The Girls Are Back in Town
Emily Griffin
News Editor
The girls are back in action. Soccer super stars, such as Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly, return to the professional league of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS).
As many students know, there was once a professional women’s soccer league called WUSA. That league housed players like Mia Hamm, who had achieved international success back in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Sadly, the League ended abruptly on September 15, 2003, because it did not receive any financial backing. Due to this, the league was not able to complete its third season and also suffered a huge loss when their star player, Hamm decided to retire after the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
However, a new league is back and better than ever. In 2008, negotiations began, creating a completely new professional women’s soccer league. Only a handful of players from the WUSA came to the negotiations, reported womensprosoccer.com. However, this league differs greatly from the WUSA league. The WPS has many international players including British players Kelly Smith and Alex Scott (Boston Breakers players), French player Sonia Bompastor (Washington Freedom), and Japanese player Homare Sawa (Washington Freedom). Each team is made up of at least two players from a different country.
The returning fans from the WUSA League are not the only ones excited for the WPS. Girls varsity soccer captains, juniors Linnea Markson and Morgan Carter, are thrilled that there is a new professional women’s soccer league. Both Markson and Carter encourage their teammates to watch the women’s soccer games on television or go to the games that are played in Maryland at the SoccerPlex.
One of the reasons that Markson thinks it is so important to watch the games because “[everyone] can always learn something new [from watching professional sports].” Carter agreed with Markson saying, “It is always helpful to watch professional league games to get better, especially in high school [sports].” Markson continued to mention that she thinks it is a great idea a new league has been created because “it is something for young girls to look up to. They get a chance to look up to [the players] and see that that they have a chance to play in a professional league like the boys have had a chance to look up to people and now girls are able to do that.” Carter also thinks it is “nice that women now have the opportunity to play alongside men in a different League but the same opportunity.”
The new professional women’s soccer league has created quite a stir in the girl’s high school teams. Now there are more athletic women role models for younger girls.
