Second Generation Soccer Moms

After the 2004 Olympics, Rampone and her husband Chris were ready to start a family. They hoped to time it so that she could get pregnant within a year or two and be back in time for the 2007 World Cup. She had Rylie Cate in September of 2005 and returned to the team at the beginning of January, 2006.

Rampone trained throughout her pregnancy, running through the 7th month and power walking and lifting until delivery. She wasn’t allowed to train until six weeks after delivery due to a c-section but the base she had from training through pregnancy helped her get back into shape quickly. She started running and worked up to two-a-days and then three-a-days to make sure she reported to camp in the best shape possible.

She confesses to being a little nervous when she returned to the team but apparently it didn’t show. According to Heather O’Reilly she looked like she hadn’t lost a step, “It’s just blown me away how fit she kept herself during the pregnancy and how quickly she came back. She’s back to the level she was and she continues to impress us.”

At eight months, Rylie is a seasoned traveler having made trips with the team to China, Portugal and Japan. The overseas trips are a nice break for Rampone. Her teammates engage in a practice they call baby stealing. “They come in and just take her and play with her for an hour and that gives me a little break,” explains Rampone. Abby Wambach is the biggest culprit followed closely by Kristine Lilly, Shannon Boxx and Leslie Osborne. “Abby is Rylie’s best friend. She probably has her for three or four hours a day,” said Rampone. “The minute she wakes up, she comes into the room and they play.”

Rampone credits Rylie with helping her bridge the generation gap with some of her younger teammates, “As you get older, you don’t have as much in common with the younger generation but I think Rylie kind of bonds us. They come in and play with her and I get to chat with them more than if I didn’t have Rylie.”

Fotopoulos agrees, “They’re always talking about My Page or My Space. I don’t even know what it’s called, but the kids do kind of connect us.”

Fotopoulos had Alexia in November of 2000 and reported to the Carolina Courage in February. She continued to play with a men’s team and train with the women at LSU, where her husband George was the head coach, until her “belly was pretty big.” She ran until 8 months and then switched to a bike when she became too heavy to run on her joints.

Afterwards, it took about 3 months to get fit enough to really train and about 8 months to be able to go a full 90 minutes. “You don’t really know that you’re weak until you really get your strength back,” said Fotopoulos. “You wonder why you’re so fatigued and tired, but you’re the mom. You’re the one up because you’ve got to feed the baby.”

Traveling with the Courage helped Lexi become a very adaptable child. She might go to sleep in her car seat in Carolina and wake up in Washington, D.C. and she slept in a different hotel every other weekend. As a result, she’s a very easy going kid.

Injuries and a second pregnancy with William, now almost two, have limited Fotopoulos’ time with the National Team since the 1999 World Cup. She rejoined the team in 2005 and is in residency while she rehabs from her third ACL injury. She credits her kids with helping her and her teammates keep things in perspective, “They don’t care if I had a great day or a bad day. They still think I’m the best soccer player in the world.”

For Tina Frimpong, juggling National Team duties with being a mom seems like a piece a cake. For four years, she juggled being a mom with being a student and college soccer star. Two weeks before heading off to a soccer scholarship at Santa Clara, she found herself in what she calls a sticky situation. She was pregnant. Dreams of college and soccer were replaced with figuring out how she was going to tell her parents and face this new responsibility. Frimpong’s family rallied behind her and several months into the pregnancy her dad sat her down and asked her if she still wanted to pursue college soccer. When she said yes, they came up with a plan to contact schools near home. University of Washington had been on Tina’s short list before she chose Santa Clara so she was thrilled when Husky coach Leslie Gallimore expressed interest.

Frimpong didn’t train during pregnancy. She thought her soccer career was over and didn’t see the point. MacKenzie was born in March and Frimpong hit it hard afterwards to get ready to report to camp in August. “I started training 3 weeks after she was born,” she said. “I was supposed to wait 4 but I had to get out there!”

She enjoyed a stellar career at Washington and was able to make it work with a lot of scheduling and support from her family and her fiancé, MacKenzie’s dad, Brad. She admits it was tough but that it got easier, “I wanted to make good grades, be a great mom and a great soccer player. When I was on the field, I tried to focus on training. When I was done, I would take the training hat off and put on the mom hat and focus on that. As time went by, it got a lot easier, but it was a shock at first.”

Frimpong trained with the U-21’s before graduating in 2005 but realized that playing for them wasn’t going to put food on the table. She was looking towards life after soccer when she got a call from Greg Ryan asking her if she’d like to take a shot at the full National Team. With school out of the equation, she never questioned whether she could handle being a mom and playing. It was one less thing to juggle.

Frimpong appreciates the support she receives from her teammates. They love MacKenzie and are always willing to pitch in. MacKenzie has really connected with Heather Mitts and Natasha Kai. “MacKenzie and TK (Natasha Kai) have this thing that they do when they greet each other,” said Frimpong. “They put their hands on their heads and they go ‘Booyah!’ When Kai scored in Portugal, Mackenzie was in the stands yelling ‘Booyah! Booyah!’ and TK did it too. It was really cute.”

All three women admit that motherhood and playing soccer at this level would be impossible without a ton of support, especially from the men in their lives. And, having it all hasn’t come without some tough decisions. Both the Rampone and Fotopoulos families decided to uproot and move to California where the team trains. Rampone said, “It would be unfair to Chris if Rylie and I came to California and just went home to visit him. He would miss half her life. We decided that if I was going to play until hopefully after the next Olympics, that we’d do it as a family.” So Chris left his job, they sold their house and left their family and friends in New Jersey.

The choice to move to California was a family decision for the Fotopoulos’. In the past, George stayed behind and worked when Danielle played soccer. This time, with two, she wasn’t sure she could handle it without him. “He’s sacrificed a lot of his career for me to be able to do this,” she said. “If he didn’t want it too, we wouldn’t be doing it. Us coming out here together was a major thing for our marriage, our family and for me as a professional athlete.”

Frimpong thought it would be best for MacKenzie to stay home with Brad and her parents to finish pre-school. She recently joined her mom in California and Tina admits the time apart was tough, “MacKenzie would call and say ‘I miss you Mom. When are you coming home?’ and those days were hard.” Frimpong is “single momming” it for now since Brad stayed home to work, but he acts as nanny when they travel and will join them later this summer.

Like the other 2nd generation soccer moms, Fotopoulos admits it is a challenge to balance her time and energy, but she realizes how fortunate she is, “I feel like I just have it all. I get to enjoy this experience with my family. I get to be a wife and a mom and a professional soccer player. What’s better than that?”

Even Frimpong who never played with Overbeck or Fawcett, knows that she owes them a debt of gratitude for paving the way. “I just want to thank them whenever I get a chance,” she said. “I’m thankful. So, so thankful.”