceland will be a totally new experience and way of life, as the time zone, currency, language and weather in Iceland will be completely different from what she knows.
“It’s, like, exciting, but a little nervous just because I don’t know what to expect,” Watford said. “I haven’t been there yet but I’m super excited. I’ve never been out of the country before so this will be my first time…I know it’s super cold, so I bought a coat. I heard that from people that visited that it’s a pretty atmosphere.”
Watford did not know she would be playing professional soccer at the end of her college career. She decided to make the best of college and see where it took her.
“I’ve always wanted to go pro [but] you don’t really expect it to happen,” Watford said. “It was really exciting. I just was like, ‘I guess I’m going to go to college, do the college experience, play soccer, do what I love and if everything goes right, then it will work out.’”
Watford playing for IBV puts her among numerous Murray State athletes who have reached the professional level. She sees her professional career as a testament to top-level college athletes that choose to play for smaller schools like Murray State.
“It’s exciting,” Watford said. “I didn’t know what Murray State was until they recruited me. Just being able to help get our platform out there is very exciting, like Ja [Morant] and Quincy [Williams] and Cameron Payne…Isaiah Canaan. It’s just really exciting to have people know that we have athletes that can compete at bigger levels but just prefer to go to smaller schools.”
Looking back at her legacy at Murray State, Watford thinks her teammates and herself have raised the bar for what is expected of future Murray State soccer players. Still, whoever those athletes are, Watford wants them to know to be successful during their time at Murray State, they need to give their best and remember to have fun doing it.
“I think we have set a standard for the soccer team and for future players to come in,” Watford said. “You just have to work hard. Not everything is earned. There’s obviously a reason why you’re at Murray State and the coaches like you, so just ball out is all I would say. You just have to have fun and you’ll meet nice people, and if you’re having fun doing what you love, it can’t really get any better.”