Joy Fawcett

Julie Foudy was 6 years old when two boys in her first grade class at Del Cerro Elementary in Mission Viejo asked her to come outside and play soccer at recess. Joy Fawcett was about the same age when the boys and girls in her Huntington Beach neighborhood asked her to join their games. Neither had any thoughts about finding a club team that would offer the most exposure to college recruiters.

The rain ended, the skies cleared and the stars came out -- three of them for the last time. At 9:50 on Wednesday night, Mia Hamm stepped off the soccer field and into the history books. The United States-Mexico match had nine minutes to go when Heather O'Reilly, one of the stars of tomorrow, took over from Hamm. "She's the future," a tearful Hamm said after it was all over.

hey were the only window dressing adorning the walls of Joy Fawcett's year-old Rancho Santa Margarita home, paper-doll strings of smiling skeletons lining the borders of the family-room windows like sentries from some blissful nether world. The Halloween decorations delighted her daughters, 4-year-old Katey and 17-month-old Carli, but Fawcett dreams of real drapes and curtains, even some of the family's more-permanent decor which remains in boxes in the garage.

It is not quite the end of an era but it's close. Tonight at the Home Depot Center in Carson, three of the best players in the history of women's soccer -- Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm -- will bid the sport farewell when the United States plays Mexico in the final game for all three. The result is of no significance, although Hamm begs to disagree. "I've already told the players that we need to be successful because I don't want to be upset for the next 60 years," she said.

Joy Fawcett, a member of the women's U.S. national team since 1987, was named UCLA's first women's soccer coach.

Four days after the UCLA women's soccer team was knocked out of the NCAA quarterfinals by Notre Dame, Joy Fawcett resigned as the Bruins' coach Wednesday. Fawcett, a 1991 world champion and 1996 gold medal-winning defender on the U.S. women's national team, has been the only coach in the program's five-year history. She leaves with a 65-24-7 record and two NCAA appearances.

Joy Fawcett knows the drills. She ought to. She usually is in charge of them, as coach of the UCLA women's soccer team. Here, when she participates in drills, she usually is the best at them, which isn't surprising when you know that she is also a member of the U.S. national soccer team, and for the last two weeks, a member of the Olympic Festival's West team. "It's kind of nice, not to have to coach," Fawcett said with a laugh.

It is not quite the end of an era but it's close. Tonight at the Home Depot Center in Carson, three of the best players in the history of women's soccer -- Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm -- will bid the sport farewell when the United States plays Mexico in the final game for all three. The result is of no significance, although Hamm begs to disagree. "I've already told the players that we need to be successful because I don't want to be upset for the next 60 years," she said.

Joy Fawcett is not the star of the U.S. women's soccer team. Never has been, probably never will be. She goes largely unrecognized and, by all accounts, seems to prefer it that way. After all, who wants the prey paying close attention? Fawcett, a defender, prefers to lie in wait, pouncing at the right moment. She does a masterful job. And she has a gold medal to prove it.

For the past week, whenever anyone asked 2-year-old Katelyn Fawcett where her mother was or what she did, Katelyn had a simple answer: "She's wearing the gold medal." When Joy Fawcett, the U.S. soccer team's star defender, finally arrived home Wednesday, Katelyn gave the gold a quick once-over and turned her attention elsewhere. It will be a few years before Katelyn understands what "Mama Joy" went through to get it.

For 12 years, Jim and Judy Foudy of Mission Viejo have been loyal soccer parents, and at times it has been a lonely undertaking. At some games in the early going they'd be among only a couple dozen parents watching their daughter and other children scurry up and down the field after a spinning ball. On Saturday, the Foudys had company. More than 90,000 fans--including President Clinton--jammed into the Rose Bowl as their daughter, Julie Foudy, and her teammates on the U.S.

It was what she was listening for, the signature sound that Joy Fawcett hoped she would hear but wasn't sure she could hear at the opening game of the Women's World Cup soccer tournament, the United States against Denmark. "Beef," Fawcett heard, somehow, coming out of a shrieking, shouting crowd of 78,972 at Giants Stadium.

Julie Foudy was 6 years old when two boys in her first grade class at Del Cerro Elementary in Mission Viejo asked her to come outside and play soccer at recess. Joy Fawcett was about the same age when the boys and girls in her Huntington Beach neighborhood asked her to join their games. Neither had any thoughts about finding a club team that would offer the most exposure to college recruiters.

hey were the only window dressing adorning the walls of Joy Fawcett's year-old Rancho Santa Margarita home, paper-doll strings of smiling skeletons lining the borders of the family-room windows like sentries from some blissful nether world. The Halloween decorations delighted her daughters, 4-year-old Katey and 17-month-old Carli, but Fawcett dreams of real drapes and curtains, even some of the family's more-permanent decor which remains in boxes in the garage.

Four days after the UCLA women's soccer team was knocked out of the NCAA quarterfinals by Notre Dame, Joy Fawcett resigned as the Bruins' coach Wednesday. Fawcett, a 1991 world champion and 1996 gold medal-winning defender on the U.S. women's national team, has been the only coach in the program's five-year history. She leaves with a 65-24-7 record and two NCAA appearances.

For the past week, whenever anyone asked 2-year-old Katelyn Fawcett where her mother was or what she did, Katelyn had a simple answer: "She's wearing the gold medal." When Joy Fawcett, the U.S. soccer team's star defender, finally arrived home Wednesday, Katelyn gave the gold a quick once-over and turned her attention elsewhere. It will be a few years before Katelyn understands what "Mama Joy" went through to get it.

It was what she was listening for, the signature sound that Joy Fawcett hoped she would hear but wasn't sure she could hear at the opening game of the Women's World Cup soccer tournament, the United States against Denmark. "Beef," Fawcett heard, somehow, coming out of a shrieking, shouting crowd of 78,972 at Giants Stadium.

The rain ended, the skies cleared and the stars came out -- three of them for the last time. At 9:50 on Wednesday night, Mia Hamm stepped off the soccer field and into the history books. The United States-Mexico match had nine minutes to go when Heather O'Reilly, one of the stars of tomorrow, took over from Hamm. "She's the future," a tearful Hamm said after it was all over.

Joy Fawcett is not the star of the U.S. women's soccer team. Never has been, probably never will be. She goes largely unrecognized and, by all accounts, seems to prefer it that way. After all, who wants the prey paying close attention? Fawcett, a defender, prefers to lie in wait, pouncing at the right moment. She does a masterful job. And she has a gold medal to prove it.

From her usual spot on the grass, Katelyn Rose Fawcett sits eye-level with thundering cleats and muscular legs. This perspective gives her an interesting take on what "mommy" means. Fawcett is 2 and the daughter of Joy Fawcett, a U.S. national soccer team member and coach at UCLA. Fawcett, originally from Huntington Beach, embodies an issue that is rarely discussed in athletics--motherhood.