Tuesday, November 11, 1997
Juggling act
W.SOCCER Coach, U.S. National Team player and mother, Joy
Fawcett is keeping several plates spinning at once
By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Contributor
If you thought you had a busy schedule with classes and other
activities, think again.
Joy Fawcett, head coach of UCLA’s women’s soccer team, juggles
not only the daily activities that come from coaching a Division I
soccer program but also the responsibilities that come with being a
mother, wife and player for the U.S. National Soccer Team.
Fawcett’s rigorous schedule is evident with a look at what she
did one recent weekend.
****
Oct. 31
6 a.m. The day begins bright and early for Fawcett, although not
as early as usual. "That’s sleeping in for me," she says. Since the
drive from Rancho Santa Margarita to Westwood is a good two hours,
Fawcett usually gets up at 4 a.m. on weekdays and leaves the house
by 5:15 to be on time for 8 a.m. practice at the UCLA Intramural
Field. However, since today is game day and there’s no practice,
Fawcett gets a break; she doesn’t need to be at work until 10
a.m.
7:15 a.m. After getting her two children ready and grabbing a
quick bite to eat, Fawcett leaves the house. Her first stop is her
3-year-old daughter Katie’s elementary school where she drops off
Katie and a cousin for school.
The next stop in the Fawcett taxi service is her mother’s house
in Huntington Beach. There, Fawcett leaves Carli, her 5-month-old
girl, in the loving arms of her mother, who will take care of the
infant for most of the morning.
8 a.m. Fawcett hits the freeways. Most people would dread
dealing with traffic for four hours round-trip, but Fawcett looks
forward to her daily drive. "It’s the time I have by myself to
think," she says.
10 a.m. Fawcett makes it on time for a meeting in UCLA’s Morgan
Center.
1 p.m. It’s one hour away from game time as Fawcett and her
Bruins get ready for the contest against the Arizona Wildcats on
Spaulding Field.
2 p.m. Her 13-2 soccer team gets a big scare from the 8-7-1
Wildcats. The No. 15 Bruins come from behind, scoring two goals in
the last 13 minutes to beat the upset-minded Wildcats, 2-1.
Fawcett gets to see her two children and husband Walter after
the game. Walter, who works with computers, makes it to most of the
Bruins’ games with the children in tow.
"He could just say, ‘I’m going to stay home while you work,’ but
he doesn’t," she says. "In order to spend time together, he’ll come
to practice and all the games. He’s probably our biggest fan." The
game finishes at 4:15, but the day is nowhere near over for
Fawcett.
5 p.m. She attends a social for the team at the Morgan Athletic
Center. The players and their parents have a chance to socialize
after the victory. Fawcett leaves school at 7 p.m.
9 p.m. Since it’s Halloween, she takes her two children
trick-or-treating in her mother’s neighborhood. But her time with
her children and husband is limited since she has to be in
Tennessee the next morning to start as a defender for the U.S.
National Team as they take on Sweden.
10:50 p.m. Fawcett takes a red-eye flight out of Los Angeles
International Airport to Atlanta, Georgia. She gets some
much-needed sleep on the plane.
Nov. 1
5 a.m. After deplaning, Fawcett must drive an hour and a half to
reach her hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
7 a.m. Fawcett gets a whole hour of sleep before she must go to
the field and prepare to play. "UCLA’s very supportive about me
playing (on the National Team)," she says. "I think it helps the
(women’s soccer) program. It gives us visibility."
12:30 p.m. Fawcett plays an integral part in the United States’
3-1 victory over Sweden. It’s her first international soccer match
since having Carli five months ago.
After the game, she has some free time, the first she’s had in
days. "Normally the kids go with me, but since I was only gone for
24 hours, I didn’t take them," Fawcett says.
Nov. 2
10 a.m. She leaves Tennessee to coach the Bruins against the
Arizona State Sun Devils at 4 p.m. in Westwood. She goes straight
to Spaulding Field from the airport.
