Tim Crothers - The Man Watching: Anson Dorrance and the University of North Carolina Womens Soccer Dynasty

Anson Dorrance and the University of North Carolina Womens Soccer Dynasty

Tim Crothers

Thomas Dunne Books
St. Martins Press
New York

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martins Press.

THE MAN WATCHING. Copyright 2006 by Tim Crothers. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crothers, Tim.

The man watching : Anson Dorrance and the University of North Carolina womens soccer dynasty / Tim Crothers.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-312-61609-0

1. University of North Carolina at Chapel HillSoccer. 2. Soccer for womenNorth CarolinaChapel Hill. 3. Dorrance, Anson. 4. Soccer coachesUnited States. I. Title.

GV943.7.U55C76 2010

796.334'6209756565dc22

2010030190

ISBN 978-0-312-61609-0

Originally published in the United States by Sports Media Group, an imprint of Ann Arbor Media Group LLC

First St. Martins Press Edition: October 2010

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my wife, Dana,
and anyone else who has ever
chosen to be extraordinary

As a Fathers Day present in 1997, Anson Dorrances eldest daughter, Michelle, bought her dad a pocket-sized blue spiral notebook. She titled it Dads Quote Book, and to further personalize her gift she scissored out a photograph from a magazine and pasted it to the books cover. The photo features a lonely road sign on an anonymous prairie, against a wide blue sky. The sign is directional, a bending arrow pointing the way, and it is peppered with bullet holes. Asked to explain the symbolism of the image, Michelle says, Its what Ive taken from what my dad taught me.

The idea for the gift sprang from Michelles realization that her father, the University of North Carolina womens soccer coach, had always been a quote collector. He was constantly underlining profound excerpts in books, but then he was never able to retrieve a specific quote when he wanted it. She also admits to a selfish craving for easy access to the motivational words that her father regularly shares with his players. Now, whenever Dorrance stumbles upon a quote that moves him, he scribbles it into his quote book, which is always situated within arms reach on his cluttered office desk. Dads Quote Book, which contains more than one hundred quotes and counting, is Dorrances only possession that he can always locate at a moments notice, and he faithfully remembers to stuff it into his briefcase before every road trip so that he has these inspirational words at his fingertips. Quotes borrowed from that notebook, which also serve as an outline for the core values of the UNC womens soccer program, introduce each chapter in this book.

When Dorrance initially agreed to be interviewed for this project in the summer of 2001, he didnt do it for the notoriety. He didnt do it for the legacy. He did it for the potential recruiting value, and also to satisfy his curiosity. He was interested in how his players as well as his opposition perceive the UNC program. Dorrance presumed that he already knew what he would say, but he discovered that his own responses were more intriguing than hed anticipated. One evening he suddenly interrupted himself mid-interview and said, You know, the great thing about this book is that its become a self-exploration. Its allowed me to answer a lot of questions that Id never asked myself about why I do what I do.

For forty-eight months this book was my job, and I imagine its the most rewarding occupation I will ever have. After twelve years of covering both professional and college sports at Sports Illustrated, this experience has refreshed my faith in athletics. The book captures a lot of what is good about sports, along with some of what is not. My objective has been to write about the reality of womens athletics, without any sugarcoating, and about how the struggle for excellence can be both humbling and empowering.

I considered it a privilege to be permitted inside the normally forbidden sanctums of the practice huddle, the team bus, and the team meeting room for Dorrances speeches before, during, and after every game. Nothing was off the record. In the interest of research, I took a position as a volunteer assistant coach in the spring of 2002, which allowed me to scrimmage in UNCs legendary 3-4-3 system alongside U.S. national team defender Catherine Reddick. There I felt firsthand the sting of Dorrances editorial commentary. I have also risked life and limb by regularly skating in Dorrances pickup roller hockey game, and by riding shotgun in a van driven by assistant coach Bill Palladino. I have also been thrashed repeatedly by Dorrance in foosball and have endured a long night of his cacophonous snoring as his roommate on a road trip.

To his credit, after four years of living with a writer in his shadow, Dorrance still conjured up fresh stories during each of our frequent interviews, which can best be described as fluid. I recall once walking into Dorrances office with a few questions about recruiting and instead chatting with him for two hours about Winston Churchill. Whenever I was around Dorrance I could never stop reporting, because hes always on the verge of an anecdote. Ive written notes on napkins, matchbooks, forearms, and hockey sticks. We once conducted an interview while driving a UNC player to the emergency room.

Throughout this book, there will be extended quotes and even full speeches from Dorrance, because he is an old-school orator who thoughtfully measures rhythm and cadence and vocabulary as well as the attention span of his audience. To truly understand his power it is necessary to experience a speech or a story in its entirety.

I have interviewed more than 120 Tar Heel players during the writing of this book, and while many of them are married now, with names changed, for purposes of simplicity they will all be referred to in these pages by the names they used at UNC. During my time following the program, witnessing more womens soccer than I would have expected in six lifetimes, I learned that Dorrance is a coach shaped by his players as much as the other way around. This book is about how a man took a group of women and built the greatest dynasty in college sports... and about how they built him.

Tim Crothers
August 2006

Here is my secret. Its quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.

Anything essential is invisible to the eyes, the Little Prince repeated, in order to remember.

Its the time youve spent on your rose that makes your rose so important.

Its the time Ive spent on my rose..., the Little Prince repeated, in order to remember.

People have forgotten this truth, the fox said. But you mustnt forget it. You become responsible forever for what youve nurtured. Youre responsible for your rose...

Im responsible for my rose..., the Little Prince repeated, in order to remember.

Antoine de Saint-Exupry

Allllllrightthen, here we go. Ill tell you, I loved last years Final Four because of the position we were in. I loved coming in as an underdog. Guess what? I think the same thing is happening again at this Final Four. In the press conference yesterday all the questions I got this year were about how well Portland is playing and about how were struggling. Well, I can play that tune. I went right along with them. But I was thinking that if you people had seen the second half of our quarterfinal game against Penn State, you pinheads!, youd have known that we outshot them 91. Where the hell have you been? I didnt deliver any of that to the media because I know what we can do, and if right now they have written us off, then I want us to show everyone what this team can do out there on the field tonight because I tell you, when you guys play your best you are devastating. You are frigging inspirational. You play through your hearts with extraordinary passion, and our opponents know that if they dont bring it, you guys are going to humiliate them.