Krysan St Louis has been about that goal-scoring life for close to a decade now, and at the age of 22, she is hopeful that her best years are still ahead of her. The Vieux Fort native known as Eggs is back in national colours after a two-year absence, and with her collegiate career behind her, she is looking forward to her next adventure. Along the way, she is supporting the next generation of female football talent, for whom she is helping blaze a trail.
St Louis truly announced herself back in 2017, when girls’ football in schools was still a thing. Playing for Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School (VFCSS), she was adjudged the top striker in the competition. VFCSS placed second. She also led Vieux Fort South to the national Under-16 girls’ championship title, scoring 13 goals. That same year, she led Saint Lucia in the Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Qualifier at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground.
Only 14 at the time, she remained eligible for the next tournament in 2019. That year proved pivotal for her. She scored eight goals in the Dominican Republic at the Under-17 level. In Guyana, she led the Under-20 team and scored five goals in four matches, including a hat trick against Antigua and Barbuda. Her senior debut at the Olympic qualifiers in Jamaica resulted in three more goals, for 16 markers in 11 fixtures over a span of months. She added 16 in eight matches for Vieux Fort South.
Fast forward to the just-concluded Windward Islands Football Association (WIFA) women’s tournament in St Vincent and the Grenadines, where Saint Lucia finished second to Barbados, and St Louis scored four goals in as many games. With a team composed entirely of home-based players, the senior Piton Girlz beat Barbados and Dominica and played the hosts to a goalless draw, useful preparation for Concacaf qualifiers coming up later this year.
“It was alright,” said St Louis of the first international competition since 2023.
“Long. Tiring. I mean, getting back into competing for the national team was good. Getting, like, more exposure moving forward as we try to go into our World Cup qualifiers and strengthen our team. So going into that competition was a good foundation for us.”
The squad for the WIFA competition included a number of teenagers, including Under-15 captain Torie Fanus and defender Steffany Allain, who started every match. Also featured were forwards Amaya Emmanuel and Kayla Polius. Emmanuel excelled at last year’s Concacaf Under-15 competition, whilst Polius shone at this summer’s Caribbean Football Union Under-14 Challenge. They each led their respective tournaments in goals scored.”
“I think they really have the potential to become great players,” insisted St Louis. “Being at that age, playing at that level, and being able to keep up with the senior players, being able to keep up with us, and maintain the standards that we want to create. It was great.
“I think they have a great future ahead of them, and they just need to keep the girls interested, and they will shine, for sure. They’ll get into school with the skills. It’s now just to make sure they are maintaining and balancing the academics. That would be the only thing, just maintaining the academics. But they have a good head start in getting into good schools.”
St Louis knows a bit about getting into a good school. She was scouted by Texas A&M International University in 2020, playing five years with the Dustdevils and earning a degree in business administration. In 74 games, she scored 20 goals and had ten assists. Her junior year included six goals and four assists, followed by six and one in her senior season.
She credits her love for the game to her brother, Trystan, who himself went on to play in the USA on scholarship, earning a master’s degree in kinesiology at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. He introduced his two sisters to the sport at an early age. St Louis says she and her twin sister were just four years old when she began her journey.
Over the past five years, several more young women have followed St Louis to the collegiate ranks. Since the first female footballers from Saint Lucia took up US scholarships in 2001, the scholarship pathway had been start-stop for some time. But in 2024, with the support of the Saint Lucia Football Association, nine girls went to school at once, including St Louis’ long-time strike partner, the free-scoring Arnicka Louis.
As she prepares for the next phase of her career, St Louis is working on securing an agent. Dipped her toes in the semi-professional pool twice before, including a stint with Chattanooga FC of the US Women’s Premier Soccer League, she now is hoping to make a more permanent move and carve another new path for Saint Lucia women’s football.
