|
 As
head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team,
April Heinrichs has come a long way from the days when she used old Readers
Digest magazines as shin guards. She been a part of NCAA
championship teams and a World Cup championship team, and,
today, her name is recognized across the globe as a pioneer in
women’s soccer and in women’s sports in general. US Soccer
Players caught up with April recently to talk about her
induction as the first woman into the National Soccer Hall of
Fame as well as what she sees as critical for the future of
women’s soccer in the U.S.
Can you talk about your
induction into the Hall of Fame in 1998, especially as the first
woman to enter the Hall?
 You know, in my
world there are a lot of people who write about the “first”
person to do this and the “first” person to do that. Generally
speaking, throughout my adult soccer career, I’ve never set
goals to be the “first” of anything. I’ve never gone out and had
a plan to do something for the first time. I think it’s almost
impossible to be the first of anything. Generations of people
have put you in the position that you’re in. The point of the
game is to work with people that you enjoy being with, to excel
at what you’re doing, and to achieve excellence at every
possible turn. Yet having said that, when people write about me
being the first in the Hall, it’s a little different. I really
was the first woman. There is something special about
that. Of all of the “firsts” attributed to me, being the first
woman in the Hall is really something I’m honored to be a part
of. There was no generation in front of me, really. I think that
it’s such a grand honor. I was really excited to be a part of
it. Heck, I’d be thrilled to bee the 51st woman in the Hall.
(laughs) The Hall people have been really great. They’re all in
it for the right reasons.
What were your biggest
challenges as a professional female soccer player in your day?
I think for everyone
involved in women’s soccer, that everyone can remember a time
(for some women it’s a far away time, for others its closer), we
can all remember a time when there was less of everything. Less
recognition, less validation, less media, less money, less
support, less interest in the sport. Depending on how far back
you go in terms of your viewpoint, you recognize the grand steps
that the game has made, and you have a greater appreciation for
what the game has become today. For someone just creeping into
the women’s national team pool today, they think it must have
always been as competitive and rigorous. I remember being a
little girl, being dropped off at the field for the first time.
I used old Reader’s Digest magazines as shin guards. I slept in
my cleats. That’s when the game captured my heart. I traveled
that road up tol today, where we are, to a certain extent, a
part of mainstream conversation in sport. There has been a
cultural shift in the consciousness of America, and to a lesser
extent around the globe, in terms of acceptance in terms of
female athletes.
You mentioned the women’s
national team pool—-what was that process like in your playing
days?
The women’s pool
basically resembled the All-American list from collegiate
soccer. If you were recognized as a top collegiate player, if
you were named an All-American, you were likely to be on the
National Team. Those lists can be politically or policy driven.
On the whole, they were accurate. So the pools were smaller, and
dependent on collegiate athletics. We simply picked our best
players from the college game because there was nowhere else
that women were playing. I don’t think anyone could imagine
taking a college all-star team now to a world event.
Did you always know you were
going to try and get into coaching when your playing days were
over?
 I knew early on in
my playing career that I wanted to be a coach. I didn’t know it
would be possible to have it be a true, encompassing profession,
one in which I could actually make money (laughs). I always felt
the passion of the game and wanted to be a part of it. As a
female athlete, there were male role models I looked up to.
There weren’t female athletic role models, really, in any
sports. I looked up to men with a certain internal
understanding, that some things weren’t possible for me. For a
time I wanted to be Dr. J. I wanted to go to UCLA for John
Wooden and basketball. I connected with him at a young age, and
kept connecting still as an older person and a coach. When I
went into coaching, I felt that he was the most well-read,
brilliant coach in the world. I feel lucky to have been alive
while he was alive, to read his books and follow his career. As
far as hands-on role models, at UNC Anson Dorrance took me under
his wing and put me on the National Team. Our methods are not
similar, but he uses his traits to his advantage. My qualities
require me to a different coach.
What are the future challenges
for women’s soccer in the US? Obviously, the WUSA needs to get
back on its feet. Any thoughts on how to best accomplish this?
One of the things I
do when I’m interviewed is that I always put a disclaimer in
front of comments made in areas where I am not an expert. I am
not an expert in business world, in men’s soccer, in business
models. I will try to measure my comments with this in mind. If
I were asked, if I were part of a committee looking to start a
women’s professional league again in the U.S., I think we’d have
to figure out the mistakes that we had control over the first
time and evaluate those first. Launching a league is like
coaching or playing. There are things you have control over and
things you don’t control. I’d see if we could turn a few of
those things around, and maybe we’d be able to have a viable
league beyond three years. That’s the first and most important
step. The second thing would be to ask, ‘where is our
demographic?’ ‘where is our community?’ How are people going to
pay for tickets? What are they going to pay? Are they more
available for games at 4:00 or at 7:00? Would they attend games
on Saturday? That was one of the biggest problems, I think, with
our young demographic. The games were scheduled during the times
that the fans themselves were playing soccer! Those are my
initial thoughts, But, like I said, beyond that I really can’t
speak to the business model.
- January 2005 -
Where
Are They Now
Jill Beauchesne of the the U.S.
National Soccer Team Player Association and the on-line journal
Round Not Oval reports her conversation with Hall of Famers in
our newest feature.
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