Foudy Hopes to Train Young Leaders

Julie Foudy belongs on the short list of prominent women in American sports. She's also intent on lengthening that list.

The former captain of the U.S. women's soccer team won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals as a star midfielder. Along with longtime teammates Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Joy Fawcett and Brandi Chastain, she formed the core of the most successful U.S. squad in the sport's history.

Foudy retired not long after the United States won the gold medal at the Athens Games. Now, the one-time president of the Women's Sports Foundation has organized the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy.

Girls aged 12 to 18 will attend two such academies, where they not only will be taught soccer skills, but will learn how to take charge the way Foudy and her U.S. peers did for nearly two decades.

''The inspiration is the kind of philosophy I loved about the national team so much. We always understood the bigger picture,'' Foudy says. ''Winning gold medals and winning World Cups was wonderful, but it's all the great things we learn from sports. With losses and setbacks and difficult situations, we learned how to deal with all of them and then we found we knew how to walk into a boardroom and feel confident speaking.

''Those are the real intangibles people don't talk about enough. They always are talking about wins and losses.''

Foudy has run a soccer camp with her husband, Ian Sawyer, for several years. She's enjoyed the work with youngsters, but felt a need to broaden it.

''We wanted to take our soccer camp and expand it more into something overt in terms of leadership, get the girls thinking about how do they lead their team _ and then, off the field, building it out to how do you take all these lessons you learned and apply them to life?

''So it's getting kids to think, especially with young girls, they always are looking around for someone to tell them it is OK. They don't want to take the first step. They have a hesitancy: 'I don't know if the team wants me there, or the coach wants me there.' With women and young girls, they have to get to that point when they understand they need to step up.''

Hamm, soccer's career goal-scoring leader, will be a guest speaker at the July 23-28 camp in Sonoma, Calif. ABC TV's Robin Roberts will speak at the June 25-30 academy at The Peddie School in Highstown, N.J.

Other former U.S. teammates will participate at both academies, too.

''This camp demonstrates where Julie's heart for the sport has always been _ helping young girls find their voice on and off the field,'' Hamm says. ''Julie's academy will do more than get them in shape or teach them new soccer skills. It's going to encourage them to put their best foot forward in soccer and in life. And that's not only unique, it's invaluable.''

Foudy used her corporate influence to entice Gatorade, McDonald's, JP Morgan Chase and New Balance to underwrite some of the costs. Those companies will provide scholarships to youngsters who couldn't afford to attend the academies, which will have about 230 campers in all.

While the girls will be improving their dribbling, shooting and heading, they'll also be upgrading their communication skills on the field. To Foudy, that's as crucial as anything the youngsters learn at the academies.

''I think girls are always building consensus when they're young,'' she said, ''and that's a strength of women and young women. But at times it can be something that restricts their willingness to go forward. They need to understand it's OK to disagree, here is my opinion. To have the confidence to think differently and speak up. They can find their voice.''

Future academies might be expanded to basketball or tennis, but the focus will remain on creating leaders rather than superstar athletes.

''There are different kinds of leaders out there,'' Foudy said. ''And it does not have to be the one with the captain's band.''