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Going For Gold
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By
Daniel Jimenez
22 April 2004
How would you feel if you were one the best athletes in the world and yet relatively few people knew your name? Such is life for U.S. women’s national soccer team players Catherine "Cat" Reddick and Cindy Parlow.
Both women have won national college championships, competed in international tournaments and earned major individual awards. The two teammates will also be counted on heavily to help the U.S. team win a gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Reddick, 22, led the University of North Carolina women’s soccer team to an undefeated season and the national championship in 2003. The Alabama native won the Honda Award as the NCAA’s outstanding female athlete in soccer. She was also the only collegian to play for the U.S.’s World Cup team last year. Reddick recently earned a degree in communications and wants to pursue a career as a sports broadcaster.
Parlow, 26, has the honor of being the youngest player ever to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Women’s World Cup title. The Tennessee resident also helped North Carolina win a national championship in 1998. That same year she joined U.S. teammate Mia Hamm as the only two-time winners of both the Hermann Trophy and the Mid-American Conference’s Player of the Year Award.
Parlow went on to play professionally for the Women’s United Soccer Association after winning the World Cup. She currently plays the forward position for the U.S. team and plans on finishing her degree in education after the Olympics. Both players have already had their jersey numbers retired from the University of North Carolina and signed endorsement contracts with major sportswear companies.
Unfortunately, Reddick and Parlow are fighting an uphill battle to promote soccer in America. The women’s professional league folded in 2003, and the sport’s top official caused an uproar when he suggested females should consider wearing more revealing uniforms, such as skimpier shorts, to attract new sponsors, such as fashion and cosmetics companies. "Tighter shorts, for example," FIFA President Sepp Blatter told the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick in January. "In volleyball the women also wear other uniforms than the men. Pretty women are playing football today."
I recently traveled to North Carolina’s campus to meet the women and discuss the challenges of being a student athlete. Both Reddick and Parlow were flattered at being considered potential role models for younger people. Their passion for their sport and close friendship were also easily evident during the interview and accompanying photo shoot.
During an exclusive interview with YOUNG MONEY, Cat Reddick and Cindy Parlow spoke about chasing their Olympic dreams, life after college and why wearing sexier uniforms would hurt women’s soccer.
YM: HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO JUGGLE PLAYING SOCCER WITH ALL OF YOUR OTHER SCHOOL COMMITMENTS?
Parlow: I think coming from high school you kind of learn a little bit of how to juggle those things. I mean, it’s not nearly the same as coming into college, but you kind of get an idea. Except when you come here you have help. You have academic advisors, coaches and players and they all help you. They give you tutors if you need them. Some of us were required study hall for at least a certain number of hours just to get into the rhythm of everything.
Reddick: I think it was obviously a challenge to play both a sport and go to school at the same time. But for me it was just a decision I had to make. If I wanted to make time to study and do my homework, I would find the time. And if I didn’t want to find the time, I wouldn’t find it. To me it was basically just a discipline that you had to have to get everything done.
YM: WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST SPORT HIGHLIGHT?
Parlow: I think one of the most memorable moments in my career was the opening ceremony for the ‘96 Olympics. I was the youngest player on the team, and it was my first big event. I think I had just turned 18 years old and here I was in Atlanta, Georgia. Everyone was just going crazy. You walk up this huge ramp and then you get to the top of it and that’s when you see everyone. They had just announced the United States of America so everyone was standing up and cheering so loud. It was probably one of the most amazing feelings I’d felt in my entire life. Playing-wise the biggest highlight was winning the ‘99 World Cup and receiving that medal.
Reddick: Two of mine just came this year. Playing in the World Cup has always been a dream of mine. It’s been a dream for so long you never really set it as a goal until it’s just around the corner. Playing with everybody that I was able to play with was definitely a highlight in my career. Also, winning a national championship in 2003. Having a perfect season (27-0) was something I’ll never forget. And then getting my team jersey retired was another sports highlight. They all came this year.
YM: DID YOU HAVE TROUBLE MAKING THE TRANSITION TO LIFE AFTER COLLEGE?
Parlow: To me the transition to the so-called "real world" was made pretty easy because there had been a lot of people that had come before me who were in my position and had been there for five or ten years. They would tell me what I needed to do and how to get organized. My best friend is a financial consultant, so that was great for me. From the age of 20 years old I was already investing my money. So that was probably easier for me than making the transition into college.
Reddick: I just graduated recently. So I’ve been doing my job for a month because playing soccer is my full time job. … You hear about all the things your friends are doing at home and wish you could make it to some of the events but you’re looking at where you are and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You miss some of the relationships and keeping up with your friends, but the cell phone is an amazing invention and it helps in keeping touch with them.
YM: DO YOU HANDLE THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THE SPORT OR DO YOU HAVE PEOPLE HELPING YOU?
Parlow: If you’re on the U.S. national team, you start receiving a monthly salary once your NCAA eligibility is over. So you’re getting your money from U.S. Soccer and from your apparel deal. Maybe there are other companies out there that want to sponsor you or want you to do commercials, which happens. So you’re getting this money now and for Cat and I this was the first time we had any real money. When I was in school I had to ask myself, "Am I going to be able to eat today?" I never knew what it was like to have money so I didn’t know what to do with it. So I felt really lucky that my best friend was a financial consultant. I went to her and asked her to help me out.
YM: WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE COMMENTS MADE BY THE HEAD OF FIFA REGARDING WOMEN’S UNIFORMS?
Parlow: I think it’s a ludicrous and uneducated statement. We’ve brought this sport from basically nothing on to the world stage. It’s growing so much, especially in America. Thousands of people are coming out to watch women’s soccer. For him to cut us down and basically make us just into sex symbols and not to see the work, the bruises and the sweat that we put into this game … He just cut that all away and put us out there as if we’re just sex symbols and that’s the only reason why people come see us play.
Reddick: I completely agree. He of all people should be more careful with what he says. They’re trying to build up soccer so much and then he takes that step backwards for women’s soccer and, I think, for women’s sports in general.
© 2008, Young Money Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
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