Heinrichs gives UCI a heartbeat

Former U.S. national team coach hopes to help Anteaters’ women’s soccer program become a winner.IRVINE -- A visit to the heart of the UC Irvine campus helped convince April Heinrichs that this was where she would return to collegiate coaching.

Tuesday, at a news conference to introduce her as the Anteaters’ women’s soccer coach, the former coach of the U.S. women’s national team said she would try to pump life into a program that recently has not had much of a pulse.

The Anteaters went 5-12-2, 1-5-1 in the Big West Conference last season and were 9-26-4, 2-13-1 the last two seasons under veteran coach Marine Cano.

Cano announced last season he would resign after 12 years, the highlight of which was a Big West Tournament championship in 1997.

“One of the questions I got from people was ‘Why UCI?’ said Heinrichs, whose five-year stint as national team coach included a gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. “My first response was, ‘Why not? Are you kidding?’ Some people from the Midwest or back east may not have heard of this school. But with the UC system and the hotbed of talent we have here, the weather, climate and academic reputation of the school, why not?”

Heinrichs, a three-time All-American and three-time national champion at North Carolina from 1983 to 1986, was also the captain of the 1991 U.S. team that won the first Women’s World Cup in China.

She was named Player of the Decade for the 1980s by Soccer America.

Anteaters standout Britney Webster, one of a handful of players in attendance Tuesday, said Heinrichs’ hiring, first announced Monday, has created excitement among Anteaters players.

“It’s really a great opportunity, especially for the younger girls,” said Webster, who will be a senior next season. “I think we can be a really, really good program.”

Heinrichs, who guided the University of Virginia to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1996 to 1999 in her last collegiate coaching job, said she foresees success at UCI.

“I don’t really know much about the Big West,” said Heinrichs, who has also been the head coach at Maryland (1991-95) and Princeton (1990) and was an assistant coach for the 1996 national team that won the gold medal in Atlanta. “I think people can see positive results in the first couple years. When I started the program at Maryland -- rebuilt the program, if you will -- my goal was to turn things around within three to five years. With injuries, it became closer to five.”

Heinrichs said a lengthy phone conversation with UCI Athletic Director Bob Chichester on Thanksgiving Day was the first step in her hiring.

“First, I wanted to make sure from Bob that there would be enough resources to allow us to compete,” Heinrichs said. “There’s no sense getting in a water balloon fight without water in the balloons. My conversation with Bob on Thanksgiving was very encouraging.”

But she wasn’t convinced until a subsequent visit to campus.

“I had been to California 50 or 100 times, so I was familiar with it and it has always been a place I’ve been drawn to,” she said. “Bob drove me to the beach, then he took me around campus, and I thought it was nice. We then got onto central campus and I told Bob I wanted to go to the very middle, to the heart of this campus. I wanted to see the students as they were walking to class and I wanted to know the feel of the campus. I went to the inner circle and I felt it. I thought, ‘This is gorgeous and this might just happen.’

“I’ve lived in and around Washington, D.C. for the last 22 years, so that has kind of been home to me. The only thing left was deciding to come 3,000 miles from home. But change is good.”

Chichester said Heinrichs’ arrival could greatly benefit UCI.