Happy B-Day Pia

There have been a number of February birthdays in training camp this month, including Cat Whitehill and athletic trainer Gigi Garcia, while Keeley Dowling and Amy Rodriguez celebrate their b-days in a few days. But today was head coach Pia Sundhage’s birthday. In addition to wolfing down ice cream cake at dinner, the team celebrated at the end of training by changing the usual “One-two-three-TEAM!” to the Happy Birthday song for Pia. Sundhage is known for her singing ability (and she also plays a mean acoustic guitar), but truth be told, the U.S. players ain’t bad either. It’s not like they are going to win American Idol anytime soon, but singing sessions on long bus rides in the past have been more than decent. To talk to them, though, they can’t seem to hit those right notes during the pre-game National Anthem, although they make up for it with volume.

Busy Bees

It was another busy day in WNT training camp. First, all 26 players went to the doctor’s office this morning to get blood drawn for standard blood work. No stone is unturned in preparing these players for competition! Then, the whole team came to The Home Depot Center at Noon for lunch before jumping into one of the team’s favorite days of the year – Photo Day! Ok, so maybe posing for tons of photos isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun afternoon, but the players definitely got into it as the WNT does it at a bit higher level than your standard 5^th grade school photo day. The players did three different set-ups with three different backdrops, posing in casual clothes (also known as “lifestyle shots”), sitting for standard head and shoulder shots (also know as “mug shots”), and then headed to the stadium pitch to stand for full length portraits in their white, long-sleeve game jerseys (those white long sleeves are sweet-looking if we do say so ourselves). Special thanks to official team photog John Todd and his assistant Don for powering out the photo shoot (those guys are good), and to all the players and coaches for their patience posing for a plethora of pics (sometimes, we just gotta bust out the alliteration in the WNT Blog). Tomorrow, most of the team has the day off, but about a dozen players will train in the morning as this WNT training camps nears its end…

 

Pump You Up

Today was another busy day for the U.S. Women’s National Team. Half the team trained on the field in the morning while the other half did a weight workout at gym near the team hotel. In the afternoon, the groups flip-flopped. In the morning, the group that was lifting had to move outside the gym to do their workout as their wasn’t room inside, making for an odd sight for any passers-by who would have seen a dozen athletic women in Nike U.S. National Team gear pumping some iron. Said forward Heather O’Reilly: “It was like muscle beach out there.” We’re pretty sure she was joking, although O’Reilly does have some impressive pipes. Tomorrow is another double-day, although the entire 26 players in camp will train together in both sessions as head coach Pia Sundhage continues the process of selecting the 20-player Algarve Cup roster.

 

Pet Names

We found out the other day that goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart had two cats while growing up, one named “Lilly” and another named “Scurry.” Who would have known that one day Barnhart would be saving shots from one and training next to the other? Barnhart was just 11 years old when Scurry debuted for the USA in 1993 (and five years old when Lilly first played for the USA), but Barnhart says the cats are still kicking and meowing. This has spurred us to find out if any other young players on the National Team had pets named after U.S. Women’s National Team players.

Cat Racer

We found out today that Cat Whitehill is an excellent driver. During training camps, the U.S. team has about a 25-30 minute drive from the team hotel to training at The Home Depot Center every day. Sometimes, when the team has split practices, the players take vans instead of the team bus and cutting precious minutes off the commute is of great value. Doing so involves an intimate knowledge of the timing of stoplights, a bit of weaving in and out of traffic and a feel for Southern California traffic patterns. All these skills were learned by Whitehill during the several Residency Training Camps and she has put those talents on display this week. Of course, she also drives safely and abides by all California vehicle laws and codes, but darn if her van doesn’t get to places just a bit fast than everyone else’s van, earning her Top Driver Award for the WNT. This should not be a surprise as Whitehill does hail from the Alabama, which of course is NASCAR country. Back in 2004 after the USA won the Olympic gold medal, Whitehill was approached to be the official starter at the Talladega 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway (we love writing Talladega) about 40 miles east of her hometown of Birmingham. At the last moment, Kiefer Sutherland committed, denying Whitehill what she admitted would have been a highlight of her life. But hey, when Jack Bauer wants to the starter, Jack Bauer gets to be the starter.

 

Steph Steps Up

Stephanie Cox also did a photo shoot yesterday, but this one was at The Home Depot Center for a major feature in a magazine coming out later in the year as well. Cox, however, was in her game uniform for her first major individual photo shoot as a WNT player (and as Stephanie Cox!). Of course, she nailed it. Steph, although sometimes a bit shy off the field, seems to be a natural in front of the camera. It’s a good thing, as the 21-year-old already has 33 caps for the National Team, and is always thoughtful and well-spoken in her interviews. And hey, it’s about time a defender got some love from the media!

Flashbulbs Popping

Yesterday was a big photo shoot day for the U.S. team. Christie Rampone, Abby Wambach, Leslie Osborne and Heather O’Reilly did a photo shoot for a major women’s magazine. We can’t give out too many details, but suffice it to say that it was pretty cool and it should make for a unique image. Amazing how the WNT players can transition smoothly from sweaty soccer players to super models (with help of course from make-up artists and stylists). Keep a lookout for the photo down the road and we’ll try to give you details when it comes out. See above for a pic of the quartet outside the studio. Meanwhile…