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American Morning

Mia Hamm Promotes Fight Against Cancer; Hamm and Sobrero Look to Kick Start Interest in American Soccer

Aired June 19, 2001 - 10:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In sporting news, two women who played side by side on the championship 1999 World Cup soccer team now have a new field of endeavor. They now play on rival teams, yet they're still friends. Mia Hamm and Kate Sobrero are teaming up to kick start more fan interest in American soccer and they join us from New York.

Ladies, good morning. Good to have you with us.

MIA HAMM, WUSA CHAMPION: Good morning.

KATE SOBRERO, WUSA CHAMPION: Good morning.

KAGAN: I know you're both here to talk women's soccer, and we're definitely going to spend our time on that. But before we do, Mia, I just wanted to talk to you very briefly because of news today that Geraldine Ferraro is fighting a blood cancer disease. I know that this is an issue that's very dear to your heart because you lost your brother to a similar disease and your foundation focuses on finding bone marrow donors.

HAMM: Yes, and when I heard about that this morning, it's definitely troubling and I think, you know, more and more you learn that cancer touches all of us and I think the more we can educate people, especially with blood disorders and bone marrow research, I think the more we can do for them. And I've tried to raise money to get more people registered, the bone marrow registry, so people like Ms. Ferraro have an opportunity to combat this disease and, you know, live to see another day.

KAGAN: And you do that through your foundation and you have a Web site. So let's just put the Web site up and tell fans where they can find that to get more information and then we'll get to the business of soccer.

HAMM: OK. It's www.miafoundation.org and you can learn about the foundation, kind of where we're looking towards in helping people get registered and educating them and also helping families.

KAGAN: OK, very good. We wanted to get that information out there and thank you for talking with us about that.

Now, ladies, let's talk soccer and this new league, the WUSA. Mia, you're playing for the Washington team and Kate, you're playing for Boston.

SOBRERO: Right.

KAGAN: What a difference a generation makes. When you guys were growing up, of course, you had an opportunity to play soccer, but, Kate, when you were growing up, did you have any opportunity to go and see women play like little girls across the country, and little boys, as Leon points out, are having a chance to see you now?

SOBRERO: Definitely not. I mean I think I was a freshman in high school in eighth grade when actually Mia stayed at my house because she was doing her camp. And I was so scared to talk to her. But I really didn't know who she was and...

KAGAN: Are you calling Mia an older lady than you, Kate?

SOBRERO: Yeah. Just by a few years, not by much.

KAGAN: OK.

SOBRERO: And, I mean, I didn't get to see them till I was pretty much in high school. And so the impact they had on me, granted, it was a huge impact, but it didn't hit till a lot later. So my role models growing up were always men.

KAGAN: Mia...

SOBRERO: So that's the great thing now is that both boys and girls can look up to any, to women now, actually have the choice and the chance to choose who they want to.

KAGAN: Mia, I went to your game a couple weeks ago when your team, The Freedom, was here in Atlanta playing the Atlanta Beat and there were tons of kids and it really was thrilling to see kids cheering on women on the field.

HAMM: It was awesome and I think for so many reasons. You know, like Kate said, growing up, most of the sports heroes that we had were men and that we saw on TV. And if we saw women competing, you know, like Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Chris Evert, it was in more individual sports. And now they're getting an opportunity not only to see it on television, but go out and picture themselves on that field and one day be playing for Atlanta or playing for the Boston Breakers or the Washington Freedom and definitely the U.S. Women's National Team.

KAGAN: Let's talk a little bit about what the cynics are saying out there. If you listen to any sports talk radio program, which are basically guys, you know that, they're saying women's sports, you know they've giving me thumbs down, and also soccer has never made a huge impact on a professional level in the U.S. Kate, what do you say to those critics?

SOBRERO: Oh, I say they just have to come out and see a game and if anyone has been to one of our games, they would see the huge fan support that we've had and I think they'd realize that fans are coming to a game that just needs exposure. And that's the great thing with today, they're announcing the big sponsorship deal with Philips Electronic and U.S. Soccer. And they're going to work together to promote the fans and promote soccer all across this country. So that's why we're here today and that's why we're really excited about it.

KAGAN: And, in fact, Mia, you're taking the competition just from the soccer field also into the stands. You're trying to get the fans involved in this competition here?

HAMM: Definitely get the fans involved and we started off this Philips U.S. Soccer stadium contest, 25 words or less. You can log onto the Web site, www.us-soccer.com and put in your cheer of what you think the national cheer for the men's and women's national team should be. And I think Philips has done an unbelievable job across the world helping promote this game and getting fans excited and now we're trying to do that to the U.S.

So hopefully those critics, those cynics will be silenced. And this game of soccer has always brought people together and it has always represented, you know, a common bond in a sport that they love and now we're trying to do that here in the United States.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, if the fans were interested in seeing you ladies, we should let them know that Kate will, her Boston team will be facing New York on Friday and Mia, it looks like you have a tough one, San Diego. That's Julie Foudy, isn't it, and her team, yeah?

SOBRERO: Yeah, you know, Jules, she's all talk.

KAGAN: Yeah, all talk. OK, we'll let you guys work all that trash talk out on the field. Ladies, great to have you with us and good luck with the WUSA and encouraging boys and girls to get involved across the country.

SOBRERO: Thank you.

KAGAN: It's good to have you with us. We should also mention Mia will be the subject of an upcoming People In the News. It was great to talk with you and tape that a couple weeks ago, Mia.

HAMM: It was good talking with you. Thank you.

KAGAN: Yeah. Good to be with us. Thank you so much.

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