Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Joy Lynn Fawcett | ||
Date of birth | February 8, 1968 | ||
Place of birth | Inglewood, California, United States | ||
Height | 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) | ||
Playing position | Defender | ||
Youth career | |||
1987–1989 | California | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
Ajax | |||
2001–2003 | San Diego Spirit | 43 | (12) |
National team | |||
1987–2004 | United States | 239 | (27) |
Teams managed | |||
1993–1997 | UCLA Bruins | ||
Medal record
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* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
Joy Lynn Fawcett (née Joy Biefeld; February 8, 1968) is a retired American professional soccer player. She earned 239 caps with the United States women's national soccer team (WNT) and retired from the WNT in 2004 as the highest scoring defender for the U.S. WNT. Fawcett was a founding member of the WUSA, and was elected for induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2009. She was in the movie Soccer Mom as herself.
Fawcett grew up in southern California where she attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach, California. Her high school team won four league championships. She then attended the University of California, Berkeley where she played on the women's soccer team from 1987 to 1989. She was a three-time, first team All-American. She holds the school record for single season scoring with 23 goals in 1987. Fawcett graduated from UC Berkeley in 1992 with a BA degree in Physical Education Cal inducted her into the school's Hall of Fame in October 1997.
Fawcett and forward Carin Jennings both were members of the Manhattan Beach club women's soccer team Ajax in the late 1980s and early 1990s and routinely played at Columbia Park in Torrance, California. In 1991 and 1993, Ajax won the U.S. women's amateur championship. In 1998, she played for Ajax in the first season of the Women's Premier Soccer League. In 2001, Fawcett signed with the San Diego Spirit in the newly established Women's United Soccer Association. She missed most of the season due to an early season pregnancy. She rebounded in 2002 to lead the team in playing time with 19 games. In 2003, she had ankle injury early in the season, but came back to play 18 games and gain first team WUSA All Star recognition.