Hi all!

At work, we were blessed with the opportunity to co-sponsor a Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly Soccer Clinic w/ Pfizer's this past week!  Ya know, I never thought I'd meet one - nevermind- two Olympians!   Julia was in awe...   her mommy a bit too!   :)   I actually had to interview the both of them for our local Public access channel...  yes, hoaky but what an experience!   I must say, I enjoyed Kristine more.... she is very personable!

Just thought you might like to see these:  
Here is one local papers story:
 

THE DAY Campers For A Day

Lilly, Hamm Visit Groton To Give Soccer Clinic, Promote Charity

Groton -- A group of 8- and 9-year-old boys and girls were lined up across from each other on the football field at Fitch High School, part of a Groton Parks & Recreation soccer clinic on the unseasonably warm fall evening. The particular game these kids were playing was a soccer version of “dodge ball” - a player between the two lines trying to avoid the rapid fire of kicked balls between partners.

One of the girls, Jenna Arzoumanian, was standing with her ball but without a partner, until Kristine Lilly snuck into the line across from her.

“I want to pass with her,” Arzoumanian yelled out after seeing the United States Women's World Cup team star standing less than 10 yards away. Rose Marie Welles, the little girl standing next to Lilly looked over - and then up - and her jaw dropped open with wonder.

Lilly just smiled.
“This is where I learned the game, at the parks and rec level,” said Lilly, who grew up in Wilton. “Whenever you can go out and have a chance to affect the kids, it's tremendous.

“I didn't have a female soccer player walking around teaching me.”
The almost 300 children Monday had two: Lilly and fellow U.S. national team star Mia Hamm.
The international soccer superstars were at Fitch as part of a clinic designed to promote awareness for bone marrow transplants and their sport.

In 1996, the United States won the Women's World Cup in a much-publicized shootout with China (Remember Brandi Chastain taking her shirt off after scoring the game-winner in a moment immortalized on the cover of Time magazine?). A year later, Hamm lost her brother, Garrett, to complications of a bone marrow disease.

Hamm, considered the best women's soccer play of all time, combined her two concerns in 1999 to create the “Mia Hamm Foundation,” a non-profit, national organization whose mission statement lists the organization's goals as “raising funds and awareness for bone marrow transplant patients and their families and the development of more opportunities for young women to participate in sport.”

Her foundation, through Pfizer, approached Greg Goode, the sports program supervisor for the Town of Groton Parks & Recreation Department, about doing a clinic involving Hamm. The addition of Lilly, who has played in more international games than any other player in the world, was an added bonus.

“We didn't know we'd get double the fun,” said Goode. “When someone asks if you want to do a free clinic with Mia Hamm, you don't think about it. You say ‘yeah' and you figure out the rest later on.”

The Town of Groton Parks & Recreation/Groton Youth Soccer leagues and Pfizer combined to donate $1,000 to the Mia Hamm Foundation and $1,000 to the New England Marrow Donor Program.

That's the technical explanation for their appearance.
Hamm put it more candidly: “We're going to be campers for a day.”
The two walked around from group to group, taking over briefly as instructors, introducing different drills, but mainly just enjoying meeting kids that idolize them.

Former Fitch boys' coach Todd Clark was there with a group of girls, which included his 9-year-old daughter, Amanda, and 6-year-old daughter, Alyson. Amanda is just getting to the age where she likes to sit down and watch a World Cup game with her father and can identify the players.

Would he have ever dreamed several hundred soccer-ball kicking kids would take over the football field when he was playing at Fitch in the mid '80s?

“No, not a chance,” Clark said. “Even coaching two years ago, I wouldn't have thought it.
“This is like getting Nomar (Garciaparra) and Derek Jeter to come down and do a baseball clinic.”
The allusion is appropriate considering Hamm and Garciaparra will reportedly marry Saturday, Nov. 22 in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Hamm, the all-time leading scorer in international competition, played in her final World Cup last summer but hopes to play in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She reiterated Monday that the players haven't given up on the Women's United Soccer Association resuming play, if only it could come up with a better business plan and new sponsors. The euphoria generated from the '96 World Cup that helped found the WUSA has worn off, leaving a league that was losing money at a steady rate.

Both Hamm and Lilly were part of the WUSA, which suspended play after the 2003 season because of shaky finances. The league's woes have left a void in promoting the sport.

“I think it gives us an opportunity to use that enthusiasm and effort we put into the league season into something like this,” said Hamm. “It's a great opportunity to come into this community and share this.”