3 p.m With an hour before game time, Fawcett gives her team a
pep talk and reviews the game strategy against the Sun Devils.
4 p.m. Fawcett coaches the Bruins to their 15th victory of the
season and eighth in a row (both school records) as her team
wallops the Sun Devils 3-0. Carli and Katie jump into their
mother’s arms at the game’s final whistle. But her time with her
children is once again limited because she has to entertain a
recruit after the game.
7 p.m. Fawcett takes a recruit and her parents to dinner in
Westwood. She finally heads back for home at 8:15 p.m.
****
So the big question is: how in the world does she find time to
juggle everything?
"I’ve had a lot of help," Fawcett says. "If I didn’t have my
mom, who helps take care of the kids during the day, I wouldn’t be
able to do it. Also, my husband. When I am gone or at games, he
brings them to all the games. So, if I didn’t have all that help I
wouldn’t be able to do everything I do."
Fawcett also coaches a Youth-13 soccer team on Tuesday and
Thursday nights.
"I have a hard time saying no," Fawcett says. "I guess that’s my
problem."
Because she can’t say no sometimes, Fawcett has acquired a
rigorous though enjoyable schedule. But it can get tiring.
"There are times when I’ll be exhausted," Fawcett says. "I’ll
just have to set priorities as to what has to be done right now,
and then get the rest of it done later until I get my energy level
up."
Being a mother, wife, coach and player, Fawcett must indeed
prioritize.
"My family comes first," Fawcett says. "I don’t think you can
bring kids into the world and not put them first. Then comes UCLA
and then the National Team."
So, how well does Fawcett perform her roles?
As a mother, Fawcett believes she does a good job raising her
two daughters.
Although she regrets not being there all the time, she finds
ways to see her children whenever possible.
"If I couldn’t bring them with me I wouldn’t be able to do it,"
Fawcett says. "Like, if I couldn’t bring them on my National Team
trips, then I don’t think I’d do it."
Although she and Walter don’t see much of each other, they find
ways to meet around their hectic schedules.
"He might get sick of me if he saw me so much," says Fawcett
jokingly. "Who knows?"
How is Fawcett the player?
U.S. National coach Tony DiCicco said last year that Fawcett is
"the best defender in the world."
At the 1996 Olympics, Fawcett made the game-winning assist
against China to give the United States the gold medal.
Fawcett, 29, shows no signs of slowing down.
"She makes me go one-on-one with her," said UCLA star forward
Traci Arkenberg. "She’s a great defender. Whenever I score (against
her) I get really excited, and she gets really mad. As a player
there is nothing more you can ask for than going up against the
best defender in the world as a forward. It makes you that much
better. It’s a great thrill to play with her."
How about Fawcett the coach?
"I think she’s a very good coach," assistant coach Paul
Ratcliffe said. "When she says something, the players have the
utmost respect for her, because she’s actually doing it as we
speak."
Fawcett has brought the UCLA women’s soccer program from the
depths of mediocrity to national-title contenders (this year’s
squad is currently ranked 13th in the nation and is the Pac-10
champions) within the five years she has led the program.
Despite undertaking a plethora of activities, Fawcett performs
each task to the best of her ability.
"She’s the type of person that gets stuff done," Ratcliffe said.
"Where many of us come in and we are talking about things, she’s
straight to the point. While we are thinking about, she’s doing it.
She doesn’t mess around."
Fawcett has no time to mess around. She is busy around the
clock.
The good thing for Fawcett and her family, however, is that her
rigorous schedule will soon come to an end.
"This is a busy time for us because we are in (soccer) season,"
Fawcett says. "The strange thing is that they all end at the end of
the season. Youth 13s end, our season will end soon. It’s all in
these three months. When spring comes, it is a lot easier."
The aforementioned hectic weekend has been typical for Fawcett
the last three months.
Joked Ratcliffe, "I still don’t know when she sleeps!"
JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily Bruin
Joy Fawcett is the head coach of the UCLA women’s soccer
team.