Although the morning of Monday, Oct. 6 went slightly differently for UCLA soccer alumni Jill Oakes and Danesha Adams, both wound up in similar positions by the end of the afternoon.
Oakes woke up to a phone call from Adams, reminding her that today was the big day. Today was the day of the new Women’s Professional Soccer League draft, a draft for which both former Bruins had put their name in the hat.
After a brief phone conversation with her parents, Oakes sat in her empty room by herself. She was on the phone with a friend when she saw her name flash across her computer screen.
“I got picked!” she yelled.
Adams, on the other hand, was waiting. She was waiting for her name to be called and waiting for what felt like an eternity.
She was waiting with her mother in one ear on the house phone and with her club soccer coach in the other ear on her cell phone.
She was waiting for the five-minute draft clock to expire on the Chicago Red Stars, the team she thought she’d be playing for. The clock ran out, and she found herself waiting, as a new three-minute clock began.
The Red Stars had used their timeout, apparently thinking about what to do, whether or not they wanted to make Adams the foundation of their franchise.
Then ““ it happened.
“Finally my name runs across the screen, and my mom is in one ear screaming, and my club coach in the other saying “˜I told you, I told you,'” Adams said. “My mom gets all worked up. She gets to the cell phone and starts telling people in the family to let everyone know.
“Then my brother comes on the phone and is like, “˜Congratulations, you deserve it, you’ve been working hard since you were 4 years old to get to this point, and now your time is here.'”
By the end of the afternoon, both former All-Americans had been selected in the WPS General Draft. Oakes was taken by the still unnamed Bay Area team with the No. 2 overall pick, while Adams was taken by the Chicago Red Stars close behind at No. 6 overall.
“It’s real now,” Oakes said of her professional soccer career. “And I couldn’t be more excited.”
And the soccer community seems to have reason to be excited. With the inception of the new pro league, years of work and lessons from failure come full circle.
The WPS replaces the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) which shut down in the fall of 2003. When it kicks off in April 2009, it will field seven teams from across the country, including one in Los Angeles.
“I just remember, the first time that I heard there wasn’t a league anymore, I remember being pretty devastated,” Oakes said. “I was really looking forward to being a part of that league as soon as I graduated from college. So it was kind of a sinking feeling in my stomach that it wasn’t going to be there anymore.”
With the new league, women across the country will now have an opportunity to once again play soccer at the professional level, which UCLA women’s soccer coach Jill Ellis says is important.
“A lot of players here (at UCLA), their goal is to make Olympic teams and national teams and World Cup teams,” Ellis said. “College serves its purpose in that they get their education and they have a place to play. But beyond that, to have our own league within our country is huge for our national team program. You’re playing with the best of the best and it’s super competitive. But it also gives us a home grown arena to continue to develop players.”
The pivotal question seems to be what will make this new league any more successful than the WUSA.
Oakes said the difference is based in experience.
“There was a lesson that was learned the first time around,” she said. “I think people are going into this league with a lot more thought. Logistically, the one thing I do know about this league is that each team is independently owned. It’s not just one league owning all the teams. … I feel that it’s up to the individual owners to make their franchise successful, as opposed to one league being responsible for every team.”
Adams said she thinks the sport of soccer has grown a great deal since the collapse of WUSA and said that a change in players’ salaries should help the league immensely.
“People are not as selfish when it comes to pay (now),” Adams said. “I think that was the biggest issue with the WUSA. You had the national team players making tons of money on top of already their U.S. national team money. You were paying those players that much money and not bringing in that much revenue because people aren’t really watching. We also are having salary caps where there only will be a certain amount of money to give per year.”
Bureaucratic issues aside however, players hope the league will inspire youth soccer across America by giving younger players something to strive for.
But Adams has a personal motive as well. After missing the cut for the Olympic team, she still feels like she has something left to prove.
“For me, I’m excited to be able to show the world what I’m capable of,” Adams said. “I think people saw it in the college game, but they said “˜She’s just fast, can she bring that to the next level?’ That’s something I’m willing to prove to people. I’m no joke. I’m here for business.”
LARSEN TAKES AWARDS: After helping the Bruins to a pair of wins over the Washington schools last weekend, junior forward Kristina Larsen’s week was filled with good news. In addition to being named the Pac-10 Player of the Week, Larsen was also named to the Soccer America, Soccer Buzz and Top Drawer soccer Teams of the Week.
Larsen was credited with the assist in last Friday’s game-tying 90th minute goal against Washington State and scored the game-winning goal in overtime later that night. She added to her Friday performance with two goals and an assist in the team’s win over Washington the following Sunday.
LEROUX TO JOIN U-20 WORLD CUP TEAM: UCLA freshman forward Sydney Leroux was recently named to the Under-20 U.S. World Cup team and will play in Chile with the team this November.
This means the Bruins will be without the striker’s services as they make a run back to the College Cup. Leroux has played in and started in 12 games for UCLA and has recorded four goals and five assists in 820 minutes of play this season.