April Heinrichs

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
April Heinrichs
April Heinrichs.jpg
April Heinrichs at the 2003 World Cup
Personnel
Surname April Dawn Heinrichs
birthday February 27, 1964
place of birth Denver , ColoradoUSA
position attack
Juniors
Years station
1983-1986 North Carolina Tar Heels
Women
Years station Games (goals) 1
1987 FCF Juventus 0
1988-1989 Prato Wonder
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1986-1991 United States 46 (35)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1990 Princeton Tigers
1991-1995 University of Maryland
1996-1999 Virginia Cavaliers
1995-1996 USA ( assistant trainer )
1996-2000 USA-U-16
2000-2005 United States
2005 University of California, Irvine
2011– USSF (Technical Director)
1 Only league games are given.

April Dawn Heinrichs (born February 27, 1964 in Denver , Colorado ) is a former American football player . She played from 1986 to 1991 in the US national team , with which she won the first World Cup in 1991 . From 2000 to 2004 she was the national team's first female head coach and won the gold medal with her at the 2004 Olympic Games . She is currently the technical director of the US Women's Football Association.

life and career

Heinrichs played from 1983 to 1986 for the Tar Heels, the team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , with whom they won the NCAA championships three times. She scored 81 goals for the tar heels, did the preparatory work ("assists") on 57 goals, making her "NCAA's all-time leading scorer" and received several awards. In 90 games, she was the winner 85 times. She was the first player whose shirt number was banned after she left. After her bachelor's degree in radio, television and motion pictures, she played as a professional in Italy for Juventus and Prato Wonder.

National team

She played her first international game at the age of 22 on July 7, 1986 in a 2-0 win over Canada , the Americans' first home game. She was then immediately a regular player. Her first international goal she scored on July 20, 1986 in a 2-1 win against China in Jesolo , Italy at the "Mundialito". Their last international match was the 1991 World Cup final against Norway , through which the USA became world champions for the first time. Heinrichs was team captain in the world championship team and, together with Michelle Akers and Carin Jennings, was known as "the triple-edged sword". Three years earlier, she and her team had reached the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament in 1988 in the People's Republic of China , but lost to the eventual winner and final opponent from 1991 there.

She won her first major title with the national team at the 1991 CONCACAF Women's Championship , which was scheduled to qualify for the first women's World Cup. In the 12-0 win against Martinique - together with the 12-0 win against Mexico two days before until January 20, 2012, the USA's biggest win - she achieved her only “three-pack”. In total, she scored eight goals in the championship, making it the second best goalscorer of the tournament behind Michelle Akers (11 goals). In addition, she and Shannon Higgins became record national players in the USA against Martinique with their 33rd international match. Since Heinrichs, in contrast to Higgins, was not used in the next game, Higgins was the sole record national player for one game. Because in the following game Higgins was not used. But since Debbie Belkin made her 34th international match in the game, there were now three record international players. Together, the three players extended the record to 40 games by June 5, 1991, then Heinrichs was not used for the whole of August and September, while the other two were able to expand the record further. Heinrichs was then taken into account again for the two World Cup preparatory games against China in October and the 1991 World Cup. At the World Cup she was used in all games except the third group game against Japan . She scored two goals twice - in the second group match against South American champions Brazil and in the semifinals against European champions Germany . With the World Cup victory, she ended her career as an active player. In 46 games, in which she had started 43 times, she scored 35 goals.

trainer

While still active, she worked as a trainer at Princeton University . From 1991 to 1995 she was a trainer at the University of Maryland and from 1996 to 1999 at the University of Virginia . During this time, she was the assistant coach of the national team, which won the gold medal in the first ever women's Olympic soccer tournament at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta . After the Olympic Games she became the head coach of the U-16 team and in 2000 the head coach of the national team and technical director of the US Women's National Team program. She was the first female head coach in the USA and to this day the only coach who herself played for the US national team. As a coach, she won the Algarve Cup three times with the national team , the Gold Cup in 2000 and 2002, at the Olympic Games in Sydney the silver medal in her first year as head coach and four years later in her final year as head coach the gold medal in Athens . At the home World Cup in 2003, however , her team failed in the semifinals against eventual world champions Germany, but won the game for third place against neighboring Canada. In January 2005, she announced her resignation as national coach. Her last game as head coach on December 8, 2004 was also the last game of the players Mia Hamm , Julie Foudy , Brandi Chastain and Cindy Parlow , with whom she had played together. She coached the national team a total of 124 times, more often than any of her predecessors or successors.

From 2007 to 2010 she was "high performance director" of the US Olympic Committee.

In early 2011, she and Jill Ellis became technical directors of the US federation. She is particularly responsible for the U-18 and U-20 teams.

successes

As a player

As a trainer

  • Olympic champion in 1996 (as assistant trainer) and 2004
  • Silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games
  • Third place in the World Cup in 1995 (as assistant coach) and 2003
  • Victory at the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup in 2000 and 2002
  • Algarve Cup winner 2000, 2003 and 2004

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Mundialito (Women) 1982-1988
  2. ussoccer.com: "April Heinrichs Named Head Coach of the US Women's National Team"
  3. ussoccer.com: "April Heinrichs to Resign as Head Coach of the US Women's National Soccer Team"
  4. ^ "Heinrichs and Ellis hired to run girls program"
  5. ussoccer.com: "Quote Sheet: Sunil Gulati, April Heinrichs and Jill Ellis Discuss New Positions"
  6. Hall of Fame - Player Bios ( Memento from April 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )