Highlights from Mia and Siri

First, Hamm was wearing a Nike-emblazoned Washington Freedom jacket, had to be the WUSA version, since WPS’ apparel sponsor is Puma…

As for the presser itself, the first question for Hamm was straight out of U2 Rattle & Hum. You remember it, right before “Desire.” “What has happened between the writing of the Joshua Tree album and the recording of the Joshua Tree album, and now the tour and the new songs?” Very specific.

Hamm was gracious: “I never expected it to be this long, filled with the experiences that I had. When I first started, I mean, for me in college, I thought I will get through school, and then I will have to go and get a real job. Next thing you know, in ’92 they talked about getting a league to keep playing after that. Then they talked about keeping the women and making a World Cup. That was exciting for all of us, but we kind of just took it year to year, day to day. I don’t know, it’s nothing that I expected, and it was definitely more organic than a lot of people thought. It just grew into these great opportunities, and I think a lot of that is the people involved. We just seem to be very fortunate, I think, with the core group of players. They just really committed to making a difference and getting the women’s national team program where it should be and U.S. Soccer committing to the game for all of us and being able to train and help the game in not only this country but throughout the world and other national team programs committed. I think that says a lot about the game.”

Hamm also touched on Lake Braddock and her time in Northern Virginia: “I came from, prior to that, playing soccer in Texas. I was usually the only girl playing, outside my high school team where we needed five girls to make a team. We were a co-ed team playing in an all-boys league in high school there. But I remember coming here and just the intensity that surrounded this game.  It was great for me, and it took some getting used to because I was in an environment where people cared about the results, but it had a little more of a recreational edge. When I came to Northern Virginia this was serious stuff. These players were committed.”

Mullinix weighed in, too: “I don’t think in Greensboro [N.C.] it was to the level it was in Virginia. I remember playing club and the team to beat was always Braddock Road and I mean there was a big rival whether it was WAGS or any tournaments in North Carolina or Virginia…  My dad coached me, you don’t even see that anymore. You don’t see that these days. My dad didn’t play soccer.”

Mullinix is an assistant coach at VCU: “I have kids on VCU that came and watched us in WUSA in 2000, seven, eight years ago in Northern Virginia. I mean, that’s weird.”

Other good quotes… Hamm on the importance of having a pro league, not just a residency program for the national team: “I wouldn’t call myself professional until there was the WUSA. I know I was compensated for the national team, but for me I wanted to be able to do it every single day, and when the WUSA started, we could do that. I could say, ‘I am not selling shoes for a living. I’m playing soccer.'”

She also thought WUSA did have it right — except for the business side, obviously; “I think every year the sport got better and the product got better. I can just speak from this area, and I know we were heavily involved in the community and I know the community appreciated it and every year our relationship was growing.  It is hard to say in a 3-year span that it was perfect, but we were moving in the right direction. That was what was hard, when we had to suspend operations, and you felt that across the board, the sense that we had something that we didn’t have in past years. The players were getting better, the coaches were getting better understanding of what it meant to be a professional.”

Hamm probably won’t get into coaching: “I don’t know if I have the personality for it.  I don’t want to deter any girls from playing the game because it’s such a great game.  Now that I have kids my patience has grown a lot , but I still have a long way to go to coach other people’s kids.  I mean I’m honest with myself.  It takes a certain type of person.  I love coaching sessions, but your commitment as a coach has to be much greater, the time and preparation.”

Finally, Hamm, 37, said her heroes are Tiffany Milbrett (36), Kristine Lilly (37) and Brandi Chastain (40), as she’s not planning a return to the playing field: “When you come back to this environment and you see players that played a long time and the talent level, it would be fun, but I was kicking around last week with these 15-year-olds, and they just were flying by me. There’s no way. I would love to be as fit as these players are. I am still competitive, but I don’t have the commitment to do it every single day anymore.”