Coachulla Creek star goes from CFC Academy to the CFC Women’s roster

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The Chattanooga FC women finish the regular season Saturday in Huntsville. This is the team’s first season back since 2018, and with it a local standout — Ringgold native Ana Silva.

“I would go to the women’s games, the men’s games and I would always want to be like the one playing on the field. So to be playing on the field now, it’s crazy,” Silva said.

A former Coahulla Creek star, Silva grew up in the Chattanooga FC Academy. She always dreamed of playing for the parent club. This year, the women’s team was revived — giving Silva the opportunity to make that dream reality.

“What does she bring to this team?”

“Oh, a lot of heart, a lot of desire, good skill, good soccer acumen. She knows how to play,” CFC Women’s coach Randy Douglas said.

That was evident to Douglas before Silva even tried out for CFC. As Point University’s coach, he’d heard about her, but never actually saw her play until a Georgia playoff game.

“We noticed this player for Coahulla Creek, and then I told my assistant, ‘I think that’s Ana Silva,'” Douglas remembered. “I said, ‘We’re probably too late to try to get her to school,’ but I had already been given the job at CFC, so I want to talk to her about playing for Chattanooga… She said, ‘I would love to try out.’ So she was here at the tryouts. She did really well. I talked to her and said, ‘Could you commit to coming to practices and everything?’ She said yes.”

“It’s super fun, just meeting everybody. You have people from around the world, and it’s just crazy to meet people and get to play the sport that we all love,” Silva said. “Being like women’s soccer, you don’t get as much fans, but here, everybody comes out. The Chattahooligans come to every single game, home away, and just the fans are so supportive.”

Silva represents a new recruiting priority for the Chattanooga women.

“I think for us to have any sustainability moving forward, we’re going to have to have a good core of local players that are either in their high school season now, like in their last year coming up, or they just graduated, because these are the girls that I want to have on the team four years from now,” Douglas said.

The Ladies in Blue want to end the season on a high note with a win in Huntsville Saturday.