Sky Blue FC player/coach Christie Rampone is pregnant with her second child. Rampone, who led the team to the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) championship this past weekend, guided the team through the playoffs as the captain and the head coach while almost three months pregnant, adding another amazing twist to the team's Cinderella run to the title.
Rampone became the player/coach for Sky Blue FC on July 30, after the sudden resignation of then head coach Kelly Lindsey.
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The WPS Championship Game on Aug. 22, in which Rampone and her teammates shut down a potent Los Angeles Sol attack to win 1-0, was preceded by gritty playoff wins over the Washington Freedom (2-1) and Saint Louis Athletica (1-0), both on the road over favored opponents. Rampone played all 90 minutes in three games in the summer heat and humidity within eight days. Her final competitive game for a while will be the WPS All-Star game next Sunday in Saint Louis.
Rampone, who is nominated for a number of WPS awards - Defender of the Year, Coach of the Year and Sportswoman of the Year, which will be announced Saturday evening before the WPS All-Star Game - is due in late March. She is targeting a June return for the next WPS season. She is also projected to resume her U.S. National Team duties as captain next summer.
Rampone has experience coming back from pregnancy. She took most of 2005 off to have her first child, daughter Rylie, who was born on Sept. 29 of that year. She made her return to the US National Team lineup just 112 days later against Norway at the Four Nations Tournament in China, starting and playing the first 67 minutes. In July, she underwent emergency laparoscopic surgery due to a ruptured ovarian cyst, returning to the Sky Blue FC lineup two and a half weeks later.
"It's been an eventful year to say the least, but the timing of this pregnancy is perfect because I was able to finish off this amazing first season and hopefully get back in time to make a major contribution to Sky Blue FC in 2010," said Rampone. "There is a tradition among some US National Team players to time pregnancies right after the Olympics. But I wanted to support, and be part of, the first season of Women's Professional Soccer."
Said Sky Blue FC General Manager Gerry Marrone, "The icing on the cake was winning the inaugural WPS Championship. This is the cherry on top. As part of our Sky Blue FC family, we couldn't be happier for Christie. She's an amazing human being."
