Ok, let me be clear. This is just wishful thinking. This isn't a RUMOR (shh--don't spread it). I don't know anything. I'm just making it up.

Wouldn't it be great if Debbie Rademacher, the former Michigan women's soccer coach, was hired to replace Don Staley at Alabama?

After all, she coached Michigan from 1994-2007 and had a slightly better women's soccer record than Staley (160-108-37 to Staley's 135-128-12.) She led Michigan to the NCAA Tournament nine times, including a trip to the quarterfinals in 2002. She clearly loves the sport and has a great rapport with her teams. I think she'd be a good fit to shake up some of that Alabama good-ole'-boy culture.

She said she wanted to spend more time with her children when she resigned earlier this month, but she came off of a difficult season. After 13 years as coach for the same university, I smell burn-out.

I wonder if Rademacher is talking to Alabama? If I were recruiting coaches for Alabama, Debbie Rademacher would be at the top of my list.

<< Katie Feehan, NJCU
Photo courtesy NJCU
New Jersey City University Student, Katie Feehan, has now earned the ultimate award for excellence on the soccer field and in the classroom, having been named to ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-America team.

According to NJCU news releases, the May 2007 graduate of NJCU with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice (Pre-Law), Feehan had a 3.98 undergraduate grade point average. She returned as a graduate student for the 2007-08 year to use her final season of eligibility and pursue a master’s degree. She was named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America District II College Division First-Team for the third consecutive season earlier this month, is now a three-time Academic All-America selection, having earned Third-Team Academic All-America honors in 2005 and 2006.

Way to go Katie. You embody the term, "student-athlete."

Does it seem strange to you that West Virginia University, a school known more for it's football and partying, would have successful women's soccer team?

In case you haven't been paying attention, WVU's women’s soccer team moves one step closer to the the 2007 NCAA College Cup when it plays USC in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships Friday, Nov. 30. WVU is hosting the game in Morgantown.

West Virginia, No. 4 seed in its portion of the bracket, has an impressive record of 18-4-2, and goes into the the game this weekend off a a 10-game unbeaten streak. Now, if women's soccer at WVU just had the same level of funding as its football and basketball teams.

<< Michelle Weissenhofer, Notre Dame
Photo by:Andy Mead/Icon SMI

In last Saturday's game against North Carolina, Michelle Weissenhofer of Notre Dame executed one heck of a flip throw. One such throw popped of team mate Brittany Bock's noggin for a goal that gave the Fighting Irish a 1-0 lead.

Just a few seconds later, Weissenhofer took a pass from Kerri Hanks and scored her own goal putting Notre Dame at a 2-0 lead. That put Weissenhofer in the record books for fastest 914 seconds) back-to-back goals in NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament History.

How cool is that? Best of all for Weissenhofer and team, Notre Dame won the game 3-2.

Oh my gosh! Did you see it?

<< Don Staley Alabama's Soccer Coach

Alabama's women's soccer coach, Don Staley resigned last Friday after 14 years with the Tide. The guy's an icon in women's soccer, having coached the ladies since the SEC added women's soccer as a varsity sport in 1994. His record with the Alabama was 135-128-12, and his career record now stands at 324-257-28 in 23 years as a head coach. In 2004, he became only the fifth coach in NCAA soccer history to record his 300th win.

I'm sure Alabama will miss him, but so will Women's Soccer. The guy's an icon and has done much to advance the sport. Let's hope he lands at another college soon.

Lindsay Cunningham, Brown University, Photo by DSPics.com
 
Brown University should be proud. Junior Lindsay Cunningham (Cumberland, RI) has made the 2007 All-Ivy Women's Soccer Team as selected by the League's eight head coaches. This is her third time with the honor.

Cunningham was named to the Second Team this year after earning Honorable Mention honors during her first two seasons of play for Brown. She's been one of the team's top scorers, and finished second this year with seven points (2g, 3a), while also scoring one game-winning goal. Lindsey has played in all 50 games during her time at Brown and has 38 points on 13 goals and 12 assists. She will enter her senior season next fall already ranked in Brown's all-time top 20 for both career points (18th) and assists (13th).

Amazing. I hope this girl is on a scholarship. She's making Brown proud.

