New Ghirl Mariah Lee ready to roll

As the Scottish Women’s Premier League gets set to resume next month, new Celtic signing Mariah Lee is equally as ready to pull on the Hoops and hit the pitch when Celtic takes on Glasgow City on April 4.

You can thank fellow American Sarah Teegarden for persuading Lee to join Celtic as one of four winter signings by coach Fran Alonso. After playing three years at Stanford University in California, Lee and Teegarden had both played for Wake Forest University in North Carolina — though not at the same time — and thanks to a phone conversation with Teegarden, Lee was ready to sign.

Lee explained in an article appearing on the Celtic FC website: “I heard about Celtic and knew about the name and recognition especially on the men’s side and then I was looking at the roster and saw Sarah Teegarden’s name, and we both played at Wake Forest. She’s a couple of years older than me, but I got her number and was talking to her on the phone about her experience and she spoke really highly of the club and the competition and I felt like it would be a good fit after hearing what she said. 

“She came back to college for a game I was playing in, and we actually had a lot of mutual friends so we met. We never played together, but it’s a small soccer world so I knew of her.”

Lee played for the OL Reign, formerly the Seattle Reign, in the National Women’s Soccer League in the U.S. The Reign, now are under the auspices of Olympique Lyonnais, has featured such U.S. National Women’s Team stars as Megan Rapinoe and former USNWT midfielder Allie Long.

Welcome to Glasgow, Mariah!

Now, that’s more like it

Well, that’s better: There are few things better than a 4-0 drubbing of Kilmarnock to lift the spirits and put a spring in your step on the way to Saturday’s match at Celtic Park against Motherhell . . . sorry, Motherwell.

Of particular note in Tuesday’s game — outshining Scott Brown’s remarkable header, as well as both Odsonne Edouard and Albian Ajeti finally finding their groove — was the play of transfer acquisition Jonjoe Kenny and Celtic Reserves promotee Stephen Welsh. Kenny, an unknown factor going into the game, showed great potential for the full 90, while Welsh continues to improve as he gains playing time with the first team.

Welsh even acquired a unique nickname, courtesy of The Celtic Star’s Sandman, who rates players on a game-by-game basis, and whose ratings should be part of your post-game experience whether on The Celtic Noise forum or from The Star.

Rather than bemoan the fact that the Celts should have been playing like this months ago, as some are, I will take this victory and move on to Saturday. Hopefully they can do the same to Motherwell at Celtic Park.

But wait, there’s more . . .

While Kenny was the only move to Celtic FC over the transfer window, with a couple of key players leaving and woefully mentioned in previous posts, the Celtic FC Women’s team was active in the transfer window, losing three players but gaining four others.

Stanford’s Mariah Lee joins the Ghirls in Green.

Of special note to us in California is the Ghirls in Green’s acquisition of former Stanford University forward Mariah Lee. Lee, formerly of the Seattle-based OL Reign of the National Women’s Soccer League (and a club, formerly called Seattle Reign, which is now under the umbrella of Olympique Lyonnaise . . . pun completely intended), made her own mark for the Stanford Cardinal, and was a teammate during her college days of current U.S. Women’s Team phenom Catarina Macario.

Fun fact: Lee is a concert violinist.

Green joins Jacynta Galabadaarchchi, Izzy Atkinson, and Anna Filbey on the Celtic Women’s team. Australian Galabadaarchchi joins Celtic from Napoli, Ireland’s Atkinson joins Celtic from Shelbourne in Dublin, and Wales’ Filbey comes to Celtic via Tottenham Hotspur.

Welcome to the Hoops, Ghirls!