O’Hanley signs, seals and delivers her WPS ambitions
Monday, March 24, 2008
By: Karyn Lush | womensprosoccer.com
(March 24, 2008) – The letter writing campaign began during the fall of 2001, Brooke O’Hanley’s senior season at the University of Portland.
Determined that her Pilots’ finale would not be the last act of her soccer career, every two weeks O’Hanley stuffed letters expressing her interest in being a professional player into envelopes, addressed them to each of the eight teams in the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA), slapped on 34 cent stamps and dropped them into the mailbox.
Despite her regular dispatches, when the WUSA’s 2002 draft was held, O’Hanley was not selected. Undeterred, she picked up the phone and dialed all eight coaches. A few called her back with tryout offers. One overture intrigued O’Hanley.
Brooke O'Hanley won a WUSA championship with the Carolina Courage in 2002.
The Carolina Courage, who finished the WUSA’s inaugural season in the cellar with a 6-12-3 record while allowing a league worst 40 goals, had an opening.
“Being a defender, I was interested!” said O’Hanley.
Knowing Carolina’s offer was her best opportunity to latch on with a team, O’Hanley joined the Courage in training camp and went about winning the decision makers over.
“I think I surprised the entire coaching staff,” O’Hanley said. “Each day, I tried to go out there and show them that I deserved to be on the team.”
The Courage’s coaches got the message. When the squad broke camp to begin the regular season, O’Hanley had earned a roster spot. Beginning the season on the bench, O’Hanley was used in a utility role seeing playing time at all three field positions and eventually made her way into the starting lineup. When she started in Founders Cup II, which the Courage won to complete their worst-to-first transition, she became the first and only undrafted player to start in the WUSA’s championship game.
A year later after playing in all 21 games during the 2003 season, starting 17 of those matches, her professional career came to a screeching halt with no advance notice when the WUSA suspended operations.
“I was driving in my car when I got a call from one of my friends who was in the league telling me that there was some kind of announcement,” O’Hanley remembered. “She was in tears and I was in tears shortly thereafter. Then it was calls to all different teammates trying to figure out what happened and what would be the next step from there...Each of us had to make a decision about whether or not to quit soccer or still keep pursuing soccer. I knew I loved the game that I couldn’t really quit playing - even if there was no professional league.”
Sparked by the hope that a women’s professional league would soon return, O’Hanley assessed her strengths and weaknesses and chose to make improvements. A solid decision maker and reader of the game, O’Hanley knew her physical dimension was lacking. She began working with a trainer in Santa Barbara, Calif. while she earned a Masters Degree in Environmental Science and Management from the University of UC Santa Barbara. Her speed, overall strength and vertical jump increased – the latter by nine inches, which O’Hanley readily labels as absurd.
O’Hanley also trained with any and nearly every team she could find: the University of UC Santa Barbara’s men’s team, where she also served as an assistant coach; a women’s club team; two men’s Mexican teams; and the WPSL’s Ajax America, for whom she traveled four and a half hours round trip to Redondo Beach just to compete in a home match.
In August 2007 with no tangible signs of a league returning, O’Hanley made her first decision that prioritized her career aspirations over soccer: The Palo Alto, Calif. native moved across the country to New York City to attend Pace University Law School, which is well known for its environmental program. Less than a month later, Women’s Professional Soccer was established. With WPS slated to kick off in April 2009, O’Hanley is keeping her options open.
“If I have the opportunity to play in the league, I would definitely have to take a leave of absence from law school to play,” she said. “I’ll only be young once.”
With new life breathed into her soccer dream, O’Hanley is carving time out of a schedule full of law courses and library visits to work out at the gym and play for New York Athletic Club.
“I feel like I’ve made pretty much every decision I could to try to improve my soccer,” she said. “With the new league coming, I hope I get an opportunity to show how much I’ve improved.”
It won’t be long until she launches a new letter writing campaign to convince WPS coaches of just that.
Karyn Lush is a regular contributor to womensprosoccer.com and can be reached at karyn.lush@womensprosoccer.com. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Women’s Professional Soccer or womensprosoccer.com.