Women's soccer never would have been the same if Mia Hamm hadn't started up soccer when she was little. She had such an impact in the women's soccer world that she is often thought to mean as much for it as Pele or Cruyff meant for men's soccer. But before being a great soccer player and athlete that broke down almost every possible record at her level, Mia Hamm is a great person and I'd like you to meet the human behind the soccer god in this Mia Hamm biography.

Mia Hamm as a Child
If you're like me, you're probably wondering how and when did Mia Hamm start playing soccer and what events drove her to become a super star of women's soccer. Mia Hamm's childhood circled around sports and athleticism and as her brother recalled, she was faster and more athletic than most of the boys on the block, so she was able to play competitively with and against them.

After taking up youth soccer training at her school's football team when she was only 12 years old, she learned the basics of soccer and started enjoying the sport more and more. Little did she know that three years later, when she was just 15, she would be called up for the United States national women's soccer team, becoming the youngest player ever to play for her country at that level (one of her first broken records).

That was kind of a weird situation, since Mia Hamm was a soccer player for her national squad but didn't have a fully professional playing contract with a club. But after seeing her performances, the North Carolina Tar Heels quickly signed her and they made quite a deal, since Mia Hamm stayed with the club for 4 seasons, scoring over 100 goals during her time here.

Mia Hamm's Accomplishments
Probably one of Mia Hamm's most important accomplishments is that she managed to bring women's soccer to a level close to what men are playing. She is one of the two women named in Pele's "List of 125 Best Soccer Players of All Times" and she is a symbol of women's sports throughout the World.

She also holds two FIFA World Player of the Year awards, which she got in 2001 (the first year the trophy was given) and 2002. Unfortunately, she would have gotten a lot more of these awards, but with the World Player of the Year awards being granted for women when Mia Hamm was already nearing the end of her career, she didn't really have a chance to widen her trophy room.

In numbers, Mia Hamm was the United States top goal scorer, with 158 goals in 275 matches, a remarkable record that will probably dust and rust before it is beaten. She scored more goals than any man or woman for her national team, although many soccer specialists will agree that the level of women's soccer is still in an early grade and cannot be compared to men's soccer yet.

She won the Women's World Cup twice, in 1991 and 1999 and also put the US national team through a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in 1996. All these titles, records and awards make Mia Hamm one of the most important players in women's soccer and the fact that Pele considered to put her on the same list as legendary male players such as Maradona, Cruyff, Platini or Beckenbauer says a lot about the influence she had in the game.

Niv Orlian is the author and the owner of a Soccer Fans website that provides information on various topics related to soccer such as the history of soccer, rules, famous soccer players real time news, statistics, and training guides.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Mia Hamm (Champion Sport Biographies) (Book) Authors:John Sharkey, Joseph Romain Manufacturer:Warwick House Pub. Released:01 March, 2000

The winter months are kicking in, and for the majority of women in Britain, most are likely to be found trawling the country's shopping centres and squeezing their feet into the latest patent leather stiletto shoe, in the hope that it matches the sparkly outfit they just purchased for the annual office Christmas party.

This scenario will ring true for hundreds of women. But not every woman in Britain owns a Topshop loyalty card and would faint if they were asked to live without their mascara for a week. There are always of course, the women you will find down the pub, proudly wearing their beloved team's strip, pint of lager in hand, bellowing loudly at the TV screen.

The winter months are kicking in, and for the majority of women in Britain, most are likely to be found trawling the country's shopping centres and squeezing their feet into the latest patent leather stiletto shoe, in the hope that it matches the sparkly outfit they just purchased for the annual office Christmas party.

This scenario will ring true for hundreds of women. But not every woman in Britain owns a Topshop loyalty card and would faint if they were asked to live without their mascara for a week. There are always of course, the women you will find down the pub, proudly wearing their beloved team's strip, pint of lager in hand, bellowing loudly at the TV screen.

Football, especially in the UK, has always been linked to men and masculinity. When we think of football, we're unlikely to conjure up an image of eleven femme fatale's running around a field, hair flowing wildly in the wind. (Though of course this would never happen - hair would naturally be tied up, but go with the image)

However, there is no denying that football is widely regarded as a man's game. A Beautiful Game, certainly, but a man's one nevertheless. Statistics have shown in the past that the number of women playing team sports as a full time professional in the UK is zero. But with the ever increasing amount of women's football players and ladies teams, could everything be set to change?

