BERKELEY – With achievements spanning from playing for the US Women’s National Team to coaching at a top Pac-12 program, California women’s soccer recognized nine of its alumni as the inaugural class of its new “Lair of Legends” hall of honor on Saturday, May 2.
Mary Harvey, Joy Biefeld Fawcett, Maite Zabala, Lesle Gallimore, Erika Hinton, Tucka Healy, Laura Schott, Janet Coffey and Jennifer “JT” Thomas were inducted into the lair during an exclusive ceremony on Saturday as more than 250 alumni, family and friends turned out to celebrate the evening.
"Our alums have a strong history of getting together and enjoying the decades of soccer that they've played together," said Cal head coach Neil McGuire.
Before the ceremony, alumni and their families enjoyed what has become an annual tradition for women’s soccer – the alumni game – on Kabam Field at California Memorial Stadium. Afterward, guests were offered a facility tour and then treated to dinner and the Lair of Legends ceremony.
"Obviously, the players that are playing for us will be alumni very soon. It's a very strong network of very powerful and succesful women that they aspire to be," McGuire said.
Read more about each of women’s soccer’s Legends below:
Mary Harvey (1983-86)
Cal Highlights:
- Fourth All-Time for Career Saves (156)
- Fifth All-Time for Goals-Against Average (0.76)
- Fourth All-Time for Shutouts (20)
- 1984 NCAA All-Tournament goalkeeper
- 1986 NSCAA All-Region Team
- 1986 NSCAA Goalkeeper of the Year
- As a freshman at Cal in '83, Harvey was a starter on a Bear team that finished fifth in the NCAA Tournament and went on to lead the team to three additional NCAA playoff appearances.
Career Highlights:
- Goalie on the U.S. Gold Medal women's soccer team in Atlanta in 1996.
- Played 27 full international games for the United States, the first against Poland in 1989 and the last against Australia in 1996. Was one of the first American women to play professionally overseas
- One of the last players added to the United States roster for the 1991 World Cup, because she was playing in Germany for FSV Frankfurt. In that World Cup, she played every minute of the United States' six games, allowing only five goals and scoring three shutouts.
- Played five seasons in professional leagues in Germany and Sweden.
- On the 2015 National Soccer Hall of Fame Veteran ballot
- Has received the Medal of Honor in the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame
- United States Olympic Committee Hall of Fame
Joy Biefeld Fawcett (1986-89)
Cal Highlights:
- 3x NSCAA All-America First Team (1987, 1988 & 1989)
- 3x NSCAA All-Region (1987, 1988 & 1989)
- 1987-88 National Player of the Year
- All-Time Assist Leader (23)
- All-Time Points Leader (133)
- Second All-Time for Goals (55)
Career Highlights:
- 239 caps with USWNT
- Highest scoring defender for USWNT in history
- Helped U.S. win the first women's world cup in China in 1991.
- The only WNT member to play every single minute of the 1995, 1999 and 2003 world cups and the 1996 and 2000 Olympics
- US Soccer's Female Athlete of the Year in 1988
- Named to U.S. Soccer's All-Time WNT Best XI team
- UCLA's first women's soccer coach
- Pac-10 Coach of the Year as the head coach at UCLA in 1997
- Recognized as the ultimate "Soccer Mom" for raising her children, playing professionally and coaching all at the same time
- First Team All-WUSA honors with the San Diego Spirit and 2003 WUSA Defender of the Year
Laura Schott (1999-2002)
Cal Highlights:
- Career Goals Scored Leader (56)
- Second All-Time for Points (128)
- 2000 NSCAA All-America First Team
- 2000 Soccer America MVP
- 2001 Soccer Buzz All-America Second Team
- 2000 Soccer Buzz All-America First Team
- 2001 CollegeSoccer.com All-America Second Team
- 3x All-Pac-12 First Team (2000, 2001 & 2002)
- 1999 All-Pac-12 Second Team
- 2002 NSCAA All-Region Third Team
- 2001 NSCAA All-Region Second Team
- 2000 NSCAA All-Region First Team
- 2002 Soccer Buzz All-West Third Team
- 2x Succer Buzz All-West First Team (2001, 2000)
- 1999 Soccer Buzz All-West Second Team
Lesle Gallimore (1982-85)
Cal Highlights:
- 2x NSCAA All-America Second Team (1983, 1985)
- 1984 NSCAA All-America First Team
- 1982 NSCAA All-America Third Team
- 1982 All-Pac-12
- 1985 NSCAA All-Region
- Named Cal’s 1976-86 Athlete of the Decade.
