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Heather Mitts extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Heather Mitts

Personal information
Full name	Heather Blaine Mitts
Date of birth	9 June 1978 (1978-06-09) (age 31)
Place of birth	Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Philadelphia Independence
Youth career
1996–1999	Florida Gators
Senior career*
Years	Team	Appsâ€	(Gls)â€
2000	Tampa Bay Extreme
2001–2003	Philadelphia Charge	51	(0)
2005	Central Florida Krush	4	(0)
2009	Boston Breakers	19	(0)
2010–	Philadelphia Independence
National team‡
1999–	United States	103	(2)
Honours Competitor for  United States Olympic Games - Women's Football Gold 2004 Athens Team Competition Gold 2008 Athens Team Competition
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:07, 28 October 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 20:07, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Heather Blaine Mitts (born 9 June 1978, in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American soccer defender currently playing for Philadelphia Independence of Women's Professional Soccer and is a member of the United States women's national soccer team.

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Early life and university 1.2 Professional clubs 1.3 International 2 Personal 3 References 4 External links

Playing career

Early life and university

Mitts played soccer in high school for St. Ursula Academy in her hometown of Cincinnati. She was recruited by, and eventually decided to attend, the University of Florida. She was offered a full scholarship to play for the Florida Gators soccer team, which she did as a student-athlete from 1996 to 1999. With the university, she became the program's all-time record holder in appearances (95), starts (94), and minutes played (7,547). She was part of the defensive line that helped the Gators to their first ever NCAA Women's Soccer Championship in 1998. She was named a Third Team All-American in 1998 and a First Team All-American in 1999.

Professional clubs

Straight out of college, Mitts played for Tampa Bay Extreme of W-League in 2000 while waiting for the launch of the new Women's United Soccer Association league.

Upon the WUSA's launch and inaugural season in 2001, Mitts was drafted to the Philadelphia Charge. With the club, she appeared in 20 games (1,751 minutes) in the inaugural season and added two assists. Throughout her Charge career, Mitts appeared in 51 games (4,414 minutes) and recorded eight assists over 3 seasons. She was named as a WUSA All-Star in 2003. Unfortunately, after the 2003 season, the WUSA ceased operations.

Mitts returned to W-League in 2005, playing sparingly for Central Florida Krush while splitting her time between the United States Women's National Team. She appeared in 4 games (360 minutes).

Upon the introduction of Women's Professional Soccer, Mitts and fellow USWNT players Angela Hucles and Kristine Lilly were allocated to Boston Breakers on 16 September 2008. In the inaugural 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season, Mitts appeared in 19 games (all starts, 1631 minutes) and added an assist. After the season, Boston Breakers declared Mitts a free agent.

On 14 October 2009, Mitts signed with 2010 WPS expansion team Philadelphia Independence, marking her return to play professional soccer in Philadelphia following the demise of the WUSA's Charge.

International

Mitts is a two-time Olympic Gold-medalist as a member of the USWNT for the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics who has represented the United States in over 100 competitive matches. She was also a member of the US team who finished second in the 2006 Algarve Cup.

On 12 May 2007, Mitts tore her ACL in an international friendly match with Canada. The injury put Mitts out of contention for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Personal

Mitts is known as much for her looks as her athletic ability and as a result, has delved into the world of modeling. In 2001, Mitts was voted as the sexiest player in the WUSA on Playboy Online. In addition, she appeared on the cover of Philadelphia magazine in June of 2002 as one of the city’s "Sexiest Singles". In 2004, she was voted ESPN.com’s "Hottest Female Athlete" in 2004. She also appeared in the 2005 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue with A. J. Feeley, currently quarterback for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, who is now her husband.

Mitts has parlayed her looks into a number on television commentary jobs. She has served as a studio analyst for ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 during the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup and was a sideline reporter for several MLS broadcasts in 2005. In addition to soccer, she also was a sideline reporter for college football during 2005 for ESPN.

References

External links

• Official website
• Heather Mitts FIFA competition record
• Heather Mitts at MySpace
• US Soccer player profile
• Women's Professional Soccer player profile
• WUSA player profile

Awards
Preceded by Jennie Finch	ESPN Hottest Female Athlete 2004	Succeeded by Amanda Beard