What the WUSA Means to Me

By Julie Kotz Richie

I recently watched an old videotape of my twelfth birthday party. Twenty screaming girls from my soccer team hammed it up for the camera, arm in arm, singing songs about soccer and shouting that our team was "number
one!" In the last scene on the video, my friend and I are lacing up our cleats on my front stoop before going to play asoccer game. Her father asks us what we want to be when we grow up. We answer simultaneously, "We're going to be soccer players!" His response: "No, come on. Be serious."

My parents always insisted I could be anything I wanted to be as long as I worked hard. But, as a little girl, aspiring to be a professional athlete other than a tennis player just wasn't possible. Pele was my idol. Eighteen years later, little girls who want to be professional soccer players are not easily dismissed with a laugh. Instead, they have female role models. Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain are now some of the most recognized athletes in the world -male or female.

As I watched the inaugural game of the WUSA, I actually cried. I cried in gratitude for these hardworking women. For their tenacity in doggedly pursuing their dreams when their fathers and society told them it wasn't possible. Millions of little girls all over the world will benefit from their efforts. Just as Billie Jean King was a trailblazer for women athletes in the 1970s, Mia and Brandi and the rest of the WUSA are now forging new opportunities for women.

Some say that the WUSA will never make it. That women's sports aren't exciting to watch. As a former high school and collegiate athlete, I disagree. I played Division I soccer for the nationally ranked Brown University team (or more accurately, I warmed the bench). On one thrilling day during my sophomore year, our team played the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the top-ranked team.

For once, I was glad to be standing on the bench cheering so I could marvel at the women who had dedicated their lives to soccer. The level was awesome. Mia Hamm's speed was electrifying as she plowed through our defenders. Kristine Lilly's ball control and agility left the audience gasping. These women were serious. We lost 3-0, and we were happy not to lose by more.

I didn't have the drive or the talent to be as good as those women on the Chapel Hill team, but I am extremely thankful that they and others like them on the U.S. National Team did. All the little girls who are passionate about soccer the way I was, now have posters of Mia and Brandi on their walls. Whereas my poster of Pele represented an unattainable level of soccer for women.

If I had a daughter who showed the courage, determination, courtesy and warmth toward fellow human beings that the founding members of the WUSA consistently demonstrate on and off the playing field, I would be
thrilled. In an era where violence in sports routinely makes headlines, here is a group of women who are tough and muscular yet polite and compassionate. They love what they do. They regularly sign autographs for kids, participate in soccer clinics and praise each other.

When a foul by Brandi Chastain on Mia Hamm resulted in a penalty kick that decided the first WUSA game, what did Mia Hamm do? According to Joseph White's AP story, "After the game, I walked up to her and said sorry it
had to be decided like that." What was Chastain's reaction to her team's loss? "It's hard to stand up here in defeat, but it doesn't change the pride I have in my heart." No need to say more. In an era when young girls starve themselves at eight and ten so they can look like the models on magazine covers, these kind of role models are needed.

I remember going to New York Cosmos games back during the pinnacle of the North American SoccerLeague in the 1970s and being awed by the crispness of the players' passes and the speed of the game. I always assumed it was because they were men. But if I had attended WUSA games as a little girl and seen that women were capable of the same feats, my soccer career might have turned out very differently. Perhaps I would not have
questioned my commitment to soccer when I wasn't in the starting lineup. Perhaps I would have had the resolve to be more aggressive on the field after my knee surgery. Perhaps I would have played more at Brown.

What is more important than how much money the WUSA makes is that it will raise the self-esteem of millions of little girls simply because it exists. I just hope it expands to include a Dallas team so I can take my two little boys. I know their future wives and daughters will appreciate my efforts.