Carin Jennings-Gabarra

Personal information
Full name	Carin Leslie Jennings-Gabarra[1]
Birth name	Carin Leslie Jennings[2]
Date of birth	(1965-01-09)January 9, 1965 (age 60)[1]
Place of birth	East Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[1]
Position	Forward
Youth career
1980–1983	Palos Verdes High School
College career
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1983–1986	UC Santa Barbara Gauchos	79	(102)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	Southern California Ajax
International career
1987–1996	United States	117	(56)
Managerial career
1987	Westmont College
1988	Harvard(assistant)
1993–	Navy
Medal record Women'sfootball (soccer) Representingthe United States Olympic Games 1996 Atlanta Team competition FIFA Women's World Cup 1991 China Team competition 1995 Sweden Team competition
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Carin Leslie Jennings-Gabarra (née Jennings; born January 9, 1965) is an American retiredsoccerforward. She earned 117caps with theUnited States women's national soccer team from 1987 to 1996 and was awarded theGolden Ball Award as the best player at the1991 FIFA Women's World Cup. In 2000, she was inducted into theNational Soccer Hall of Fame. She currently coaches women's soccer at theUnited States Naval Academy.

While born inEast Orange, New Jersey, Jennings-Gabarra grew up inRancho Palos Verdes, California, where she attendedPalos Verdes High School from 1980 to 1983. During her four seasons playing high school soccer, she scored 226 goals and was a four-time High SchoolAll-American and a three-time CaliforniaMost Valuable Player.

After high school, Jennings-Gabarra attended theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara where she played on theUC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's soccer team from 1983 through 1986. In 1984, Jennings-Gabarra set the NCAA Division I women's soccer single-season records for goals (34), goals per game (1.55), points (80), and points per game (3.64).^[3]

She finished her college career holding numerous NCAA Division I women's soccer records including 102 goals scored, 1.29 goals per game, 60 assists, 0.76 assists per game, 264 points, and 3.34 points per game.^[4]

She was named a second-teamAll-American in 1984 and 1985 and a third-team All-American in 1987.^{[1]Archived November 15, 2006, at theWayback Machine} She graduated from UCSB in 1987 with abachelor's degree in business management. Gabarra was named the school's Athlete of the Decade^[1] and in 1991 the university inducted Gabarra into its Hall of Fame.^[2]

In 2000,Soccer America selected Jennings-Gabarra to itsCollege Team of the Century.

Jennings-Gabarra played with The Los Angeles Blues (later theSouthern California Blues) and later withSouthern California Ajax ofManhattan Beach, California. In 1992 and 1993, Ajax won the USASA National Amateur Cup.^[3]Jennings anddefenderJoy Fawcett both were members of the Manhattan Beach club women's soccer teamAjax in the late 1980s and early 1990s and routinely played atColumbia Park inTorrance, California.^[5] In 1991, Ajax won the U.S. women's amateur championship.^[5]

In 1993,Los Angeles United of theContinental Indoor Soccer League drafted Jennings-Gabarra.^[6]

Jennings-Gabarra's fame rests on her achievements with theUnited States women's national soccer team. During her ten-year career, spanning 1987 to 1996, she earned 117caps and scored 53 goals.^[7][8]

During the early 1990s, Jennings-Gabarra was part of the national team's "Triple-Edged Sword". The term, coined by the Chinese media during the1991 FIFA Women's World Cup, included two other prolific scorers,April Heinrichs andMichelle Akers. Of those three players, Akers scored ten goals at the World Cup to claim the Golden Boot, while Jennings-Gabarra added six as the tournament's second-leading scorer.^[4] Jennings helped the U.S. national team win thefirst FIFA Women's World Cup.^[5] She was also selected as theGolden Ball Award winner as the tournament's top player.

In 1995, Jennings-Gabarra and her teammates came up short in the1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, losing toNorway in the semifinals. The team finished third in the tournament, with a 2–0 win over China in the third-place playoff match.

In 1996, the U.S. won the first women's Olympic soccer tournament. Following the tournament, she retired from playing international soccer.

Carin Jennings-Gabarra competed in the1996 Atlanta Olympics, as well as the1991 and1995 editions of theFIFA Women's World Cup. She played 16 matches and scored 6 goals at those 3 global tournaments.

Jennings-Gabarra is renowned for her remarkable ball control, imagination,dribbling skills and feints on thewing, as well as her ability tocreate chances out of nothing. Her distinctivegait earned her thesobriquets "Crazy Legs" and "Gumby".^[10][11]

Also an effective goalscorer, she struck a 23-minutehat-trick againstGermany to put the United States 3–0 ahead in the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup semi-final. TheLos Angeles Times reported that "Carin Jennings, the ponytailed winger from Palos Verdes, tore the Germans to shreds". In 1999 Assistant coachLauren Gregg hailed Jennings-Gabarra's performance against Germany as the single greatest ever by an American player.^[12]

