Bragging Rights on the Pitch

Ask Creighton men's soccer midfielder Brady Bragg and his younger sister, women's soccer forward Anna Bragg, what their relationship looked like growing up, and they'll both smile, laugh and point to the same moment. On opposite sides of the 'turfed' yard, they manned their own makeshift, two-cone goal, eying each other intently as younger sisters Kelsey and Addy chased the ball in the midfield and parents Scott and Jenny watched the chaos unfold.

In these intense backyard soccer battles at their home in Omaha, Neb., the idea of a tie was laughable — the Bragg siblings did not stop until a winner was crowned.

"There'd always be a winner no matter what, either racing in the middle of the street to determine the winner or something like that. But Brady and I would always be on opposite teams," noted Anna. "I feel like we never played on the same team because that would probably be a little unfair and we wanted to play against each other."

That passion and friendly competitive instinct was only natural in the Bragg house. It was the kind of environment where soccer felt inherited as much as learned.

Everyone in the Bragg family played soccer, but it was their father, an Evansville Division I soccer alum, who helped steer all four children toward the game.

"Before we could walk, [my dad was] like, 'These kids will play soccer," recalled Anna.

Scott Bragg even turned the backyard of Anna and Brady's childhood home into a turf field, which served as soccer turf and putting green. It was here that the infamous two-on-two battles for Bragg-ing rights were held in full force.

As the Bragg siblings grew up, Kelsey and Addy chose to pursue other sports over soccer, but neither Anna nor Brady could shake the game.

Though Brady was a year older, Anna committed to Creighton first, in her senior year at Marian High School in Omaha.

It was the nudge from her club coaches that prompted Anna to seriously explore the possibility of playing Division I soccer. Not long after, she met Creighton women's soccer head coach Jimmy Walker and committed to the Bluejay program in Dec. 2023.

Brady's path to playing under the lights of Morrison Stadium began a little bit differently. After Creighton Prep won the 2023 state championship title his senior year, the call that followed, from Creighton men's soccer head coach Johnny Torres, gave Brady a walk-on tryout opportunity.

"I didn't know where I was going to college, and I was like, 'You know what?' I'll try," thought Brady.

In the Fall of 2023, as Anna began her senior year at Marian, Brady's first semester at Creighton was largely spent in the Rasmussen Center, training by himself or with a friend as he prepared for the upcoming walk-on tryout.

When his opportunity came later that year, Brady stood out among the four other walk-on candidates, convincing Torres and the Bluejay staff that he was the one to bet on.

Brady still remembers where he was when he got the call from Torres. Sitting on the couch in his freshman year dorm, he heard the words that would jumpstart his Creighton soccer career.

"I was relieved [and] really happy," said Brady. "Tthe coaching staff saw something [in me] and it pushed me to climb that next ladder."

With one Bragg already on campus and freshly added to the men's team, the 2024–25 academic year brought Anna to Creighton's campus for her freshman year.

While Anna was stepping into the new world of collegiate soccer, her brother's second year didn't unfold the way he hoped.

In June of 2024, the summer before his sophomore year at Creighton and first season with the team, Brady broke his tibia in the first game of summer league.

Stuck on crutches for the 2024 season, Brady's first taste of college soccer came in an unconventional way: trying to find his place on the team while sidelined from the very game he had worked so hard to play.

"I was just trying to be around the guys as much as possible, boost them up and do anything I could on crutches," said Brady. "It was tough because I'd only spent two months in the spring getting to know the guys, but as that season went on, I became really close."

That year, Brady learned to contribute while out injured, but he also continued with a role he held since he was a kid — cheering on his little sister as she started to make her mark on the pitch.

For Anna in her freshman season, the lights shining down from Morrison Stadium were a lot bigger than those of Marian. She said the transition to the fast-paced style of college soccer wasn't without its challenges. However, she had a great model for the way to approach the field.

