The Atlanta Beat was a professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team that played in the

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Uni ...

. The team played at

Bobby Dodd Stadium Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field is the football stadium located at the corner of North Avenue at Techwood Drive on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. It has been home to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football ...

on the campus of the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

in its first year of operation before moving to

Herndon Stadium Alonzo Herndon Stadium, named for Alonzo Herndon, is an abandoned 15,011-seat stadium on the campus of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the only two-sided stadium in the Atlanta University Center. It is one block ...

, on the campus of

Morris Brown College Morris Brown College (MBC) is a Private university, private African Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlan ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

History

The team began play in 2001, and reached the playoffs in each of the WUSA's three seasons — the only team in the league to do so. They advanced to the Founders Cup in both 2001 and 2003, losing on both occasions. The Beat's "founding players" were

Briana Scurry Briana Collette Scurry (born September 7, 1971) is an American retired soccer goalkeeper. Scurry was the starting goalkeeper for the United States women's national soccer team at the 1995 World Cup (3rd place), 1996 Summer Olympics (gold medal) ...

Cindy Parlow Cynthia Marie Parlow Cone (; born May 8, 1978) is an American soccer executive and president of the United States Soccer Federation. A former professional soccer player, she is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup cha ...

, and Nikki Serlenga of the USA women's national team. The Beat had the #1 pick in the inaugural WUSA draft, and selected China's Sun Wen, star of the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted as well as ...

. Their first goal was scored by

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

star midfielder

Homare Sawa is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a forward or a midfielder. Regarded by many as one of the greatest female footballers of all time, Sawa had a professional club career spanning 24 seasons, mostly with Nippon TV Beleza ...

. The coach of the Atlanta Beat was Tom Stone.

League Suspension

The WUSA announced on September 15, 2003, that it was suspending operations. Several former Beat players went on to play for the

Atlanta Silverbacks Women Atlanta Silverbacks Women was an American women's soccer team that played from 2005 until 2016. The team played in the USL W-League from 2005 until the league folded after the 2015 season. For the 2016 season they played in the Women's Premier S ...

in the W-League, and five –

Sharolta Nonen Sharolta Louisa Nonen (born December 30, 1977) is a Canadian former soccer defender and current women's soccer coach of the Florida International University Panthers. She played for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in college, where she was the first t ...

, Nancy Augustyniak, and

Ifeoma Dieke Ifeoma Nnenna Dieke (born 25 February 1981) is an American-born Scottish international Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender for several professional clubs in Sweden, the United States, and Cy ...

—played in

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

. It was announced on October 7, 2009, that a newly formed version of the Atlanta Beat would be joining WPS. On June 17, 2009, the new Atlanta Beat announced that Shawn McGee would be the General Manager of the recently reformed team.Atlanta Women’s Professional Soccer Team Names Shawn McGee General Manager

Players (All-Time Roster)

References

External links

Atlanta Beat (WUSA)
(archived) {{Women's United Soccer Association Defunct soccer clubs in Georgia (U.S. state) Women's soccer clubs in the United States B Soccer clubs in Georgia (U.S. state) Women's United Soccer Association teams 2001 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2003 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Association football clubs established in 2001 Association football clubs disestablished in 2003

History

League Suspension

Players (All-Time Roster)

See also

References

External links