| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Shannon Danise Higgins-Cirovski | ||
| Birth name | Shannon Danise Higgins[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1968-02-20)February 20, 1968 (age 57) | ||
| