Skylar Little
Full nameSkylar Martine Meinhardt
Birth nameSkylar Martine Little[1]
Birth dateMarch 10, 1978 (age 48)
Birth placeHeerlen, Netherlands[1]
Height5ft 3in[1]
PositionRight-back
Youthclubs 1Valley United
Youthyears 11993–1995
Youthclubs 2Las Virgenes Blazers
Youthyears 21996
Collegeyears 11996–1999
College 1UCLA Bruins
Collegecaps 184
Collegegoals 10
Clubs 1Washington Freedom
Years 12001–2003
Caps 160
Goals 11

Skylar Martine Meinhardt (; born March 10, 1978) is an American former professional soccer player. A consistent right-back, she played for Washington Freedom of Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) and trained with the senior United States women's national soccer team.

Playing career

College

Meinhardt attended the University of California, Los Angeles and played college soccer. She graduated in 1999 with a degree in sociology. With the Bruins, Meinhardt made 84 appearances (68 starts) and served five assists.[2]

Club

Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first official professional women's soccer league in the United States, began in 2001. Meinhardt was a fourth-round draft pick (26th overall in the global draft) by the Washington Freedom. In 2001 Meinhardt started 19 of her 20 regular season appearances.[1]

In 2002 she started all 20 regular season appearances and scored one goal as the Freedom finished third. She featured in the championship game but the Freedom lost 3–2 to Carolina Courage. Freedom coach Jim Gabarra praised Meinhardt's improvement: "She is a very good one vs. one defender and one of the first names you put in your line-up."[1]

Ahead of the 2003 WUSA season, Meinhardt had knee surgery and she spent the off-season in Chicago, volunteering in a children's hospital.[3] Another solid and dependable campaign saw Meinhardt start all 20 regular season games and play in the 2003 WUSA Founders Cup win.[1]

International

In December 1999 Meinhardt was called into a senior United States women's national soccer team training camp in San Diego.[1]

Personal life

Meinhardt and her identical twin Jacqui Little were born in the Netherlands, but grew up playing soccer in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. Jacqui, a forward, played college soccer with Santa Clara Broncos, while defender Skylar elected to stay closer to home with UCLA.[4]

In the 1999 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament, Jacqui's Broncos team beat Skylar's Bruins 7–0. Jacqui was drafted by the Bay Area CyberRays and faced Skylar's Washington Freedom in WUSA's inaugural match, which the Freedom won 1–0.

In November 2001 Washington Freedom traded their Brazilian forward Pretinha to the CyberRays for Jacqui Little and a third round draft pick.[5] Jacqui and Skylar were therefore team-mates on the Washington Freedom roster in 2002 and 2003.

After the collapse of WUSA, Meinhardt registered with a temp agency and did: "every odd job you could possibly imagine". She then secured a permanent role in sales for Wolf Designs in Southern California.[6]

In 2016 she was living in Westchester, Los Angeles, had changed her surname from Little to Meinhardt and had three children.[7]

References

  1. ^ "23 - Skylar Little". Women's United Soccer Association. Archived 28 October 2003 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Women's Soccer History" (PDF). UCLA Bruins. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  3. ^ Truman, Tim (4 March 2003). "Washington’s Little Twin Powers". Women's United Soccer Association. Archived 28 September 2003 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  4. ^ Payne, Dave (21 April 2003). "Little Sisters Propel Freedom". Women's United Soccer Association. Archived 28 September 2003 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  5. ^ "Freedom Trade Pretinha to CyberRays". Associated Press. 14 November 2001. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  6. ^ Steinberg, Dan (13 June 2004). "Coping With the Loss of Freedom". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  7. ^ Parker, Kevin (14 April 2016). "The WUSA Washington Freedom 15 Years On: Where are they now?". All White Kit. Retrieved 16 May 2021.