Jennings-Gabarra epitomizes the speed, fitness, and mental strength coach Anson Dorrance demanded of his players. "Before every game, Anson would challenge us, asking us which of us was going to make the difference. I always wanted to be that player." Teammates saw Jennings-Gabarra as setting the standard for the group.^[10]

Gabarra began coaching following her graduation from UCSB in 1987. That year,Westmont College, located inSanta Barbara, California, hired her as its women's soccer coach. After one season, she moved toHarvard, where she was an assistant coach. In 1993, theUnited States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, hired Gabarra as its women's soccer coach. At the time the women's team competed at the club level. She developed it into a competitive Division I NCAA team.^[13]

In 2000, Gabarra was inducted into theNational Soccer Hall of Fame.^[14] In 2003, she was inducted into theU.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

In 1992, Gabarra married U.S. men's national team playerJim Gabarra. They have two daughters and one son. Gabarra is a member of the U.S. Soccer Athlete Advisory Council, the U.S. Olympic Committee Athlete Advisory Council, and the Maryland Physical Fitness Council.

World Cup Winner

• 1991

Olympic Gold Medal

• 1996

US National Amateur Cup

• 1992, 1993

California Prep MVP

• 1981, 1982, 1983

High School All American

• 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983

NCAA Division I All American

• 1984, 1985, 1986

FIFA World Cup Golden Ball

• 1991

US Soccer Athlete of the Year

• 1987, 1992

U.S. Olympic Player of the Year

• 1987, 1992

National Soccer Medal of Honor

• 2001

Hall of Fame

• National Soccer Hall of Fame
• U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame
• American Youth Soccer Organization Hall of Fame

Goal	Match	Date	Location	Opponent	Lineup	Min	Score	Result	Competition
China 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup
1	1	1991-11-17[m 1]	Panyu	Sweden	Start	40	1–0	3–2W	Group match
2						49	2–0
3	2	1991-11-19[m 2]	Panyu	Brazil	Start	38	3–0	5–0W	Group match
	3	1991-11-21[m 3]	Foshan	Japan	{{{4}}}. off41' (onHamm)			3–0W	Group match
	4	1991-11-24[m 4]	Foshan	Chinese Taipei	Start			7–0W	Quarter-final
4	5	1991-11-27[m 5]	Guangzhou	Germany	Start	10	1–0	5–2W	Semifinal
5						22	2–0
6						33	3–0
	6	1991-11-30[m 6]	Guangzhou	Norway	Start			2–1W	Final
Sweden 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup
	7	1995-06-06[m 7]	Gävle	China	Start			3–3D	Group match
	8	1995-06-08[m 8]	Gävle	Denmark	{{{4}}}. off85' (onRafanelli)			2–0W	Group match
	9	1995-06-10[m 9]	Helsingborg	Australia	{{{4}}}. on45' (offManthei)			4–1W	Group match
	10	1995-06-13[m 10]	Gävle	Japan	Start			4–0W	Quarter-final
	11	1995-06-15[m 11]	Västerås	Norway	Start			0–1L	Semifinal
	12	1995-06-17[m 12]	Gävle	China	{{{4}}}. off80' (onRafanelli)			2–0W	Third place match
Atlanta 1996 Olympic Women's Football Tournament
	13	1996-07-21[m 13]	Orlando, FL	Denmark	{{{4}}}. on75' (offHamm)			3–0W	Group stage
	14	1996-07-23[m 14]	Orlando, FL	Sweden	{{{4}}}. on85' (offHamm)			2–1W	Group stage
	15	1996-07-25[m 15]	Miami, FL	China	{{{4}}}. on30' (offMilbrett)			0–0D	Group stage
	16	1996-08-01[m 16]	Athens, GA	China	{{{4}}}. on89' (offHamm)			2–1W	Gold medal match

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	18 April 1991	Stade Sylvio Cator,Port-au-Prince,Haiti	Mexico	11–0	12–0	1991 CONCACAF Women's Championship
2.	22 April 1991		Trinidad and Tobago	?–0	10–0
3.				?–0
4.	25 April 1991		Haiti	?–0	10–0
5.				?–0
6.	17 November 1991	Ying Tung Stadium,Guangzhou, China	Sweden	1–0	3–2	1991 FIFA Women's World Cup
7.				2–0
8.	19 November 1991		Brazil	3–0	5–0
9.	27 November 1991	Guangdong Provincial Stadium, Guangzhou, China	Germany	1–0	5–2
10.				2–0
11.				3–0

Match Reports

• National Soccer Hall of Fame profile
• US Naval Academy Coaching Profile

• Living people
• 1965 births
• American women's soccer coaches
• Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
• National Soccer Hall of Fame members
• Harvard Crimson women's soccer coaches
• Olympic gold medalists for the United States in soccer
• Sportspeople from East Orange, New Jersey
• Soccer players from Essex County, New Jersey
• United States women's international soccer players
• FIFA Women's Century Club
• 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players
• 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players
• UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's soccer players
• FIFA Women's World Cup–winning players
• American women's soccer players
• Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
• Women's association football forwards
• Navy Midshipmen women's soccer coaches
• Ajax America Women players
• 20th-century American sportswomen

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