Breakers feeling broken-hearted

By Susan Bickelhaupt, Globe Staff, 9/17/2003

Kate Sobrero is getting married Oct. 31. Christine McCann has moved from Rhode Island to Connecticut and is getting married in two weeks. Karina LeBlanc is wearing a diamond engagement ring. All of the former Breakers figured this would be the offseason for them, the best time to get personal things done -- things like moving and getting married.

What they didn't figure on was the demise of the Women's United Soccer Association, which announced Monday that it was suspending operations.

"There can't be an offseason if there's no season," said Rebekah Splaine, who is from Cambridge.

Splaine was among the WUSA players reeling yesterday, trying to figure out what to do over the winter and wondering whether soccer figures into their future.

On Monday night, she turned off her cell phone and had a quiet dinner with her boyfriend. Teammate Erin O'Grady said she debated whether or not to go to the Red Sox game. She went, trying to get her mind off the news, but couldn't get away from it.

"I saw a girl in soccer shorts, and it was so sad," she said. "Who do they have to look up to now?"

Splaine and O'Grady had been teammates with the Boston Renegades of the W League in 2001 and 2002. They hitched on with the Breakers last spring, O'Grady as a reserve and Splaine as a development player. They both sat on the bench a lot, and got paid for just six months of work, instead of the whole year.

They had planned to work out all winter, hoping to see action in the league next year.

Now things are turned upside-down.

"It's like having the rug pulled out from under you," O'Grady said.

With the Women's World Cup about to begin, Kristine Lilly and Sobrero will keep playing with the US national team, and LeBlanc will be with the Canadian team. But for most of the rest of the Breakers, the soccer future is cloudy.

"I don't want to point fingers, but I was shocked at the announcement," said Splaine. "Don't get me wrong, I loved this league. We had such a positive year, then at 4:30 [Monday] I got a call from a friend at Brown who told me the news. I was completely devastated."

Splaine, who lives with her sister in Medford, is filling out applications to be a substitute teacher in the Boston school system.

"But soccer is still the main priority in my life," she said. "It just stinks. There are over 160 players who had their dream broken. It's devastating to have someone say you can't pursue your dream anymore.

"I just feel like I have nothing to work for now. I want to stay positive, but it's so frustrating and unexpected."

O'Grady, who is from Glastonbury, Conn., is staying with a host family in Newton until the end of the month. Then she'll go back home and be a substitute teacher.

"I was going to do it for a while," she said, "but I guess I'll do it all year now."

Yesterday, O'Grady said, she went to Boston University, where the Breakers used to train and work out "just to have the feel of normalcy."

But not much is normal about the way she and her teammates feel, she said. "Everyone is in shock," she said.