Taking Her Place Among the Best : Soccer: Former Palos Verdes High player Carin Jennings is named most valuable player at World Cup tournament in China.
After leading the United States to victory in the first women’s World Cup soccer tournament that concluded recently in China, former Palos Verdes High standout Carin Jennings can be considered one of the best players in the world.
Jennings, a left wing who attended Palos Verdes from 1980-83, scored six goals and had five assists to lead the United States to a 6-0 record. After the U.S. team defeated Norway, 2-1, in the final, she was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
U.S. National Team Coach Anson Dorrance, who tried to recruit Jennings to play at North Carolina, marvels at her talents.
“Her greatest quality is that she can beat defenses on her own,” Dorrance said. “She is creative, and has great athletic ability and agility. She has great speed, can change direction quickly and still keep control of the ball.”
During her four years at Palos Verdes High, Jennings, who now lives in Washington, led the Sea Kings to three Southern Section championships. She scored a record-setting 226 goals in her prep career and was twice chosen Southern Section player of the year.
Bill Merrell, who recently resigned as coach at UC Berkeley, first saw Jennings play when she was competing for a rival team in a local youth league. Her skills were obvious.
“She was like a mini-Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar),” Merrell said. “If she was on your team, you knew that you would wipe out the opposition.”
Merrell coached Jennings at Palos Verdes High when she was a junior and senior. He also has coached club teams for which Jennings has played.
“She always has had a knack for scoring goals,” Merrell said. “She has great speed, acceleration and deception. She’s also the greatest dribbler in the world. What she does is magic.”
Although she was offered a scholarship to attend North Carolina, Jennings enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, where she had an NCAA-record 101 goals and 78 assists in four seasons. She was a four-time NCAA All-American and had her jersey number retired by the school. In 1990 she was selected the UC Santa Barbara female athlete of the decade.
Jennings joined the U.S. National team in late 1986. By the end of the year, she had played well enough to be named U.S. soccer female player of the year.
Amy Allman, one of the team’s goaltenders, remembered the first time she played against Jennings.
“I was flabbergasted by her talent,” Allman said. “I kept yelling at my defenders to cover her. I remember thinking, ‘Who the hell is (number) 12?’ ”
As a goalkeeper, Allman said she feels that Jennings’ ability to confuse defenders is one of her main attributes.
“She can get the defenders to go one way, and then she dances around them in the other direction,” Allman said. “She can go through such tiny spaces, even with three players on her. She just tears it up.”
According to Jennings, the U.S. team was one of six or seven squads capable of winning the World Cup.
“Going into the tournament we felt we could win the Cup if we played our best and if we kept (everybody) healthy,” she said.
The U.S. team defeated Sweden, 3-2, in the opening game, with Jennings scoring twice. Then the U.S. team beat Brazil, Japan and Taiwan to set up a semifinal match against Germany.
Jennings, 26, scored the first three goals in the game and the United States won, 5-2.
In the final, a goal by Michelle Akers-Stahl in the 77th minute gave the United States the victory before a crowd of 60,000 in Guangzhou.
Jennings said Norway proved troublesome because of its style of play.
Defensively, the Norwegian midfielders were able to clog up passing lanes and offensively they continually passed the ball through the air and down the sidelines.
The United States Soccer Federation, in an effort to attract and keep quality players, began paying players a monthly salary of $1,000 in July. The USSF also provided $45 per day in compensation for time missed from work. The salary and perks ended with the World Cup final.
The money was appreciated, Jennings said, but had little to do with the reason she still plays the game.
“We play because we love it,” Jennings said. “Obviously it’s not for the money or the glamour.
After graduating from UCSB, Jennings has held a variety of jobs, but acknowledges it is hard to keep steady employment when her soccer schedule keeps her traveling around the country and world.
She has signed a contract with Diadora to represent the company’s soccer shoes and clothing line. Jennings will make personal appearances at retail outlets, clinics and sporting goods stores. Paul Fisher, Diadora’s marketing director of soccer, said Jennings is a marketable athlete.
“We saw her potential before the Cup,” Fisher said. “She has an explosiveness, a flair that makes someone marketable. She’s athletic, acrobatic and has a charismatic personality, much like Michael Jordan.”
Because women’s soccer is not an Olympic sport, the direction of the National team and the future of its players is unclear. Although Dorrance has not decided whether he will continue to coach the team, he would like to see Jennings continue her career on a national level.
“She’s got more than one World Cup in her,” he said. “Carin should definitely stay (with the National team). She’s the kind of woman that can promote the game.”
