(April 23, 2008) -- On December 10, 2000, Angela Hucles went to bed having sat through the first day of the inaugural Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) Draft without hearing her name. It wasn’t until the next day when the Boston Breakers finally snatched her up in the 12th round.
When the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) teams stock their rosters for the April 2009 launch, Hucles won’t have to sweat this one out. Following three successful seasons with the Breakers she cracked the National Team scene and instead of training on her own as she did in the summer of 2000, this time Hucles will get her training as part of the United States National Team that is preparing for the Beijing Olympics.
“I’m definitely excited for this new league,” Hucles said during a recent break while taking a real estate licensing course in Boston. “I know from past experience how wonderful it is.”
(Brad Smith/isiphotos.com)
Angela Hucles would love to return home to play for the WPS Boston Breakers. As a member of the organization's WUSA team, she scored the first Breakers goal in history during a 3-0 preseason victory over Duke University in Durham, N.C. on March 6, 2001.
Prior to the inaugural WUSA season, Hucles found a job that allowed her to train for the WUSA combine, “basically during work time.” This time she was part of the press conference to announce the return of the Breakers as part of WPS.
“I feel like I’m definitely more a part of helping to get this league off the ground,” she said. “I was able to be here for the press conference with Kristine Lilly. I know the people involved. It’s definitely a different role this time.”
Few players got more bang for their buck in the WUSA than Hucles. She left the University of Virginia as a striker unlikely to get a look with the National Team. During her time in Boston she honed her skills as a midfielder, particularly excelling at controlling possession in tight quarters, and eventually forced her way onto April Heinrichs’s roster for the 2003 World Cup and 2004 Olympics. Now at 29 she is a National Team regular having just completed her second World Cup last September.
Hucles also found a new home having remained in the Boston area the last five years, and is hopeful but realistic about being a Breaker again in 2009. WPS is still finalizing its player selection process.
“This is my home,” she said. “I definitely want to be here. Having said that, you never know what is going to happen.”
With National Team commitments, Hucles has not spent much time in her adopted hometown lately, but through connections on Facebook she has detected a definite buzz for the return of the Breakers in and around Boston where fan support was rabid during the club’s 2003 playoff season.
First things first though. The National Team is bristling from the 4-0 shellacking laid on it by Brazil in the World Cup semi-finals last September. Although the U.S. will go to China as Olympic champions thanks to having defeated Brazil in the 2004 Gold Medal game, the 2008 version is a very different bunch.
“For me personally,” said Hucles, who saw limited action off the bench at the 2004 Games, “we have something to go and prove. We’re a very different team now and obviously we weren’t as successful as we would have liked to have been (at the World Cup). This team really hasn’t won a major championship. So in essence we’re not the defending champions.”
Once the Olympics, she will return home to prepare for the 2009 WPS season.
“I keep telling everyone (who did not play in WUSA) that it’s kind of like college without the classes,” Hucles joked. “But we really want to advance women’s soccer and we want to advance soccer in general.”
Dan Lauletta is a freelance writer and can be reached at thirtymtp@aol.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.