O’Reilly accepts spot on U.S. Women’s National Team
VERONICA YANKOWSKI East Brunswick junior Heather O’Reilly, shown here battling for the ball with Clifton’s Jillian Fueshko, has been named to the United States Women’s National Soccer Team, which is currently competing in Portugal’s Algarve Cup. At 17, Heather is the youngest member of the team and its only high school player.
EBHS junior
competing in Portugal’s 2002 Algarve Cup
By doug mcKenzie
Staff Writer
When Carol O’Reilly answered the phone, she initially thought it was a joke. She heard what she thought was an adult’s voice on the other end of the line, but remained understandably skeptical.
"When April Heinrichs calls your house and asks to speak with your daughter, it’s a bit overwhelming," she said. "I wasn’t sure it was really happening."
But for the O’Reilly family, of East Brunswick, the call couldn’t possibly have been a total surprise. After all, Heather O’Reilly, the nation’s premier high school soccer player, has become a bit of a household name in the women’s soccer community. And based on her recent involvement with the United States Olympic Development Program, both Heather and her family assumed that the head coach of the United States Women’s National Team would come calling sooner or later.
"We just didn’t expect to hear from her this soon," Carol O’Reilly explained.
The reason for Heinrichs’ Feb. 5 phone call was to invite Heather, just a junior at East Brunswick High School, to join the U.S. Women’s National Team as it attempts to capture the 2002 Algarve Cup in Portugal, one of the most prestigious invitational women’s tournaments in the world, being held March 1-7 in the scenic Algarve region on the southern tip of Portugal.
The U.S. team tied defending-champion Sweden, 1-1, on Friday, before beating England, 2-0, on Sunday. From there, they faced Norway, the favorite to win the cup, on Tuesday, for the right to play in today’s final.
Heinrichs asked O’Reilly to become part of the team’s 20-woman roster, replacing the legendary Mia Hamm, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a lesion on her left knee earlier this month.
For O’Reilly, the invitation to join the national team marked the high point in what has been a brilliant soccer career to date.
"Heather was so excited when she got the call," her mother said. "We all were. We had just gotten back from a basketball game."
O’Reilly is a member of the East Brunswick High School girls’ basketball team, which began playing in the state tournament this week. But to a player, nobody questions Heather’s decision to accept Heinrichs’ invitation.
The U.S. team is attempting to win the Algarve Cup for just the second time. Heinrichs named 15 WUSA players to the roster, including the No. 1 and No. 3 picks in this month’s WUSA (a new women’s professional soccer league) draft, Danielle Slaton (Carolina Courage) and Jena Kluegel (Boston Breakers).
O’Reilly, at 17, is the youngest of five amateurs named to the team, and is the only high school student on the roster.
"Just because she’s on the team now doesn’t mean she’ll be there the whole time," her mother explained. "She was picked for this event, and will have to compete for a spot in future events."
But Carol O’Reilly added that her daughter is enjoying the experience thus far.
"She’s the rookie, so she’s going to have to wait her turn to play. But she realizes that it’s such an honor just to train with these players, and is looking forward to playing alongside some of the best players in the world."
O’Reilly’s ascent to stardom has been a rapid one, with her excellence on the field obvious ever since she began playing at the age of 6.
Her career began with an East Brunswick travel team, the East Brunswick Dynamite, whom she continued to play with until she was 14., under head coach Phil Peterson. Along the way, O’Reilly began playing with one of the state’s elite club teams, the PDA Splash, out of Zarephath, Somerset County, under the direction of head coach Charlie Maimo.
"She didn’t just drop out of the sky," her mother explained. "All of her success is the result of her hard work from the very beginning."
When O’Reilly reached age 11, she started trying out for state-level teams, where she continued to excel. By the time she was 15, O’Reilly had been picked to become part of the Region 1 Olympic Development team (there are four regions throughout the country), which led to her invitation to join both the U-16 and U-19 women’s national teams. At the same time, she was breaking records at the high school level for East Brunswick, where in just three years she has accumulated 121 career goals, has been named to the All-State team twice, and led her team to a state title (this past season).
But it was in the national tournaments where Heather was truly gaining notoriety.
"She was only 15 at the time, but she still participated in tournaments at both levels (U-16 and U-19), which was very rare," Carol O’Reilly said. "I guess that’s when Heinrichs first met her."
O’Reilly has been playing with the U-19 National Team for the past two years, and will rejoin that squad upon returning home in a couple of weeks as it prepares for the qualifying tournament for the first-ever FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Cup, which will be held in British Columbia, Vancouver, from Aug. 15 through Sept. 2. Qualifiers for the World Cup will be held in Trinidad in May.
But for now, O’Reilly is enjoying her spot on the U.S. Women’s National Team.
"It’s pretty rare for a high school player to get to this level," Carol O’Reilly said. "Mia Hamm was 15 when she reached this level, but that’s going back a long time ago. A lot has happened since that time."
O’Reilly is now getting to know her teammates in practice every day, but has met a few of the players through her U-19 National Team experience.
"While training in California, she met Shannon McMillan, Kate Sobrero and Julie Foudy, but couldn’t wait to meet the rest of the players," her mother said. "She’s actually played against some of them when her U-19 team scrimmaged against the U.S National Team and the San Diego Spirits (a WUSA team)."
All of this Olympic-level play may affect how often her hometown East Brunswick Bears team gets to share the field with her come fall, but Carol O’Reilly said that everyone has been supportive of Heather’s endeavors throughout her ascension to the national level.
"All of her friends, teammates and coaches have been tremendous," she said. "When she came home (from school) on Friday, she had all kinds of good-luck presents. She has really received a lot of support."
At 17 years old, Heather O’Reilly has already reached the highest level of soccer in the world. She is now playing with many of the players she grew up idolizing, and is quickly becoming a leader in the new wave of women’s soccer players looking to take the sport to even higher levels.
April Heinrichs’ Feb. 5 phone call to the O’Reilly household was not the beginning of a remarkable soccer career, just an indication of how remarkable it has already been.