Soccer Superstar Still Has to Blush When the Spotlight Shines on Her

Carin Jennings hasn’t changed much over the years. She still feels uncomfortable talking about her incredible soccer career and she’s still one of the game’s best players.

Clad in a worn T-shirt and bright blue shorts, she told the story of her athletic achievements while sitting on a bench at Hesse Park in Rancho Palos Verdes. Her home is nearby.

She smiled often and occasionally blushed while discussing the spotlight her that has shined on her since playing in South Bay American Youth Soccer Organization leagues at the age of 8.

“The publicity is just . . . embarrassing,” Jennings said, shaking her head.

It’s difficult, however, to be overlooked when you’re one of the country’s best soccer players, a four-time National Collegiate Athletic Assn. All-American, a five-year member of the U.S. national team and a high school star.

“She’s very modest of her athletic ability,” said Andy Kunzli, Jennings’ coach at UC Santa Barbara. “She doesn’t like people telling her she’s the best. She already knows she’s the best.”

Jennings, 24, realizes media attention comes with that kind of success. Jet lag from a 15-day trip to Sardinia, Italy, with the U.S. women’s national soccer team served as a reminder.

The center-forward helped the U.S. earn the Sardinia Cup in the 12-team tournament that included teams from Canada, Poland, Russia, Yugoslavia and Africa. Jennings had one goal and two assists in the final victory (5-0) against Milan. She also played a big part in defeating the team from England, 10-1.

“We should have stopped before the score got that bad,” Jennings said, “but on the way to the stadium, they were singing on their bus that they were going to kill us. So we thought, ‘Why not? We’ll kill them.’ ”

The concept isn’t new to Jennings, who is known for aggressiveness and tremendous endurance. She holds the NCAA and CIF career scoring records (102 goals in college and 225 in high school) and she is Santa Barbara’s only four-time All-American. She also holds that school’s career assist record (60) and single-season goal record (36 in 1985).

“It was great to have a player of that caliber and magnitude,” Kunzli said. “I’ve never seen a better female player in my life.”

Jennings, who majored in business management, led the Gauchos to the playoffs three years in a row and was named the country’s best soccer player by the U.S. Soccer Federation in 1987.

“On the field she’s very nonchalant,” Kunzli said, “and suddenly she’ll explode with extreme acceleration. She has extremely good skills and she’s very strong. Most players have speed and no skills or skills and no speed, but it’s rare to have so much of both, and Carin does.”

Jennings’ exceptional ability was evident early, according to Bill Merrell, who coached her in American Youth Soccer Organization leagues and at Palos Verdes High.

“She’s been the best soccer player in this area from the time she was 10 years old,” said Merrell, now the women’s soccer coach at UC Berkeley. “She’s just a natural. I had seen her on the field when she was eight and she was obviously gifted. She stood out immediately.”

Jennings was a sensation for the Palos Verdes Breakers and the Sea Kings of the youth soccer organization. She led Palos Verdes High to CIF 4-A titles during her sophomore and senior years and was twice the CIF Player of the Year. As a senior in 1983 she scored 61 goals, six in one game.

“Even then,” Merrell said, “her quickness and technical speed were remarkable. She had the natural instinct of a brilliant striker. She can shoot as well as any guy.”

Anson Dorrance, the U.S. women’s national team coach and coach at the University of North Carolina, agrees. He wanted Jennings to join his successful college program at Chapel Hill but she stayed in California.

“I even flew out there to see her play in high school,” said Dorrance, who has led the Tar Heels to seven national collegiate titles, “and it’s a long trip. She had uncanny ability. She’s always been a lethal finisher.”

Jennings demonstrated that in 1987 when Santa Barbara played North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. It was Jennings’ senior year and she wanted to travel with the national team, but first she had to make the cut.

Dorrance told her she would be invited to a weeklong national team camp in Colorado based on her performance in that quarterfinal game.

“We beat them 8-0,” Dorrance said, “but she was awesome. She had a whale of a game. I’ve never seen one player create such havoc with my defense. I was impressed with her ability to take punishment. We beat the tar out of her and every time she fell she just got right back up.

“Her tenacity and psychological ability in that game impressed me. Now I think she’s one of the premier front-runners in the world.”

Dorrance bases that on Jennings’ international and national performances. In 1987 she toured China and Taiwan with the national team and Italy in 1988. Now she’s in Oklahoma representing the West at the Olympic Sports Festival.

Since the national team doesn’t have a permanent camp, Jennings stays in shape by working out with her boyfriend, Jim Gabarra, a member of the U.S. national soccer team. She also flies to San Francisco on weekends to compete for the California Tremors, a women’s club team.

Jennings sharpens her mental skills by coaching, which she says has contributed a great deal to her success. She’s been an assistant coach at Palos Verdes High for four years and she coached at Westmont College in 1988 and Harvard University last season.

Playing internationally has helped her most. At that level, Jennings says, the game is a lot different.

“It’s just so much better all-around,” she said. “It’s a lot more intense. You play a lot on emotion and it’s faster-paced, more mental, more intelligent play. . . . You use psychological dimensions that you never thought you had.”

And so far the South Bay soccer phenomenon has proved that she has that and a lot more, even if she doesn’t like talking about it.