Meet Shira Samuels-Shragg

VISIT DALLAS: Having grown up in Coppell, Texas, how does it feel to play professionally in the area where you developed as a young athlete?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: It feels surreal, and I try daily to really soak it in and be fully present! During my career, I have been extremely blessed to have played in any city or team that I had an interest in, but I’d be lying if Dallas never crossed my mind. I’d always stop the daydreaming though because there was literally no women’s professional soccer team in the city. Then the Neil family entered the chat! Dallas Trinity F.C. being founded literally changed my dreams to a reality, and the fact the club was established in the latter stages of my career just felt like a full circle moment - like it was already written.

VISIT DALLAS: Can you share a memorable experience from your time playing international with the USWNT and English National Team?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: This may sound strange, but my memorable experience for the USWNT was earning the call up itself. In women’s football the USWNT are always considered one of the world’s best, so I felt like when I received that email it was an exclusive invitation to play with some of best players of the world. For someone like me who loves to compete, it was a joy to be in such an environment.

I have so many memorable experiences from my time with the English National Team. It is one of my proudest achievements in my soccer career. If I have to pick one, I think I have to go with my first cap, which I was given the opportunity to start. Then, in this match, I scored my first goal for England. I remember so many small details about how the goal happened, but I think my favorite is how my teammates embraced me in the celebration. I could feel their genuine happiness for me and the team and that is something I’ll always cherish.

VISIT DALLAS: What role does mentorship play in your career, and who are some mentors that have inspired you along the way?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: I think mentorship is pivotal in just doing this thing called life, so I have the same mindset regarding a sports profession. I believe in order to have longevity and success in a career, it takes a village. My mom is hands down my biggest mentor for a multitude of reasons. She is a strong, loving, Nigerian woman, so this means she will always give me the truth. Always. I’ve had my growing pains with this, especially when I was younger in my career, but I realized that my mom has standing. For one, she is my mom, and she knows me far better than most, and two, she is the only person who has visited me in every single city I have played in professionally. Instead of being defensive, I tried to adapt to a growth mindset. How can I take what she’s telling me and start working on said critique in training? This approach has helped me a lot!

The other two mentors that have impacted my career immensely are my high school coach Chris Stricker and my collegiate coach Paul Ratcliffe. Stricker let me be me at all times, and he never tried to change me. I appreciate this so much because it let me succeed AND fail in the ways I needed to be the person I am today. He led our team with grace and fortitude, and he taught me a life lesson I still try to embody this very day: you reap what you sow. We got that engraved inside our 2009 5A state championship rings.

Paul Ratcliffe influenced not just my soccer trajectory, but my life itself because he recruited me to go to Stanford University. I was surrounded by excellence everywhere I looked inside the classroom and out of it, and perhaps more importantly, I was surrounded by people willing to help me achieve whatever I wanted. Coach Paul also taught me how to bend a ball, so I owe him a big thank you for that too!

VISIT DALLAS: How do you handle setbacks or moments of adversity, and what advice would you offer to young athletes facing challenges?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: Leaning on my faith is how I handle adversity. I believe in God wholeheartedly, so with that I believe everything happens for a reason, and moments will happen outside of my understanding. This doesn’t mean I don’t get upset, or frustrated, or sad, etc., because I do. It is heartbreaking putting the amount of time I do into my craft, and it not working out the way you envisioned. My testimony is that in these during these valleys, I still find joy in chaos and a peace that makes no sense. I am able to not get too high on the highs or too low on the lows and remain rooted because of my firm foundation in Him.

My advice to younger athletes facing challenges is control what you can control! There will be so many obstacles coming your way, both foreseen and unforeseen. How you choose to react and respond is always your choice. Choose wisely.

My other advice is work as big as you dream! I know Instagram and TikTok can sometimes create this illusion that it’s quick and easy to accomplish your goals, but it’s a process. Enjoy and trust the process and watch the magic happen along the way. I promise it’ll be beautiful.

VISIT DALLAS: What is it like balancing your personal identity and national pride when playing for different national teams?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: My parents are Nigerian, and my brothers and I were born in England, and I grew up in America. So I'm Nigerian, English and American. And what I tell people who ask is all three are a really big part of me. I love Nigerian food. I think I love football so much because of being born in England and being around the culture and growing up in America taught me to work hard and enjoy your life balance. I think all of them established how I want to live every day. It's a big part of me, and how I try to live life. I think I chose to play for England because there's such a passion and culture for the love of the game. It meant a lot when I got that call up, and it just felt right.

