For Christine Sinclair, January 6, 2006, was a day to remember. First, the Canadian Soccer Association named her the 2005 female player of the year. Then, later in the day, came the announcement that the British Columbia native had won the 2005 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy as the top female Division 1 college soccer player in the United States. The MAC Hermann Trophy is U.S. soccer's equivalent of the most prestigious award in American college football, the Heisman Memorial Trophy --- and Sinclair had won two of them back to back.
Sinclair's trophy case was already overflowing with booty from her 2005 season with Team Canada and the University of Portland Pilots. A Team Canada veteran, she had been shortlisted for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association Player of the Year Award and named scholar all-American athlete of the year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and Adidas. She had also been named to all-American teams by the NSCAA and Adidas, Soccer America and Soccer Buzz magazines, and the College Sports Information Directors of America.
During 2005, her final year of university, Sinclair had led the Pilots to their second successive College Cup. She had also been named the …show more content…
In June, Sinclair came down with mononucleosis during a two-game tour of Mexico and was consigned to bed for a week. She decided to give the W-League club season a pass so she could fully recuperate and rest up for the World Cup in the fall. It was a slow process, and she missed eight weeks' training. In addition to Sinclair's own health problems, her mother was ill, and in August, the Pilots' head coach Clive Charles --- Sinclair's mentor and a family friend --- lost a three-year battle with prostate cancer and died. It was an emotionally draining time for