“I don't mind it. It's an honor,” she said. “It was different for me. Back then, it was more of the mom cheering on the sidelines. I got to do both. That was the image for me when I was growing up because my mom was a Soccer Mom."
In 1993, at the age of 25, Joy and Walter Fawcett wanted to start a family. Joy was hitting the prime of a prolific career that included 241 international appearances, two Women's World Cup championships and two Olympic gold medals.
"I wanted to be a mom earlier so I could hang with my kids as I got older, so I could keep up with them," said Fawcett, who asked then-USWNT head coach Anson Dorrance for his approval.
"But I knew if I did it, my kids had to go with me," she added. "I didn't want to leave them at home and just take off. [Anson] was like, “That's fine, you can bring them all along.' I didn't think what that would entail. I didn't even think of the details until each one popped up."
And for good reason. There weren’t many manuals or any sort of road map about how a female athlete should deal with pregnancy, especially one performing at an elite level. So, Fawcett just about wrote the book on how to juggle two major responsibilities at once.
"Just the pregnancy itself was interesting. I had no clue," Fawcett said. "There wasn't a lot of information around. I would train as I was training anyway. I kept doing my fitness and doing my sprints, doing all the things I usually did. I played until I started showing because no one would play with me once I got a belly. They were worried."
Fawcett said her doctor "kind of freaked out a little bit," when she told him about her workouts.
"He was like, 'Oh my God, you need to stop. You just have to stop doing that.' "
Since there were no role models, Fawcett figured things out as she went along. "There was a lot of unknowns in the beginning with the first pregnancy with Katey,” she said. “It was just kind of play it by ear and how you felt and what happened. The doctors didn't know a lot either then with exercising."
On May 17, 1994, Katelyn Fawcett was born. Eight weeks later, the U.S. Women's National Team held a training camp near the family’s home in Foothill Ranch, Calif.
"I was so worried," Fawcett said. "I was not very confident as a player, so worried about keeping my position. I didn't want to lose my spot. I wanted to stay with the team. That was a concern for me, not taking too much time off."
Fawcett brought Katey and her mother, Beverley Biefeld, to watch her teammates train. Dorrance told his star defender, "You look great, come out and play," she said. "I was like, sure. I just jumped into camp right away and played.”
Seventy-five days after giving birth, Fawcett returned to competitive soccer, starting in a 2-1 win over Germany in Fairfax, Va. on July 31, 1994.
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Happy Mother's Day to US Soccer's Original “Soccer Mom” - U.S. Soccer
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