VISIT DALLAS: How do you use your platform to advocate for diversity and inclusion within the sport of football?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: I think I can always be better at this, so if anyone has any ideas, I am open to hear them! For now, I try to just be me, and if anyone has questions on how I got involved or started, I do my best to reply and share my story.

VISIT DALLAS: What are some goals you've set for yourself and Dallas Trinity FC during your time with the team?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: Our goals as a team is to place first in the USL Super League, to clinch playoffs and win a championship. My personal goal is to do everything I can as a teammate to help my team do so in any fashion that may be.

VISIT DALLAS: How do you approach the mental aspect of football, especially when preparing for high-stakes matches?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: I try to approach every game the same mentally. I remind myself that I love this game so much, and I do it because I enjoy it. I also remind myself that I’ve put the work in. I’ve prepared, I’ve trained, and now it’s just time to execute what I’ve done countless times.

VISIT DALLAS: What are some of the common misconceptions about women in the sports industry?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: I think one common misconception about women in the sports industry is the media coverage is not the same as men sports because the viewing numbers aren’t high when aired. The real reason was women just weren’t giving the same opportunity. It tended to be a ‘prove it first’ basis whereas male counterparts were given TV time slots with little to no benchmarks. I don’t know the nitty details of how, but I remember a time Spikeball and Drone Races were given TV slots on ESPN but not some of my league games. Regardless of how the opportunity has now come to rise, the numbers have been extremely positive and has proved the misconception wrong. Whether it be women’s soccer, women’s basketball, etc. there is 100% an audience. There is a shift occurring on the main sports channels, and I look forward to watching their continued revival. They’ve been sleep, but they’re waking up! Shoutout to those who always knew though like my close friend Haley Rosen, CEO of JustWomensSports. She created a space that enhances media coverage for women’s sports daily!

VISIT DALLAS: Can you describe a time you faced gender-based challenges and how you overcame them?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: When I first got on Instagram I got the whole "get in the kitchen" comments, or the "girls don't play sports or football". To be honest, I never really gave it a second thought. It never really affected me. Something that might have affected me that was frustrating is that I've played for a lot of great clubs, and I'm really proud of that, but anytime there is a priority of who needed the pitch for training, it always went to the men without hesitation. That's tough, because I understand that maybe the men's team had been established longer, but at the end of the day, we're both doing the same job. It did get frustrating sometimes when it was "men get it just because". I would say the growth of that from the beginning stage of my career to now is that a lot of the clubs I played for later had their own women's facility, and they had their own locker room or we had our own kitchen staff. I think it's something I had to be patient with. It's something I mentally noted that I was like, "Huh?" Even if you were looking for a game on TV, it always says it's a soccer game or football for the men's game, but then if it's a woman's game, it says "woman's." Little things like that, you make a note, but I'll never want to be bitter about those things. I'm super optimistic that it will change, even if it's taking a lot of time. You've seen the audience with women's football just spiking. Same with basketball and all other sports. I'm just excited to see the future, because I think a lot of stuff I'm seeing now will never be something the next generation has to experience.

VISIT DALLAS: What are your thoughts on the evolving landscape of women's' sports?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: It's so cool to see. I've been having these conversations with teammates for a while, in terms of I think we have a good product in women's soccer and it just wasn't getting views. It wasn't having the visibility to get the views. I think now we have a great opportunity. We're being shown on sports channels. We have good game time coverage. You see the numbers that it's doing, and it's amazing to see. The product hasn't changed. Obviously, each year, players are going to get better. The infrastructure in terms of how you take care of your body all is going to improve. Those things evolve but we've always had a great product. Now we're getting viewership and it's really cool to see the numbers. One of my really close friends from school, who I've had these conversations with a lot, started Just Woman Sports. She had this idea for an Instagram account that she and her sister started to pull in content from around the world of highlights from womens' sports. Now she's turned into a huge business with big names that have invested in the brand, such as Kevin Durant. I just think it's so cool that something that we always believed inis being backed up with data and facts. That's awesome.

