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BY MIKE VORKUNOV
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The most incredible part about Christie Rampone's story is that she managed to keep it quiet for so long. In an era where self-aggrandizement is common-place and secrets are kept like they are being held by gabby high schoolers, Rampone never had any intention of letting her big announcement make any noise.
If it was going to come out that she was three months pregnant as she led Sky Blue FC to a miraculous championship run, it was going to be on her terms and on her schedule.
"I didn't want anything focused on myself," Rampone said. "It was all about the team and I felt that if I did come out and say it or it did leak out or someone did find out, it wasn't focused on the right thing and I wanted to make sure my teammates know that I was giving everything I could out there."
So Rampone waited until the last possible moment, until the season was finally over. And until she could hide her (not quite yet big) secret any longer.Standing in the locker room after her team claimed the first ever Women's Professional Soccer history, Rampone did not fit in. Her teammates were celebrating in the usual alcohol-filled manner befitting a champion. But Rampone wasn't, and her teammates noticed.
That's when she finally let it out.
"I told them guys I have something to tell you," Rampone said recalling the moment. "I haven't told anybody. Management doesn't know, nobody in the club knows, but I'm almost three months pregnant."
Talk about a jaw dropper.
"Everyone was shocked. It was absolutely an awesome moment to tell them. They were the first ones to know and then just realize that I can do it. You put your mind and go with it."
So that's how the year's most surreal story broke. Not with a never ending eye finally blinking on a certain cloying quarterback. Or a leaked report of a recalcitrant player taking it out on the game that made him.
It broke in the intimacy of a team's proudest moment, giving finality to what was already an incredible journey.
See, Sky Blue wasn't supposed to go down as the nascent league's first champion.
The team spent its first few months scuffling, getting cozy with the bottom of the standings. The organization fired one coach, another quit.
The team didn't take off until Rampone took over as player-coach. A job she took out of dedication to her teammates.
Sky Blue squeaked into the playoffs as the fourth and final seed. About that time is when they adopted a new identity, as cliché as it may have sounded, they managed to actualize.
"Being that fourth team, nobody expected us to get there," Rampone said. "Our team motto was just ‘Live for the moment.'"
The entire organization took it to heart. While their opponents had hotels and flights booked for the playoffs, Sky Blue winged it.
Beat the Washington Freedom in the opening round first, and then figure out how to get to St. Louis for the next game. Topple Athletica and run to the nearest computer to find any open seats to LAX for the final.
They booked last minute for St. Louis, had to take two separate flights to get to Los Angeles.
Heck, they weren't even prepared for victory against the Sol. After a tough 1-0 win, Sky Blue returned to their locker rooms ready to celebrate. The lockers were covered with plastic to protect from the eventual flow of champagne that would douse every piece of the room. But there wasn't even any to greet them.
"Not being prepared for that victory says it all right there," Rampone said. "It's just living in the moment. Every minute of that playoff run mattered to our team. It just made the championship more special. I think our team really took in every moment."
Rampone's part of the story, of course, was even more amazing. She had surgery to repair a ruptured ovarian cyst in July. It hurt so much that at time she said she would "rather give birth."
Who knew she was serious?
While mending she came to practice one day to learn she was the new coach, taking over for a former teammate on the U.S. National team.
Saturday she was one of the nominees for Coach of the Year. She didn't win that, but Rampone was named Sportswoman of the Year.
And if this season has been any lesson, she probably was not looking for any adulation.
But after doing her best to avoid it, the limelight has finally found her.
