Hill and Knowton Sports Joy Fawcett
plays with her daughter Katie in their backyard.
By Michelle Copolella
Daily Bruin Reporter
In the land of opportunity, many people step into the work force
with a positive attitude. However, more often than not, the
shocking realization that finding a secure, enjoyable job is
difficult leaves many with a withered version of the American
Dream. Even worse, it leaves many people stuck in a job that is the
furthest thing from enjoyable.
But Joy Fawcett, former head coach of the UCLA women’s
soccer team, Olympic gold medalist, World Cup champion, and current
team member of the Women’s United Soccer Association’s
San Diego Spirit, is fortunate enough to be able to say that she is
exactly where she wants to be in life: on the field, playing
soccer. And she’s having the time of her life while
she’s at it.
Tagged by many as the best defender in the world because of her
ability to diffuse dangerous situations in the backfield, Fawcett
has become one of the most influential women’s soccer
players.
“She’s a mature, intelligent soccer player who
brings competitiveness and experience from all the important games
she’s played,” Spirit head coach Carlos Juarez said in
a phone interview. “But more than anything, she has a passion
for the game.”
In addition to her role as a defender, her ability to attack
from every position on the field makes her one of the most
versatile players in the U.S. And versatility isn’t a foreign
concept to Fawcett ““ it really can’t be when you are
both a professional soccer player and a mother of three
children.
“My family is my priority and if my family wasn’t
able to travel, I wouldn’t be playing soccer,” she
said. “I am fortunate and can do both. Being organized and
getting your schedule down are very important. If you have a good
idea of your schedule, it makes things a lot easier and a lot less
stressful.”
Time management is essential when having a daily schedule like
Fawcett’s. A typical day for her includes waking up early to
get her kids dressed and ready, spending a couple of hours at
practice, making a few appearances for a couple of hours after
practice, coming home to feed and get her kids ready for bed, and
preparing for tomorrow. How does she do it all?
“With a lot of help,” Fawcett said. “I get a
lot of help from my family and especially my husband. He’ll
take the kids and travel with us and watch during practice.
I’m just glad I’m able to play soccer and be a
mom.”
But Fawcett isn’t the typical mom. She has been dubbed
“the ultimate soccer mom” by many because of her
seemingly impossible commitment to her children and the sport. In
1994, three weeks after she had her first child, she rejoined the
U.S. National Team and went on to play every minute of the 1995
Women’s World Cup, the 1996 Olympics, the 1999 Women’s
World Cup and the 2000 Olympics.
“I’ve learned to go for what you want ““ if
there’s something you want, try and make it happen,”
she said. “There are limits out there, but they can be pushed
and the lines can be changed. We’ve seen that demonstrated by
getting the sport in the Olympics and putting on the biggest
women’s sporting event in the 1999 World Cup.”
In addition to the evolution of the women’s soccer
movement in the past 10 years, Fawcett’s family has undergone
its own evolution. Recently, she gave birth to her third child,
Madilyn Ray, and is now preparing to make an aggressive comeback to
the WUSAa.
“The thing that helps is that I trained throughout my
pregnancy,” she said. “I continued to run and lift
weights every day. As the pregnancy advanced, I naturally had to
slow it down, but it still made it a lot easier to come
back.”
From history, it is said that one of the most important things
we can possibly do is to learn from the successes and failures of
those who precede us. Through Fawcett’s successes both on and
off the soccer field, female soccer players today still cling onto
the hope that the American Dream hasn’t completely withered
away, but instead that it will continue to blossom across the
soccer fields of America.