For the FC Dallas soccer club, Elizabeth Angle played center back, the last line of defense to protect the goal and stop the opposition from scoring. Her coach, Luis Ramos, described it as the place where courage lives, pressure comes fast and fear has no room to stay.
A smart, steady and joyful player, Ramos said Elizabeth made it look easy. Even after three years of training together, he takes little credit for her strengths, attributing the best of Elizabeth to the support of her family.
Elizabeth Angle (second row, third from left) played for Luis Ramos (second row, far right) for three years, as part of the FC Dallas soccer club in Frisco.
Courtesy of Luis Ramos
During a game last April, Elizabeth — known to those closest to her as Lizzie — broke her right ankle while blocking a shot. Despite needing surgery and a bright pink cast, Ramos said she was resilient in her recovery.
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By late August, Elizabeth was already donning her navy blue jersey and sporting No. 3 on her back. Ramos recalled she returned to the field quicker than even her doctors expected.
“It was just incredible to see her development and her preparation coming back from injury … understanding that the game could be taken away from you at any moment,” Ramos told The Dallas Morning News in an interview earlier this week. “So now, the lesson is for her teammates, understanding that life can be taken away from you in an instant.”
Elizabeth Angle, 16, played for the FC Dallas soccer club in Frisco for three years.
Courtesy of FC Dallas
On Sunday, days into a winter storm coating North Texas in snow, ice and sleet, Elizabeth went sledding with a group of friends in Frisco. Shortly before 2:30 p.m., police say a 16-year-old boy driving a Jeep Wrangler was pulling her and another teen behind him when the sled hit a curb and then a tree.
Elizabeth, a 16-year-old Wakeland High School sophomore, was killed. The second girl, later identified as Gracie Brito, also a 16-year-old Wakeland sophomore, was hospitalized in critical condition. She died Tuesday.
People gather around a makeshift memorial at the site where two girls were involved in sledding accident during a winter storm on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in Frisco.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
Elizabeth’s mother, Megan Angle, shared the news early Monday on Facebook, describing her second-eldest daughter as a bright light, fun spirit and brave soul.
After her milestone birthday on Dec. 21, Megan said Elizabeth had just gotten her driver’s license and a car. In a photo, she beamed next to a white Hyundai SUV, a red bow draped on its hood.
She had “her whole life ahead of her,” Megan wrote.
“Life is fleeting and precious,” she continued. “I take comfort that she had people helping her til the end. We will never be the same…”
Elizabeth’s older sister, Caroline, wrote in a tribute on Instagram that Elizabeth was a force: fiery, adventurous, open-minded and silly.
When she wasn’t No. 3 for FC Dallas or No. 11 for Wakeland, she loved hanging out with her friends, shopping and cracking jokes. Caroline wrote that Elizabeth wanted to go to the University of Mississippi, become a nurse and one day, have kids of her own.
“Because of a freak accident, she will never graduate high school, never play at her last soccer game, never go to prom, get married, or live out the rest of her life that would have been so amazing,” Caroline said. “I pray that she’s in a better place right now, dancing with Jesus, and looking over my family and I.”
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Ramos, Elizabeth’s coach, said he found out about the accident in Puerto Rico, where he was attending a family funeral.
The weeks and months ahead will be a painful time for the team, this he knows. But together, Ramos said they will honor Elizabeth by staying strong and united, ensuring that through them, her legacy lives on.
Before returning to Texas, Ramos did the same.
At his farm in San Germán, a historic, tranquil town in the West Indies, he planted a tree in Elizabeth’s memory.
It was a tamarind tree, he said. A slow-growing, long-lived evergreen.
Staff writers Timia Cobb and Elissa Jorgensen contributed to this report.