Skylar Martine Meinhardt (; born March 10, 1978) is an American former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. A consistent right-back, she played for

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

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.

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

. In

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Meinhardt started 19 of her 20 regular season appearances. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

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 Carolina Courage was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Fetzer Field on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in 2001, and then at the soccer-specific SAS Stadium in Cary, North Carolina in ...

. Freedom

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Jim Gabarra James Michael Gabarra (born September 22, 1959) is an American retired soccer forward who coached the Washington Spirit National Women's Soccer League team, and previously coached Sky Blue FC and the Washington Freedom women's soccer teams. He ...

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." Ahead of the

2003 WUSA season The 2003 Women's United Soccer Association season was the third and final season for WUSA, the first top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The regular season began on April 5 and ended on August 10. The playoffs bega ...

, Meinhardt had knee surgery and she spent the off-season in Chicago, volunteering in a children's hospital. Another solid and dependable campaign saw Meinhardt start all 20 regular season games and play in the

2003 WUSA Founders Cup The 2003 WUSA Founders Cup, also known as Founders Cup III, was the third and final championship match in Women's United Soccer Association history, played between the Atlanta Beat and the Washington Freedom to decide the champion of the league ...

win.

International

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

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 Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, played college soccer with

Santa Clara Broncos The Santa Clara Broncos are athletic teams that represent Santa Clara University. The school colors are red and white. The nicknames for teams is The Broncos and the student fans are referred to as the "Ruff Riders". The Broncos compete in the NC ...

, while defender Skylar elected to stay closer to home with UCLA. 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 San Jose CyberRays was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Spartan Stadium on the South Campus of San José State University in San Jose, California. Stars included U.S. National ...

and faced Skylar's Washington Freedom in WUSA's inaugural match, which the Freedom won 1–0. In November 2001 Washington Freedom

traded Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

their Brazilian forward Pretinha to the CyberRays for Jacqui Little and a third round draft pick. 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. In 2016 she was living in Westchester, Los Angeles, had changed her surname from Little to Meinhardt and had three children.

References

External links

Profile
at Women's United Soccer Association
Profile
at UCLA Bruins {{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Skylar Living people 1978 births American women's soccer players UCLA Bruins women's soccer players Women's United Soccer Association players Soccer players from California Washington Freedom players Women's association football defenders Twin sportspeople