Four W. Soccer Alums Could Play in WUSA

When former Harvard women's soccer captain Beth Zotter '00 was selected by the New York Power with the 29th overall pick of the inaugural WUSA draft last December, she predicted that fellow Crimson alumni Jessica Larson '00, Ashley Berman '00 and Emily Stauffer '98-'99 would someday find roster spots in the new professional women's soccer league.

She was right on all accounts.

Larson and Stauffer will be joining Zotter on the Power's 28-player training camp roster, while Berman will be attending the Boston Breakers' training camp.

The WUSA preseason camps will begin this week. Players will be competing for 20 final roster spots, to be determined by Apr. 2.

Each WUSA team had acquired about 24 players through the drafts and allocations, leaving four openings on each team to be filled by open team tryouts.

Both Stauffer and Berman were too occupied to attend the WUSA Combine and Draft in December. Stauffer was committed to Teach for America, a program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in underprivileged rural and urban schools for two years, while Berman was in Australia on a work visa. The team tryouts provided them both with a more timely opportunity to break into the league.

Larson attended the combine with Zotter, but was passed over in all 15 rounds of the draft. Larson--the 1999 Ivy League Player of the Year--believed at the time that her lack of prior Olympic Development Program exposure was the main reason for her omission and that the team tryouts would give her a better to chance to showcase her abilities.

Power Coach Pat Farmer, who was the head coach of Penn State prior to November, gave Larson her second chance.

In an interview with the Crimson in late December, Farmer said that he originally passed on Larson because his pre-draft allocation of players already gave him considerable defensive depth.

"Larson did very well at the camp, but we already had the central defender from the Norwegian national team [Gro Espeseth] and then we drafted [former W-League Boston Renegades defender] Erica Iverson," Farmer said. "I was a little surprised [Larson] wasn't drafted, but you have to understand, a lot depends on what combination of players have already been allocated."

At this point, only Zotter has a secure position on a WUSA roster. Berman, Stauffer and Larson will all have to beat out lower draft choices to earn their roster spots.

Carrie Moore, Harvard's volunteer assistant coach this past season, was the 14th round pick of the Washington Freedom. She will be among those draft choices who must fight to preserve their place in the league.

"Some of my players were confused--they thought that when they were drafted they made the team, but this is not a done deal," Farmer said. "The beginning is not the end result. Those who are drafted are not guaranteed to make the team. There is still an opportunity to add through discovery."

Farmer has made quite a discovery in inviting Stauffer, one of the most decorated players in Ivy history. She is Harvard's third all-time leading scorer with 37 goals and 36 assists. She was a two-time Ivy Player of the Year, a three-time All-American and NSCAA National Scholar Athlete of the Year.

In 1999, she earned the ECAC's Award of Valor given to an athlete "whose courage, motivation and relentless determination serves as an inspiration to all." In the fall of 1997, Stauffer took a year off to provide support for her brother Matt, who died of leukemia in January of 1998.

The Crimson compiled a near-flawless Ivy record of 24-1-3 during Stauffer's tenure.

Berman was a first-team All-Ivy selection at midfield during her senior season. She was the leading scorer in Ivy play on the 1999 Harvard team that was ranked as high as seventh in the nation. Berman is 13th on Harvard's all-time career scoring list.

The Boston Breakers will be playing their home games on a newly-installed, soccer-friendly FieldTurf surface at Boston University's Nickerson Field. The team's home opener is slated for May 5.

The WUSA will begin play on Apr. 14. The league's games will be televised nationally by TNT and CNNSI throughout the season.