Megan Maire McCarthy (born September 20, 1966) is an American former
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 ...
Rams
In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Robinson Secondary School from 1981 to 1984. She was selected as an
NSCAA
The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than ...
High School
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...
n in 1983 and 1984, leading the Rams to a Virginia state championship. She also played for the youth team Braddock Road Youth Club, becoming under-19 national champions in 1984.
Jill Ellis
Jillian Anne Ellis (born 6 September 1966) is an English-American football manager and executive who is the Chief Football Officer of FIFA and will serve as part of the world governing body's executive management team, driving the development an ...
also attended and played soccer at Robinson Secondary School, and joined Braddock Road upon McCarthy's recommendation. In 1984, McCarthy began attending the
College of William & Mary
The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public university, public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III of England, William III and Queen ...
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Collegiate All-American in 1985, 1986, and 1987, as well as NCAA Co-Freshman of the Year in 1984 and ISAA/NCAA Collegiate Player of the Year in 1987.
During her professional career, she played with Italian club Prato Wonder of
Serie A
The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...
in
Prato
Prato ( ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') in Tuscany, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Prato. The city lies in the northeast of Tuscany, at an elevation of , at the foot of Monte Retaia (the last peak in the Calvana ch ...
, near
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
, during the 1988–89 season. She later played for Maryland Pride between 1995 and 1998.
McCarthy made her international debut for the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. In total, she made 42 appearances for the U.S., earning her final cap on April 14, 1994 in a friendly match against
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
.
McCarthy has been inducted into the
William & Mary Tribe
The William & Mary Tribe is a moniker for the College of William & Mary's athletic teams and the university's community more broadly.
William & Mary has won two team national championships (both in men's tennis), the AIAW championships in wo ...
Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998, the Virginia–D.C. Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003, the Virginia High School Hall of Fame in 2008, and the Robinson Rams Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2001 she was awarded the National Soccer Medal of Honor by the
National Soccer Hall of Fame
The National Soccer Hall of Fame is a public-private partnership among FC Dallas, the City of Frisco, Frisco Independent School District, and the U.S. Soccer Federation, and currently located in Toyota Stadium (Texas), Toyota Stadium in Frisco, T ...
as part of the
1991 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the first FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international governing body sele ...
winning-team (though she was not included in the final tournament squad).
Personal life
In 1993, McCarthy began teaching
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
Clifton, Virginia
Clifton is an List of towns in Virginia, incorporated town located in southwestern Fairfax County, Virginia, Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 243 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
Incor ...