VISIT DALLAS: What advice would you give to young girls aspiring to play professional football?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: If you want to play, believe it. That's like the biggest obstacle in life. Whatever you want to do, you have got to believe it wholeheartedly, because, unfortunately, there are going to be people who tell you can't. You have got to just believe it, almost to a delusional fact. You can do whatever it is that you want to do. Whatever you're passionate about. My favorite player is Thierry Henry. When I met him he told me, "dream as big as you train". That's something that really stuck with me, and I try to do every day. That would be my advice to the younger generation. As a kid you have no limits on what you want to do and what you dream you can do. Apply that same thinking to your work ethic. Do whatever you want to do and do it with effort and intensity and hard work. You're going to get to where you want to with that mindset.

VISIT DALLAS: What does it mean to you to come full circle by playing professionally in Dallas, and what has Dallas taught you as a player?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: Iit's awesome being back. I grew up in Coppell and lived here since I was four. It feels surreal. I've been fortunate enough to play in any city or on any club that I had interest in. Growing up you dream of playing for your hometown team. But I would always stop myself from thinking about it so much because there literally was not a team here. Fast forward to our phenomenal ownership group, the Neil family, to bringing this club to fruition and giving me this opportunity. It's just feels right. It feels like a full-circle moment. I try not to take it for granted, and focus on being present for each day of it. It's been really fun. My mom and older brother are still here, and my middle brother, who lives in California, comes back a lot. My older brother has come to every home game, which is really cool. My mom comes a lot as well, so it's been very fun. Even friends whom I grew up with have been able to come see me play, which has been easier than when I was playing in Europe. It's been special.

VISIT DALLAS: How has being based in Dallas influenced your career or the opportunities available to you?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: I think it's huge. I don't think if I grew up somewhere else, the projection of my career would have gone the way it did. Dallas is such a hub for young talent, especially in women's soccer. You look at Sting being one of the first women's clubs to do what they did. Then ODP development, such as North Texas, always had a really solid team. I was always competing against really good talent. Even high school matches were super competitive. Just being in those environments and competing against those people helped me. I'm super grateful to be in Dallas. It's a sports city.

VISIT DALLAS: What makes Dallas a unique place for women to pursue their career in professional sports?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: Dallas has a little bit of everything, especially with the Wings relocating here and us playing at Fair Park. Those are two really good sports teams in two big sports. With the youth sports scene here in Dallas, you can play anything. There's just so many options available, and that's only going to help you. As a kid, you learn so much in sports. Maybe you don't think about it that way, but you truly learn so much about time management, working hard, what it takes to keep going and so much more. There's all these little lessons and that youth sports teaches. I think Dallas does a really good job of providing opportunities for families and kids.

VISIT DALLAS: When you’re not working, where in Dallas do you find inspiration and relaxation?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: That's a good question. I like Chinese food. One relatively new spot I enjoy is Maison Chinese. Their fried rice is really good and the atmosphere there is amazing. They have this round table which is great for six to eight people, and you can spin the table, which is crazy, It's like a family-style serving. I thought that was cool. The weather outside is beautiful right now so I enjoy the Katy Trail Ice House. I love sitting there and just chatting with people. If you love dogs, it's dog-friendly and it's a great spot for vibes.

VISIT DALLAS: What do you think the World Cup will mean for the soccer community here in Dallas?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: It's going to be huge. I'm so excited. I don't think people seek out soccer as much as they would seek an NFL game. But if it's in your city and in front of your face when you go to a bar, you're going to fall in love with it. I'm really excited for those non-soccer fans to just feel the atmosphere of a World Cup. There's nothing like it. They'll become fans and have that memory forever. That's how you create new fans. I'm really pumped. I think it's going to help elevate soccer in Dallas.

VISIT DALLAS: In additional to catching a Dallas Trinity FC match at the Cotton Bowl, what other Dallas events would you recommend to a visitor?

CHIOMA UBOGAGU: A Cowboys game is always solid. I think Mavs games are always fun. And the Dallas Wings of course. I'm a big sports person, so I'm always going say those first. Dallas has a lot of great concerts too, whether it's at American Airlines Center or any of the music venues across the city. Whatever your little thing is, you can find it in Dallas.