Brooklyn Football Club secured their first win of the Gainbridge Super League season Sunday, handing Sporting JAX its first loss of the campaign. Two former Texas Longhorns contributed to Brooklyn’s effort. Jilly Shimkin started and played 80 minutes in the midfield while Ashlyn Miller came on as a substitute and assisted on what proved to be the game-winning goal.
During their time in Austin, Miller and Shimkin featured in the Raising Her Game documentary series. The three-part piece, currently running on Tubi and The Roku Channel, explores the simultaneous growth of their sport in the U.S. alongside that of women’s sports generally through the eyes and experiences of their 2023 Longhorns soccer team. As they’ve moved into the professional game, they’ve gained real-world perspective on some of the topics covered in the series, including the choice to attend a university in the first place.
“Going to college was the best decision of my entire life. It helped me grow as a person, as a soccer player,” Shimkin said.
“College shaped me to who I am today, just, like, maturity-wise and, like, socially,” add Miller. “For me personally, going to college was the best decision.”
“To attend a prestigious university like Texas while being able to do what you love and play soccer, I don’t think that many people can say that they’ve had that experience,” said Shimkin.
The series looks at how the Title IX-fueled expansion of college soccer (in which Texas had a meaningful part to play) benefitted the women’s game in the U.S. and abroad. It also acknowledges concerns that university-level soccer doesn’t do enough to develop elite players compared to other nations’ systems. With both Shimkin and Miller now in their second years as professionals, they’ve had teammates whose paths unfolded differently than theirs. Miller played last season in Brisbane, Australia.
“The majority of my team all kind of grew up in the academy of Brisbane,” she explained. “They start at a young age and they just grow into it and then they go pro from that, and it’s so different in Australia. If they want to play soccer in college, they have to come to the States.”
Miller saw Australian teammates who wanted to further their educations have to find ways to fit in university-level classes and study time around their obligations to their club. U.S. university athletic departments, in contrast, design their scheduling with academic considerations in mind, making it easier for student-athletes to maximize returns from both. Raising Her Game talks about that topic and also the growth of women’s professional opportunities. When Shimkin and Miller started in the Longhorn program, their current league did not yet exist.
“There are now two women’s professional leagues in the U.S. I think it’s a major milestone, and I think there’s still much more work – much more work – to be done in those realms and getting the standards that we want,” said Shimkin.
Indeed, a player can’t yet create generational wealth playing in the GSL or Australia’s Ninja A-League. Few women can in any of the world’s circuits. While it’s fantastic they can play pro and the game is trending in the right direction, Shimkin and Miller seem unlikely to regret their decisions to spend four years on campus.
“I want to open up my own business and open up my own coffee shops,” said Miller about her post-soccer plans. “My degree will help me do that.”
“Going to college is super important for young women and girls to have something to fall back on,” said Shimkin.
The lessons they absorbed at Texas went beyond the classroom.
“One thing I’ll take from Ange (Kelly, her head coach at Texas) that I think I’ll probably just carry on for the rest of my life, and I even tell younger kids this: you can’t teach effort. And for me, the only thing you can control is your effort,” said Miller.
“Our mantra was always “GUS,” so grit, unity, selflessness, and that’s something I take away a lot from Ange in Texas,” said Shimkin. “When things got tough, we got to rely on those core values, and I still kind of take that with me wherever I go.”
The Raising Her Game series goes in depth about the Longhorns’ 2023 season, chronicling the setbacks they endured on the way to ultimately winning their conference tournament championship. Coming into Sunday’s game, Brooklyn had lost the four games they had played in the 2026 fall season and needed a result. Miller and Shimkin hoped they could draw on the experience they’d had overcoming adversity in the collegiate environment to help their current squad.
“We had a strong culture, I think, at Texas where we stuck together through the hard times,” said Shimkin. “I think that’s something that we can bring from Texas to this team.”
Miller’s assist Sunday was indicative of her approach to the game, as she flew down the wing at maximum velocity to put herself into position to play a dangerous ball into the box. It’s also indicative of the type of competitive effort women athletes have had to prove over the last few decades they were capable of making. As one learns in the documentary for which Shimkin and Miller were interviewed, Title IX opened the door. Players like them continue to charge through it.
