Then we conferenced in Cat Reddick, a senior at North Carolina and the youngest member of the 2003 U.S. Women’s World Cup team. Soccer’s Cat was busy preparing for her first-ever World Cup match, leading the U.S. Under-21 team to a Nordic Cup title, while bouncing back to Chapel Hill in between National Team trips.

With Brandi Chastain out with an injury, Reddick will get to start in her first World Cup.

The two Cats chatted about a variety of issues, like what is soccer’s Cat going to do now that the WUSA has suspended operations. What’s it like on the road with her famous teammates? They talk about red-shirting, an issue more complicated than you’d think, as you watch your friends and teammates complete their eligibility ahead of you. And much, much more.

SOFTBALL’S CAT O: What are your feelings about playing in the World Cup? I don’t know if you guys consider it bigger than the Olympics, but from our team’s standpoint, it’s almost like the World Cup is promoted more.

SOCCER’S CAT R: I think, worldwide, the World Cup is one of the greatest events ever. I think playing in the World Cup is a dream come true for me because you make it a goal when you are younger when you watch, especially like the ’99 World Cup, you say, ‘I want to be there someday.’ I’m glad I’m actually getting the opportunity to actually be there. It’s kind of surreal. I still keep pinching myself to make sure I’m still here … that I actually made the team. It’s just a lot of fun. I’m just excited as to what going to happen in the next 30 days.

CAT O: I totally understand because I’m doing the same thing over on this end. Because there are people you grew up watching and now you are playing with them.

CAT R: Yeah.

O: Is there anyone specific who you are playing with who you watched and idolized when you were younger?

R: You have the Brandi’s and the Mia’s, the Kristine Lilly’s and the Joy Fawcett’s and everything they did for the sport; they’re incredible to play with. But I think when I was younger; I used to be No. 11 for Julie Foudy. She was always a role model for me because of the way she led on and off the field, and now that I get to play with her I realize how much of a true leader she is and how she’s really taken this team upon herself -- has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders, not only with this team, but the San Diego team and the league and everything she does for women’s sports in general.

O: Do they ever give you a hard time about being the youngest?

R: They’re not too bad. Every now and then, they come in my room and see me doing homework, they start to make fun of me. But it hasn’t gotten too bad. I’ve been here for a couple of years, so it kind of helps. I don’t feel as young to them as some others might.

O: What’s the most difficult thing about being the youngest athlete on your team? R: Fitting in, probably. I have different tastes, different style than everybody else. They’re like, ‘what is this?’ and when they bring up, like, an ‘80s song, one of their favorites or something, and I don’t know that song …

O: They start talking about songs and TV shows …

R: That you don’t know!

O: Yeah! You weren’t even born yet!

R: Yeah, they look at me and they’re like, ‘Do you remember that?’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve never even heard of it.’ So that’s probably the hardest part. I mean, they’re pretty inviting, you know, they’re not too hard to get along with, but there’s definitely a generation gap.

O: Yeah, like going on a road trip and trying to listen to a disc on the team bus …

R: Yeah, you want to make a music mix and they look at you like you’re strange.

O: We have one of our older players who absolutely loves playing pranks. Have any of the older players played pranks on you?

R: A year or two ago we had a prank we did in Portugal because Julie Foudy, she’s a big kind of politician type person and she, you know, she doesn’t really … she’s not a fan of George Bush! And I am. And me and this other goalkeeper, Hope, we put ‘Double-ya signs everywhere and Bush stuff and put it in her bed. We just made signs everywhere. She didn’t know who it was; she couldn’t figure it out because we have some Bush fans. She couldn’t figure it out and nobody would tell but everybody knew that it was me and Hope. Finally, she figured it out the last night. She sent me a wake-up call at three in the morning. And then actually here, Brandi Chastain pulled a trick on Julie and made tee shirts. When Julie was about my age, I don’t know, she kind of had bad eyebrows and so the shirt’s got tweezers on it and we wore it for the team pictures and she had no idea what was going on. It was pretty funny.

O: We get keys that end up on flagpoles and we get gloves -- they end up heaven knows where.

R: That’s pretty funny.

O: You are possibly red-shirting, is that because you would want a full year?

R: I did miss 12 games, so I could legally red-shirt. But it’s the first 12 games of the season. I love the seniors that I kind of grew up with, you know, I kind of went through with. Since I hadn’t thought of it, I hadn’t mentally prepared myself yet … and my team thinks I’m coming back, I kind of think I want to come back.

O: Yeah. I know what that feels like too. My whole senior class -- I guess there were like seven of us. There were nine of us going in and there’s like five or seven of us left and now I’m going to be a junior when they’re all seniors next year.

R: Yeah.

O: That’s kind of sad.

R: It’s going to be weird.

R: Let me ask you, what did it feel like to pitch a perfect game in the Pan Am finals? O: Oh god …

R: That’s pretty awesome …

O: You know, I got the opportunity to pitch and I was excited and I just wanted to win … and then coming down to the last out, you know it’s in the back of your mind, but nobody wants to mention it because they don’t want to jinx it at all. And then when that last out happened, I was just ecstatic. You dream of getting the opportunity, but when you get it, you don’t dream that you’re actually going to throw a no-hitter or a perfect game. It felt really good and I was really excited because this was really the first time I was on the main National Team … just to be able to leave my mark.

O: We’ve even been asked at our press conference over here today about this … what are your thoughts on the fact that the WUSA folded?

R: It’s an extreme disappointment for everybody. These women worked so hard to get this league going and we were hoping that it would stay a lot longer than it did. It’s especially disappointing for me because I never did get to experience it. They come back on this team and they talk about what incredible experiences they’ve had playing against each other, playing on such great teams and how different players like Kylie Bivens and Shannon Boxx made the World Cup roster because of their WUSA performances. And now that the league has been suspended, it’s disappointing not only for them, not only for me, but for the little girls who came to the games and wanted to be there and now don’t get a chance. And women’s sports in general, I know for ya’ll and for every other women’s sports out there, it’s just hard on everybody because we want more women’s professional leagues out there. We just want more women’s sports out there to be equal with men.

O: I know our pro league is actually suppose to take off this next summer … the WUSA fold was a shock and now it’s, ‘well, how’s ours going to fare?’

O: Last question … what has ya’ll’s schedule been like since the team was named?

R: After they named the World Cup team, they actually gave us four days off at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, which is really nice. They put us up in a nice, little place. Then we trained for about a week and a half. Then we had about four days to go back home and regroup and repack and now we’ve been in Charlottesville ever since then. We go to D.C. to get ready for the game on Sunday.

O: That sounds great. Well, good luck next week at the World Cup.

R: Thanks, good luck to you too!