Her career kicks off

Allie Kemp had to wear through 22 pairs of soccer shoes before she could call herself a professional athlete. That's how many pairs she's broken in since she was 4 years old. This spring, Allie was picked to play for the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the new professional women's soccer league.

Allie never dreamed she would one day be paid to play a sport she loves. It never crossed her mind when she was watching the Women's World Cup final in 1999 that she would be on the same team as some of the national stars. She thought her soccer career would end after she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. In fact, she was so sad after her last college game that she cried.

While she was still in college, Allie signed up to coach in a local youth soccer program. She has always enjoyed working with kids. That was one reason she decided to teach first-grade. And instead of leaving her love of soccer out on the field, she brought it into her classroom at the Ocean Knoll Elementary School in Encinitas, Calif. Her class even had a soccer ball bean-bag chair.

"I used to line up my class after lunch or recess and we'd do headers. I taught them ... not to be afraid of the ball."

Everyone at Allie's school knew she was crazy about soccer. She still played in a semi-professional league. Last fall, after she'd been teaching for 2-1/2 years, she was invited to try out with 200 of America's best women soccer players for the new women's professional league.

Telling only her family and closest friends, Allie took a week off from school to try to make one of the eight teams. At the end of the week, she was picked on Day 1 of drafts for the Boston Breakers!

"I was shaking. I thought I'd won the lottery!" she says. "I thought, 'What am I getting myself into?' "

Getting picked for the team meant she would have to leave her family and move from warm, sunny California, where she had lived her whole life, to the East Coast. It meant she'd have to learn her way around a new city and survive a cold, snowy winter. And she had to tell her students that she'd be leaving them halfway through the year.

"I was afraid to go back to work and face the parents," said Allie. "But they ran into the classroom the next morning. I had my Boston Breakers T-shirt on, and I was just glowing, I was so excited. The parents were all hugging me and crying. The kids were like, 'What? Women's soccer? There's no such thing.' "

Allie says teaching helped prepare her for playing pro soccer. Teaching a bunch of active first-graders taught her how to focus.

"You can't leave college soccer and expect to jump into the pros. You need time to mature," said Allie. Playing soccer on the professional level is a lot harder than it was in college.

"It's incredibly fast. You have to pass the ball faster, every touch has to be perfect. You can't let the ball bounce, you have to get to every ball. In college, it was more relaxed. And you didn't have a general manager breathing down your neck. That's the harsh reality of professional sports. You have to win games. It's your job."

Being focused was absolutely necessary when Allie found herself suiting up to join national team players like Kristine Lilly, Kate Sobrero, and Tracy Ducar on the field.

"I was definitely in awe. It took me a couple of weeks to just say, OK, you are on her team, just play. To actually be on the field with [national players] and playing a game with them is so crazy!"

Playing in the pros also means your opponents are larger than life. "When we played our first game against the Washington Freedom ... you drive up to RFK stadium and there is the biggest poster you've ever seen of Mia Hamm hanging on the stadium," said Allie.

Meanwhile, back in California, Allie's former students have been watching TV interviews with her on the local news, reading about her in the paper, and listening to her on a local radio show called "Inside Soccer." And when she goes back to visit, they treat her like she's a star. That's quite a switch for someone who used to be their "Miss Kemp."

"They are asking for my autograph now. I walked into a sixth-grade classroom where they had a current-events board, and one of the current events was me!"

Being a professional athlete requires hard work off the field, too. The team makes community appearances a few times a week. That includes school, museum, and hospital visits, coaching clinics, and speaking at group functions.

Allie's first season as a pro winds down later this month. Unfortunately, the Breakers won't be in the championship. They lost to San Diego on Sunday, and were eliminated. But the championship game is in Boston, and Allie will be watching. For the first time in her new career she can say, "Wait'll next year."

When she was growing up, Allie's parents signed her up for a lot of different activities: Hawaiian dance, soccer, track, just to see what she liked. By the time she reached junior high, she had figured out that she could run really fast and loved to play soccer. Allie's parents were very supportive of whatever she wanted to do.

As she got older, she began to try out for more-competitive teams. It was fun to travel and stay in hotels.

It's important to have role models. Watching athletes who are very good at a sport you love will teach you how to play your game better. When Allie was growing up, there weren't any professional women soccer players.

So she had to find different role models. She liked to watch Flo Jo and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, two sprinters who won Olympic gold medals for the United States.

Allie also used to go to watch a professional indoor men's soccer team, the San Diego Sockers. Her favorite player was No. 14, Brian Quinn. She learned a lot from watching Brian play soccer, and she always asked to wear No. 14 on her own soccer uniform.

Later, when Allie played for a semi-pro league, she was thrilled to find out that Brian Quinn would be her coach!

It helps to have support from your family. But if you want to get better at soccer, you have to believe you can do it. Some of the players on the Boston Breakers will write themselves notes of encouragement to read before a game.

When Allie was in high school, she started hearing about soccer scholarships to college. After a lot of hard work, she won a four-year soccer scholarship to University of California, Berkeley.

"Always be looking for how you can get better and reach the next level," said Allie.

"Don't just practice things you know how to do. It should be hard," said Allie. "That's why you practice, because you can't do it and you need to be able to. Always challenge yourself."

Allie says if you don't play as hard as you would in a game during practice, you won't be ready to play in the game. She says if you think you do well in one game, you should try to outdo yourself in the next game.

When Allie was still teaching, she had to juggle soccer and work. When she played soccer she had to learn to think only about the game. Allie closes her eyes before every game and pictures herself scoring goals or taking on an opponent.

Allie was a starter on all the soccer teams she played on growing up, and now she comes off the bench when she plays for the Breakers. That's a real switch for someone used to playing the whole game. But she makes sure that everything she does will make a difference to help her team win, even if it is just cheering on her teammates.

Allie makes sure that she takes care of herself, since playing soccer for 21 hours a week can be really tiring. She doesn't eat a lot of junk food and gets plenty of rest.

Allie spends most of her time with the team. They travel a lot. But she does find time to do other things. Everybody needs a break from work! During her free time, she likes to read, write in her journal, work on her scrapbook, and shop with her roommate and teammate, Sherice Bartling. "We call ourselves 'professional shoppers' - we can shop for hours!"

They also like to get pedicures, to keep their soccer feet looking as pretty as possible. Allie also goes to movies - she loved "Shrek" - and replies to fan mail.