COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin Connecticut native and UCLA
soccer player Mary-Frances Monroe is becoming more
of a "California girl" every day.
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Reporter
UCLA soccer’s biggest new superstar isn’t that big
at all. She isn’t a freshman, either.
And she’s learned a thing or two since moving from
Connecticut to Westwood.
“I never knew what a movie premiere was,” says
senior forward Mary-Frances Monroe, perhaps the most highly-touted
player in the nine-year history of UCLA women’s soccer.
“Everyone was like, “˜There’s a premiere
tonight,’ and I said, “˜What’s a
premiere?'”
Sure enough, later that evening, the 5-foot-1 sparkplug forward
was watching the likes of Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, and Seann
William Scott (aka Stifler) saunter down the red carpet to the
premiere of “American Pie 2.”
It’s all been part of a long, strange adjustment for a
player who is considered, well, premier.
In three years at the University of Connecticut, Monroe tallied
45 goals, 27 assists, and a list of accolades that makes
congressional tax legislation look like a children’s book.
But something wasn’t sitting right for the three-time
All-American.
“I wasn’t happy playing soccer,” she said.
“I wasn’t happy as a person. And not being happy as a
person, when I went to soccer I just didn’t want to be
there.
“I needed a change in my life, and coming out here was a
big one.”
So Monroe’s coach at UConn released her from her
scholarship to three schools: hegemonic North Carolina, perennial
power Santa Clara, and upstart UCLA.
“The next day, all the coaches called me,” she said,
somewhat surprised. “It was between UCLA and UNC, and I knew
I had only one year left and I wanted to go somewhere where
I’d be happy.”
For Monroe, happiness was a coast away. She turned down
legendary North Carolina head coach Anson Dorrance in favor of UCLA
and head coach Jillian Ellis, who coached Monroe on the Under-21
National Team that won the prestigious Nordic Cup in 2000.
The unity of a Bruin squad coming off a breakthrough year
didn’t hurt, either.
“To credit our team, we’re a very close team and
chemistry is very important,” Ellis said. “It was our
team’s priority to make Mary feel welcome.”
Her monumental decision made, Monroe packed up and headed to the
West Coast for spring quarter, but not before a word of advice from
her mother, who was unaware of Westwood’s affluent
neighbors.
“Before I even came, my mom said “˜It’s such a
bad area. Be careful and don’t walk alone,'”
Monroe says, laughing.
It is a laugh of a person who appears at home in a place where
she has lived for less than half a year. Shy by nature, Monroe has
found her niche in a lifestyle that is more laid-back and on a team
that is so friendly, it often draws the ire of Ellis for excessive
hugging.
“People are nicer out here,” she said. “People
are nice on the East Coast, but people out here will just walk up
to you and say hi. In New York or Connecticut, you wouldn’t
get that. I got used to it really easily out here.”
It hasn’t taken long for the Bruins to get used to Monroe,
either. In the team’s season-opener against national
powerhouse Portland, Monroe scored the only goal of the game for a
1-0 Bruin win that signaled to the rest of the country that UCLA is
in fact for real.
Sophomore defender Nandi Pryce, who came to UCLA from Florida
and has played with Monroe on the national team, has seen her
friend become, dare she say, a California girl.
“She just came out of her shell,” Pryce said.
“Every person on the team has personality, and that’s
one thing that you don’t find as much on the East Coast.
California girls dress a certain way and act a certain way and
she’s definitely started to do that.”
Monroe even admits that she’s now part of the California
stereotype as she brushes back her hair, which has become slightly
blonder in the last six months.
“I remember growing up, we would always have the
stereotype of California girls because you didn’t really know
about them,” she said. “You think of the blondes and
you’re always hearing about Hollywood. Everyone on the East
Coast makes fun of me. They’re like, “˜You’re a
Cali girl!'”
Although Monroe said she misses her family and friends back
home, a 30-minute conversation yielded at least 10 energetic
statements of “I love it here!” and she’s still
enthusiastically making new discoveries in Southern California.
“I didn’t even know those buses went down to the
beach over here,” she said of the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus.
“If I had known that in the spring, I would have been there
every day. This is great.”
Even greater is the firepower Monroe provides to an already
lethal front line.
“Last year we dabbled in playing in a two-front, but with
Lindsay Greco and Stephanie Rigamat and Mary, we have to play a
three-front because they’re so strong, all three of
them,” Ellis said. “Mary allows us to hold the ball a
lot better and keep her central in the face of the goal.”
She came almost 3,000 miles in search of happiness. She has
already found 20 new friends on the team and a new lifestyle that
makes her smile.
But she will have to wait another two months or so to find
something that would be new to both her and the team ““ a
national title.