Career Highlights:
- Entering her 22nd season at Washington, longest tenure of any coach in the Pac-12
- Led the Golden Bears to the national playoffs three out of her four seasons.
- As a coach, helped the Golden Bears reach the NCAA soccer Final Four twice, in 1987 and 1988.
- Has a record of 213-171-38 at UW, 245-197-47 in her college coaching career
- Won Pac-10 Championship with UW in 2000
- 2000 Pac-10 Coach of the Year and NSCAA West Region Coach of the Year; Also 1994 NSCAA West Region Coach of the Year
- Served as head coach of the West Team for the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival in both 1994 and 1995 and as the head coach of the Region IV Olympic Development Program
JT Thomas (1982-85)
Cal Highlights:
- 1982 All-Pac-12
- 1985 NSCAA All-Region
Career Highlights:
- Broadcaster for WUSA's San Jose CyberRays
- Assistant Coach at Cal from 1997-2008
- Athletic Director at Incline High School (Incline, Nev.)
- Helped the 2000 squad to the most wins of any Cal team (17), and a 20-game scoring streak
- With Thomas' guidance as an assistant coach, Laura Schott scored 56 career goals to become Cal's career record holder, while teammates such as Brittany Kirk and Natalie Stuhlmueller notched 20 assists in their careers
Tucka Healy (1982-83, 1985)
Cal Highlights:
- Third All-Time for Goals Scored (45)
- Fourth All-Time for Points (80)
- 2x NSCAA All-America Third Team (1983, 1985)
- 1985 NSCAA All-Region
Erika Hinton (1990-93)
Cal Highlights:
- Fifth All-Time for Goals Scored (31)
- Fourth All-Time for Assists (18)
- Fourth All-Time for Points (80)
- 1993 NSCAA All-America Second Team
- 1990 Freshman All-America
- 3x NSCAA All-Region (1991, 1992 & 1993)
- 1993 Pac-12 All-Academic
Janet Coffey (1982)
Cal Highlights:
Career Highlights:
- Director of Global Operations at Women for Women International since Oct. 2010
- East Africa Regional Director for Practical Action (2009-11)
- Director of Save the Children UK's Kenya efforts (2007-08)
Maite Zabala (1997-2000)
Cal Highlights:
- Cal's Career Shutout Leader (26.5)
- Second All-Time for Career Saves (277)
- 2x All-Pac-12 First Team (1998 & 1999)
- 1997 All-Pac-12 Second Team
- 1999 Pac-12 All-Academic
- Helped Cal to 3 NCAA Tournaments.
- Named team MVP on two occasions and second-team All-Pac-10 in 1997
- Three-year team captain and a second-team Pac-10 All-Academic choice in 1999.
- Zabala's high in shutouts came as a senior when she recorded 9.5 and ranked 10th in the NCAA in goals-against average (0.64).
- In 2000, she led the Bears to a school-record 17 wins while finishing her career as the program's all-time leader in shutouts (26.5) and saves (277). She finished with a career goals-against average of 0.88 in over 6,200 minutes of play.
- In her 9 years as a Bear, Cal posted 9 winning season and earned 8 NCAA Tournament bids. The Bears ranked seventh among NCAA Division I leaders in team goals-against average at 0.475 in 2005 and matched a program high with 14 shutouts.
Career Highlights:
- First-round draft pick in the WUSA
- Assistant Coach at Boise State
- Associate Head Coach at the University of San Francisco (2007-14)
- Assistant Coach at Cal (2001-03)
- Played for the WUSA's Atlanta Beat, Philadelphia Charge and Carolina Courage
- Spent the 2004 season in Spain with Athletic Bilbao, where she won the Spanish SuperLiga.
