Sky Blue FC player-coach Christie Rampone is pregnant with her second child. Rampone, who led the team to the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) championship this past weekend, guided the team through the play-offs as the captain and head coach while almost three months pregnant, adding another amazing twist to the team's Cinderella run to the title. Rampone became the player-coach for Sky Blue FC on July 30, after the sudden resignation of then head coach Kelly Lindsey.
The WPS Championship game on August 22 - in which Rampone and her teammates beat a potent, attack-minded Los Angeles Sol 1-0 - was preceded by gritty play-off wins over the Washington Freedom and Saint Louis Athletica, both on the road over favoured opponents. Rampone played all 90 minutes in the three games within eight days in the summer heat and humidity. Her final competitive game for a while will be the WPS All-Star game next Sunday in Saint Louis.
Rampone has experience coming back from pregnancy. She took most of 2005 off to have her first child, daughter Rylie, who was born on September 29 of that year. She made her return to the US national team line-up just 112 days later against Norway at the Four Nations Tournament in China, starting and playing the first 67 minutes. * Agencies
