Thank You, Christie Rampone

by Karen Wall

“Are you crying?”

I glanced sideways at my daughter and dabbed the tears that were on the verge of spilling down my cheeks, and smiled.

“Why are you crying?” she said, incredulous and exasperated all at once.

“Where do I start?” I thought.

The U.S. Women’s National Team had just beaten Japan 5-2 in a game where they left no doubt about the outcome. They did it with people all over the country -- men, women and children -- watching as closely as they watch an NCAA men’s basketball championship game, with the passion that accompanies the Olympics. Passion for the women’s team, with a conversation that focused on their skills and their smarts and not their looks.

And their captain -- Christie Rampone -- inspires not only my daughter’s generation but mine, too. Seeing her step on the field for what is likely her final World Cup took me back 16 years to her first World Cup and produced the same goosebumps as I had that day.

Seeing how far women have come in those 16 years has me in awe as well.

I was 5 years old when President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law in 1972. By the time I was a freshman at Brick Township High School eight years later, the law -- which states any education program receiving federal money must ensure equal access regardless of gender -- was still being fought in the court system. We had girls sports in high school -- field hockey and tennis, basketball and softball were the main offerings. But girls soccer (the first New Jersey high school champion was crowned in 1980) was still new. We were relegated to hand-me-down uniforms from the boys team and had to practically beg to play soccer on the football field at our high school. My stepsister, who played soccer in Florida, had to fight for the right to play on the boys team because her school did not offer girls soccer.

By the time Christie Rampone -- she was Christie Pearce back then -- came along nine years later, setting records at Point Pleasant Boro High School, the sports scene had not changed much. While high school programs commonplace and girls soccer was growing by leaps and bounds at the youth level, the U.S. women’s national team was still mostly unknown. They played their first international match in 1985, the year after I graduated from high school. They won their first World Cup in 1991, Christie’s sophomore year.

It wasn’t until the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta that the average American realized we even had a women’s national team, and even though the team was mowing down its opponents, you couldn’t watch the games live unless you had a ticket -- they were relegated to off-hours and highlight coverage by NBC.

When 1999 came around, and the U.S. was hosting the World Cup and using big arenas to do it -- Giants Stadium, the Rose Bowl, just to name two -- the naysayers were loud, predicting the tournament would be an abysmal failure.

But I will never forget walking up to Giants Stadium with my dad to watch the U.S. womn play in the opening game of the World Cup, on June 19, 1999 -- all the little girls decked out in red, white and blue. I can still see the stadium packed to the brim, standing for the national anthem, and feel the goosebumps I felt that day knowing they were there to watch women play the game I loved.

I waited that day for Christie to make her appearance on the field, and I remember feeling disappointed that we didn’t get to see the hometown girl play in New Jersey. But knowing she was a part of it still was a point of pride.
None of us could have envisioned what’s happened in the 16 years since. But few would dispute that the 1999 World Cup changed the landscape for girls and women, on and off the field.

When I was a child, the elite female athletes were still relegated to the “pretty” sports -- ice skating and gymnastics. Now we watch elite female athletes getting blood washed out of their hair on a soccer field and no one questions whether the sport is too rough for women. And Rampone -- who took over as player manager of Sky Blue and led her team to a championship while pregnant -- helped change those attitudes.

When I was a child, women’s roles were narrowly defined. Back then, we dreamed of and fought for the opportunities to be doctors or lawyers. This generation has options and opportunities that are almost boundless.
While we still have hills to climb when it comes to women being treated equally -- FIFA, that bastion of fairness, is paying the U.S. women’s team $2 million for winning the World Cup, whereas the men’s World Cup champion team received $35 million -- seeing how far we have come amazes me.

My daughter was only 18 months old in the summer of 1999. She doesn’t remember that team. She doesn’t remember the blood, sweat and tears, the fights that created the opportunities that she and her teammates have today, where girls are encouraged to chase their dreams, whether it’s in the laboratory or in business, where there are so many options that it’s almost overwhelming.

My daughter only knows a world where she can step on a soccer field, a basketball court, a softball diamond and be seen as an athlete first, and a female second.

It’s because of women like Christie Rampone and the women’s U.S. national team that she can.

So as we witness what is likely the passing of the torch to the next generation, I shed tears -- of gratitude, and awe -- over what has happened during the 16 years that Christie Rampone has been on the national scene. She has helped change the future and shape it for my daughter’s generation in ways we can’t even begin to imagine. Just like we couldn’t imagine being where we are today in 1999.

Thank you, Christie.

Christie Rampone signs an autograph for the author’s daughter on July 4, 2009, as Sky Blue honored the 10th anniversary of the 1999 World Cup championship. Photo credit: Karen Wall.