"Going into it, I had the same mindset as Brady. I really wanted to step on the field, and make an impact in any way," said Anna. "Time just kind of helped with that. I saw the field for 10 minutes or I saw the field for 15 and then the next game, I'd want 20."

Through the ups and downs of Anna's first season and Brady's season-long injury, the two Bragg siblings always had each other to lean on.

"It's everything [to have that support]. We've both had such different journeys, yet gone through so much of the same thing," said Anna. "It's just easy to lean on each other, we've done that for a lot of our lives."

That support — along with the competitive spark that defined their backyard battles as kids — carried into the 2025 season. November 1, in particular, would prove significant not just for each soccer team's playoff hopes, but also a day the siblings would remember as one of their favorite shared moments on campus.

A double-header defined that Saturday afternoon, with the women's team battling St. John's and the men taking on then-No. 23 Seton Hall.

In the first match of the doubleheader, Anna opened the scoring account in the 31st minute, rising through traffic to head a curling corner into the net and hand Creighton a 1–0 edge. With her goal on the board, attention shifted quickly to seeing whether Brady could respond with a goal of his own.

"I remember going off the field … and everyone [in my family] was like … 'Points for Anna!' Not saying Brady needed to score but like, 'Oh, let's see what Brady can do this game,'" recalled Anna.

The implications of Anna's goal were not lost on Brady or anyone else in the locker room before the men's team took to the pitch. Of course he was happy for his sister, Brady said, but he also knew that he had to even the score. The sibling rivalry was back in full force.

"We lifted weights right after the women's game and Scott [Bankers], our lifting coach, comes up to me and said, 'You've got to score now'. Then Johnny [Torres] and [Michael] Gabb were like, 'Did you see your sister score?" noted Brady.

Brady would go on to do exactly that, scoring an eerily similar header to his sister's in nearly the same minute, giving the men's team the equalizer.

"I was sitting next to my mom [and then all of a sudden], 'He actually scored, oh my goodness!' It was a really cool, surreal moment," said Anna.

While two goals by siblings on the same day was a rare and memorable event, the Bragg family's presence in the stands — grandparents and cousins included — is a familiar and ongoing sight at Morrison Stadium.

"We have a lot of family in Omaha, so having them is just a huge benefit and a bonus and seeing them after the games. They're so proud of us," said Anna.

Even Scott Bragg, whose time at Evansville made him a longtime Bluejay skeptic, can now be seen wearing Creighton gear. It seems that all it took to put the Missouri Valley Conference rivalry to rest and make a Bluejay fan out of him was pride for his son and daughter … and a little bit of Bluejay merch.

"He's wearing Creighton gear now," Brady said with a smile. "He's got a 'Creighton Dad' shirt."

As their second season wearing the white and the blue comes to a close, neither Brady nor Anna take for granted how unique it is to have a sibling along for the journey.

"Something like that doesn't happen where every day you're playing the same sport as your brother at the same college. That's insane to me and I don't think we've realized it enough that it's really special," noted Anna.

And though they may not always say it aloud, each has been shaped by the other, learning lessons that go beyond the field.

"The biggest lesson I've learned from Anna is … she's super resilient. I'll see her at her worst and she's like, 'I don't want to play soccer anymore,' and then she'll get up and fight right back through and play again and then do it again. It's really cool to see her commitment and her resilience in anything she does," remarked Brady.

What Brady sees in Anna, she sees in him: a drive and commitment that pushes her to keep going.

"I learned from Brady that you can do anything you set your mind to," said Anna. "Watching him go from not knowing where he was going to college in the spring of his senior year of high school and then watching him grind through the fall, do his soccer stuff alone, come out, try out in front of all these D1 kids … and then end up making the team … Now looking a year later, I'm like, Wow, you really can [do] anything you set your mind to."

From fierce battles in their backyard in Omaha to trading points under the lights of Morrison Stadium just down the road, the Braggs have blended sibling rivalry with a shared story of perseverance, hard work and unshakable support.

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