Vicki Christopher, captain of the women's football team at the University of Winchester, thinks this is most certainly the case.

She says: "Women's football is definitely on the up. Over the last few years our university football team has increased in numbers considerably. It used to be the case at school where boys played football and girls played netball. Nowadays though, school kids have a much better balance of sports."

Maureen McGonigle from Scottish Women's Football has a similar view. She believes although it has much catching up to do to be on the same par with men's, women's football is now becoming recognised globally as the fastest growing team sport for women.

"It's growing constantly. Women's football offers so many opportunities for everyone, whether it be as a referee, a coach, or even an administrate. Somebody once said that 'The future is feminine', and this confirms the belief held by many who have watched the amazing growth of the game for women and girls."

But where did it all start? Believe it or not, women have been kicking a ball around a pitch for almost a century. It first became popular on a large scale at the time of the first World War, around 1917.

Women's roles started to change as they took on jobs and responsibilities that had always previously been fulfilled by men. Wartime women's teams were usually started in order to raise money for war charities.

The most successful team of this era was Dick Kerrs Ladies of Preston. They played to average crowds of 2,500 with all their proceeds going towards charitable causes.

By the end of the war, the number of women's teams had increased across the country, attracting generous sized crowds, and by the 1920's, women's football in England was more popular than ever, with crowd sizes even bigger than at men's games.

Ironically, it was this that led to the decline of women's football; shortly afterwards the FA decided to ban women from playing football on football league grounds, claiming that the funds they had raised were actually being used for other purposes.

However, according to Sir Norman Chester's Centre for football research at the University of Leicester, the true sentiment of the ban was found in the FA's statement that it was of the 'strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged'. Subsequently, the FA disallowed their grounds to be used for women's games. The ban was not rescinded until 1969, in which time women's football had practically faded into obscurity. After the Women's FA was founded in 1969, it seemed women's football was well and truly on the increase. The first women's World Cup, held in China in 1991 highlighted this, and since then has developed exponentionally, with sixteen teams from all over the world representing their countries. So if women's football is on the up, which most certainly seems to be the case, why then do women's games rarely feature on programmes such as Match of the Day and Soccer AM? TV dramas like Dream Team and Footballers Wives certainly weren't centred around women's football. It seems that even in this so called modern age, men are still prevailing. Caz O'Shaughnessy, manager of the women's football team at the University of Lincoln agrees: "Women are the minority. There may be more of us in quantity but men have the power which makes them the majority."

Now I'm quite sure the reason for this isn't as black and white as men look better in shorts, therefore they're better footballers. Harsh as it sounds, does it go back to what was written in stone centuries ago - that a women's place should be at home and not out on a football field playing a 'man's game'? Caz O'Shaughnessy thinks this is a stereotype that will never change no matter how hard women push for it: "History has always placed men as the breadwinners with the women at home looking after the kids. We try hard to separate these stereotypes but the ideologies are so set that it will never change." Sports Journalist Chris Ray disagrees with this, and thinks that there is now far more national media coverage of the women's game than ever before, profiting it immensely: "Women's football could be bigger than men's one day. Attendances are up and the stereotypes of it being just a man's game are all but gone now I would say. The standard will continue to improve as the public and young people become more and more aware of women's football."

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Football, especially in the UK, has always been linked to men and masculinity. When we think of football, we're unlikely to conjure up an image of eleven femme fatale's running around a field, hair flowing wildly in the wind. (Though of course this would never happen - hair would naturally be tied up, but go with the image)

However, there is no denying that football is widely regarded as a man's game. A Beautiful Game, certainly, but a man's one nevertheless. Statistics have shown in the past that the number of women playing team sports as a full time professional in the UK is zero. But with the ever increasing amount of women's football players and ladies teams, could everything be set to change?

Vicki Christopher, captain of the women's football team at the University of Winchester, thinks this is most certainly the case.

She says: "Women's football is definitely on the up. Over the last few years our university football team has increased in numbers considerably. It used to be the case at school where boys played football and girls played netball. Nowadays though, school kids have a much better balance of sports."

Maureen McGonigle from Scottish Women's Football has a similar view. She believes although it has much catching up to do to be on the same par with men's, women's football is now becoming recognised globally as the fastest growing team sport for women.

