Sunday, August 25, 1996
W. soccer coach Fawcett returns after Olympic glory with Team
U.S.A.By Mark J. Dittmer
Summer Bruin Senior Staff
Residency training. Sports teams are in residency training when
they actually pick up their things, pack up and move some place new
to live and train together.
The U.S. women’s soccer team has been doing residency training
for almost a year and a half. Whatever they were doing before
residency training, most players had to turn their backs on for
that time to focus solely on soccer at their new homes in Orlando,
Fla.
First in early 1995, the preparation was for last year’s World
Championships in which the United States finished third. Then in
1996, they prepared for the Olympics. And now they all have gold
medals.
Now members of Team U.S.A. are returning to their pre-Olympic
lives, at least for a little while.
And when UCLA meets North Carolina on Sept. 13, four of the 16
National Team players will be there, competing for the squads they
are members of away from Orlando. UCLA’s Olympic hero is their head
coach, Joy Fawcett, a defender on Team U.S.A.
On North Carolina, there is Cindy Parlow, who is just 18 years
old, making her the youngest member of the U.S. team. Tiffany
Roberts is a 19-year-old midfielder, while Staci Wilson played
defense alongside Fawcett. Over the past six months they shared
many common experiences, but they sacrificed very different things
to be teammates.
Parlow was in her freshman year at North Carolina when the call
for residency training came, and she skipped her spring semester to
try out.
But she missed more than the spring semester of her freshman
year. Because tryouts were so early for the team, she was only 17
and should have still been in high school.
However, Parlow planned ahead of time in order to graduate in
three years, so that she would have some college experience under
her belt when time came to try out for the Olympic team.
Now as she begins her second year at North Carolina, her former
high school classmates will be freshman.
If anyone can relate to Parlow’s extraordinary situation, it’s
Roberts, also in her second year with North Carolina, but made an
equally weird transition from high school to college.
Roberts did not graduate in three years but rather in three and
a half. She left high school in January of 1995 for the
training.
"I missed all of my senior activities," says Roberts. "Senior
prom, senior trip, graduation, and then the spring semester of my
first year at Carolina. And I missed the track season my senior
year of high school. The hardest thing was having to leave my
family when I was 17."
She and Parlow could relate on that point.
Wilson, 21, is a junior at North Carolina. Wilson didn’t miss
any high school, but residency training has probably not made
settling down at UNC any easier. Wilson became a Tar Heel in fall
of 1994, then did residency training in spring of 1995. The
following fall she returned to school, but once again in the
spring, she departed for residency training.
"It’s hard missing our college experience, spring training,
leaving friends and family, and the chance to lead a normal life,"
Wilson says. "I’d missed the previous spring semester, and I was
looking forward to leading a normal life."
This year she finally might.
And then there is Fawcett, who left a life far from the three
Tar Heels of Chapel Hill to join her teammates in Orlando.
Fawcett is 28 years old, and as the head coach of UCLA, she,
like Wilson, wished she could have been there for spring training.
But there were personal sacrifices as well. Fawcett has a
two-year-old daughter, Katie, who also made the trip to
Florida.
"It’s hard leaving your family and your support group  my
mother and my brothers and sisters," Joy Fawcett says. "I used to
leave her (Katie) with my mom. At training I had to put her in day
care. And my husband couldn’t see us as often."
And so after Parlow and Roberts left high school, Wilson turned
college into something she goes to four months a year, and Fawcett
moved her family back and forth across the country, they have
finally got what they wanted: gold medals around their necks.
Was it worth it?
***
The players agree it was, because they got much more than a
medal.
"The whole experience was tremendous, even if we hadn’t won,"
Fawcett says. "Just to be a part of the Olympic experience. You’re
able to follow your dream."
Roberts says that the sacrifice of residency training would even
be worth it if she hadn’t made the team.
"Being in training you become a better soccer player, training
every day with the best players in the world, and you can take what
you learned into your college games."
"It was all well worth it," says Wilson. "It was a good
experience, win or lose."
And though Parlow is one of the youngest second-year students
around, she might have experienced more than most.
"The Olympics were a great experience," she says. "Coming to
school (college) early was a good decision because all I’ve done
since I got here is grow, grow, and grow. I knew what I wanted to
do the whole time."
"I knew for sure that I wanted to try out." Roberts says. "It
wasn’t even just the whole Olympic experience  the training
was an experience too. I just put together my photo album and I
could look at it for days."
So now the four meet up, one as a coach, and the other three as
players. North Carolina will be heavily favored  after all
they outscored teams last year 108-6. The game will be competitive.
As Roberts said, "We’re all friends, but we know that when we’re
competing against each other we forget that; we leave it off the
field."
They had to leave their normal lives behind, but the place they
went to was a pretty good one. Maybe it will be just as hard to
leave residency training behind as it was to start it.
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Joy Fawcett (center) coaches UCLA’s women’s soccer team after
winning a gold medal at the Olympics as a member of the U.S.
women’s soccer team.