Playa del Carmen, MEX - Apr. 2012

‘cause when you’re young and in love,

you might do somethings that don’t seem all that smart.

’ cause there ain’t no greater distance,

than the eighteen inches from your head to your heart

- eighteen inches, lauren alaina

Why HAO is amazing…

Just 17, her future is now Heather O’Reilly of N.J. is already on the U.S. soccer team.

November 17, 2002|By Mike Jensen INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Her father may have been the first to see it.

Andrew O’Reilly had been an all-American half-miler at Villanova. A couple of teammates were Olympians while still undergraduates, so he saw their gifted traits up close. To his surprise, O’Reilly thought he recognized some of the same gifts in his own young daughter when she was on a soccer field.

“Wow, don’t blow this,” Andrew O’Reilly recalls saying, reminding himself to let her career unfold naturally.

A decade later, it’s obvious his hunch was accurate. Last weekend, Heather O’Reilly, still a senior at East Brunswick High School, finished playing with Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain and the rest of the U.S. women’s national team as it won the CONCACAF Gold Cup and qualified for next year’s Women’s World Cup.

In September, O’Reilly starred on the U.S. team that won the world under-19-year-old championship.

The high school star made the roster for the World Cup qualifying tournament ahead of Abby Wambach, the WUSA rookie of the year, and Penn State’s Christie Welsh, last year’s college player of the year.

“It’s scary for opponents to play against her because of her out-and-out speed and explosion,” said U.S. U-19 coach Tracey Leone, who describes O’Reilly’s style as “hair on fire.”

Her famous teammates say she is a handful. Even when she is on their side, they’ve been known to say, “Take a breath, Heather.”

When the Gold Cup squad was announced, Brandi Chastain was asked how she keeps her interest up after so many years.

“Did you hear the names on the roster?” Chastain said. “I have Heather O’Reilly, who is a 17-year-old, that I have to chase all over the field. That is how I keep my excitement.”

Are we talking here about the next Mia? Not precisely. O’Reilly has a lot of Hamm’s ball skills, but O’Reilly is faster.

A better comparison might be U.S scoring dynamo Tiffeny Milbrett. Leone sees an amalgamation of gifts, and said O’Reilly most reminds her of U.S. women’s national team coach April Heinrichs, the first U.S. women’s scoring star in the 1980s. Like Heinrichs, O’Reilly is hard to knock off the ball.

“She’s got this rare intensity,” said Leone, who played in the 1991 World Cup. “So few players - not just her age - so few players in our country and the world have her inner drive. All she needs is to keep gaining experience. She wants it to happen tomorrow. Really, she wants it today. Tomorrow is just too late.”

http://articles.philly.com/2002-11-17/sports/25355013_1_brandi-chastain-soccer-field-mia-hamm

Tags: heather o'reilly uswnt hao

Scars are souvenirs you’ll never lose.
The past is never far.

- name, goo goo dolls

Reading Hurts

treesquirrrel:

That moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize that everyone is just carrying on with their lives as though you didn’t just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a paperback.