"It's growing constantly. Women's football offers so many opportunities for everyone, whether it be as a referee, a coach, or even an administrate. Somebody once said that 'The future is feminine', and this confirms the belief held by many who have watched the amazing growth of the game for women and girls."

But where did it all start? Believe it or not, women have been kicking a ball around a pitch for almost a century. It first became popular on a large scale at the time of the first World War, around 1917.

Women's roles started to change as they took on jobs and responsibilities that had always previously been fulfilled by men. Wartime women's teams were usually started in order to raise money for war charities.

The most successful team of this era was Dick Kerrs Ladies of Preston. They played to average crowds of 2,500 with all their proceeds going towards charitable causes.

By the end of the war, the number of women's teams had increased across the country, attracting generous sized crowds, and by the 1920's, women's football in England was more popular than ever, with crowd sizes even bigger than at men's games.

Ironically, it was this that led to the decline of women's football; shortly afterwards the FA decided to ban women from playing football on football league grounds, claiming that the funds they had raised were actually being used for other purposes.

Public relations for professional and amateur soccer teams at the higher level is not is easy as it might seem. The sports channels are filled with baseball, basketball, football and other popular sports. Even a golf tournament will take priority in the time slot on a major sports news network. Public relations for soccer teams in the United States of America is a lot different than it might be in other countries were soccer is the most popular sport and where football (our type), basketball and baseball are somewhat nonexistent.

Public relations for a soccer team should include community goodwill, autograph signing and promotion of the game of soccer itself. It is important to have constant communication with all major media outlets and promote the soccer players as the epitome of sportsmen with good sportsmanship, no drugs and good old family values. Luckily for soccer teams this is not too difficult because most all the soccer players are dedicated athletes and are not taking steroids.

This does not mean that public relations for soccer teams is easy, as it is hardly easy. However, public relations for professional and amateur soccer teams is not utterly impossible if the publicity team and public-relations specialists understand how things work. Promoting the individual players as superstars will go a long way to promoting the game of soccer and the professional team itself. It also brings more people to watch the games and uplifts the game of soccer in the United States. Please consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

From my seat in the stands, I could see that these qualifying soccer drills were a test of a player’s dexterity, power, speed, agility, practice and coordination. It was warm inside the Soccer Etc. facility on this late May afternoon. However, the heat did nothing to discourage my nephew or the other twenty youth soccer candidates who were on the field. The tryouts were for the final two roster spots for the Aztec’s premiere youth soccer team in the fall and the competition was intense.

In fact, over eighteen million people in the United States now play soccer and nearly eighty percent of the participants are under the age of eighteen. As I glanced around, I could see that the stands were occupied by parents who clearly supported their child’s enjoyment of the game of soccer.

I continued to watch the drills and in particular a twelve year old boy as he bounced a ball off of his foot into the air repeatedly without the ball ever touching the ground. As I looked on, he accomplished this feat over two hundred times in a row. I can only imagine how many hours of practice it took to attain this proficiency.

As I watched his display of dexterity, I wondered what had happened to the pundits that had dismissed the growth of soccer in America in the mid nineteen eighties. I can clearly remember the reasons given at that time to dismiss the sport in this country. They said it would never be popular here because it was a “ foreign game”. Americans did not “dominate” the game was another reason often cited. It was a game that was not “discovered” in America still others opined.. There was not enough scoring was a common reason. Sports that were already popular in America would prevent soccer’s growth and domination was still another reason given at the time to dismiss the sport.

So what happened over the last two decades to make soccer the apparent sport of choice for America’s youth? There are several things to consider when discussing soccer‘s popularity increase during the last twenty years : Soccer is a game both boys and girls play. It is more economical for a cash strapped youth organization than football. Most high schools have added a soccer program in addition to their football programs. The American Youth Soccer Association was highly successful in popularizing and marketing soccer with America’s youth. More and more American’s having now played the game in their youth are becoming avid fans. Latin American immigrants were increasing soccer’s popularity while the World Cup’s arrival in America in 1994 also raised the game’s visibility.

Suddenly, a loud cheer erupted from the stands as my nephew kicked a powerful shot toward the goal. I smiled to myself as I quietly considered how similar my nephew’s shot on goal is to soccer’s growth in America. Both are powerful, driven by youth on strong legs that get a real kick out of the game.

James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. He has always been interested in writing and listening to different viewpoints on interesting topics.

Visit his website at http://www.eworldvu.com

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