Atlanta Beat General Manager Shawn McGee announced 20-year-old, midfielder Tobin Heath as the number one draft pick in the 2010 WPS Draft. Heath, a native of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, has won three NCAA Championships with the UNC Tarheels, and has acquired 19 caps with the US Women’s National Team. In 2009, she was a Soccer America preseason All-American and was tapped for the 2009 M.A.C. Hermann Trophy Watch list.
“In the short time I have known her, I really believe Tobin is going to be quite an asset to our team both on the field and out in community,” said GM McGee. “We picked-up one of the best players in the NCAA, and we believe that she will soon become one of the best players in WPS. Tobin will be a fixture on the US Women’s national team for many years to come.”
Heath first trained with the full WNT in January of 2007 before making her roster debut at the Four Nations Tournament in China in 2008. She was the youngest player on the Beijing Olympic gold medal team, where she saw action in three games off the bench. In 2008 alone, Heath earned her first 17 caps and scored her first-ever WNT goal, which came against China at the Algarve Cup. Prior to joining the full WNT, she started for the silver medal-winning U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team at the Pan-American Games in 2007. Not only was Heath a standout at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Russia and one of five players to make the World Cup roster without participating in CONCACAF Qualifying, but she was also the third youngest player on the World Cup roster.
“We feel that Tobin is a player that will immediately make an impact in WPS,” said Beat Head Coach Gareth O’Sullivan. “ She is a player we want to have on the ball as much as possible and a player, who we believe, fans will enjoy watching.”
Other Atlanta Beat Selections in Draft order are listed below.
Third Round Overall # 21 Blakely Mattern, Defender, South Carolina
Third Round Overall # 23 Shameka Gordon, Defender/Midfielder, West Florida
Fourth Round Overall #30 Jill Hutchinson, Forward, Wake Forest
Round Five Overall #39 Mallori Lofton-Malachi, GK, South Florida (traded to Philadelphia for UGA’s Carrie Patterson)
Round Six Overall #48 Kasey Langdon, F, Oklahoma St.
Round Seven Overall # 57 Shaneka Gordon, F, West Florida
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About the Atlanta Beat
The Atlanta Beat joins Women’s Professional Soccer as one of two expansion teams in the 2010 season.
Atlanta entrepreneur Fitz Johnson secured the rights to the Atlanta team in September 2008 before naming Shawn McGee as General Manager and Gareth O’Sullivan as Head Coach in the summer of the following year.
On June 18, 2009, the Atlanta Beat officially became the ninth franchise in WPS as Johnson, McGee, WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin unveiled the team name, logo and colors. The Beat acquired its first official players through the 2009 WPS Expansion Draft and 2009 International Draft in mid-September and will complete its roster with the 2010 WPS Draft in January.
Atlanta’s new team takes on the same name as the market’s former Women’s United Soccer Association club which was the only WUSA team to reach the playoffs in every season.
The Beat’s colors are Ferrari Red, Championship Gold, and Black.
About Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS)
Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) is the premier women’s soccer league in the world and the global standard by which women’s professional sports are measured. The Inaugural Season kicked off in March 2009 with seven WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The league’s eighth and nine franchises, Philadelphia and Atlanta, will begin play in the 2010 WPS Season, which kicks-off April 2010. For more information and tickets, visit www.womensprosoccer.com.
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