My Heart Is In Beijing With the U.S. Women's Soccer Team

Whenever the Summer Games come around, I always get that "American pride" to the max and want to see every sport or event take home a medal—preferably gold. But reality sets in and I realize that not only are we not deep in many sports, but we don't even really have a big following or participation in many of them.

However, there's one sport that I root for hands down every time, and that's the women's soccer. Why the women's soccer? Well, for starters, I'm a woman who played and coached a lot of soccer. Also, I love to see my own kick some behind. But it's more than that. 

Women's sports have exploded in the U.S. in the last few decades and while professional soccer made a run (and will be returning) and the WNBA has seen a great success rate, our women really get a chance to shine at the Olympics.

With softball making its last appearance (much to my dismay), the U.S. women's soccer team becomes my heart and soul during these weeks. America always gets behind this team too, and I love to see the support the women can gather from not just other women, but men alike. We really are proud of our girls and why shouldn't we be?

They're an awesome group of women who play with injuries and heart and we ought to be behind them because they compete. While our men's soccer team struggles to rank, our women soar above all at this event and I love to watch them play.

Soccer is the number one youth sport in the United States. That says something. While boys eventually have to make the choice to stay with soccer or venture into football, girls have fewer options during soccer season and they stick it through, knowing there are a multitude of scholarships and a possible professional career ahead of them.

They compete at every World Cup and Olympics and I, for one, am anxious to see them capture gold this August in Beijing. So, that's where my heart will be this summer—watching our girls compete and making their fellow Americans proud.