CINDY PARLOW , 21 [Forward]

"I was kicked off my high school basketball team," Cindy Parlow says cheerfully. It's hard to imagine this soft-spoken honor-roll student engaging in scandalous hell-raising and, in fact, she was guilty of nothing more than a scheduling conflict. In 1993 she made the under-16 U.S. national soccer team, whose training camp coincided with a basketball game. Parlow's hoops coach told her to choose between the two sports and, says Parlow, "I cleaned out my basketball locker that day."

Good move. Three years later Parlow, then 17, was named to the national team, where she quickly established herself. In a 1996 game against Russia in Brazil, coach Tony DiCicco sent Parlow in as a substitute for star midfielder Michelle Akers. "The fans were yelling so loud, and I was so nervous," she recalls. "The whole thing was amazing." More amazing was this: She scored twice. Parlow's range is equally astonishing. Her headers are often as accurate as her kicks, which helps explain the awards she's racked up, including two national player of the year awards (1997 and '98) while at North Carolina. "I don't think about that stuff," says Parlow. "I'm just playing a sport I love."

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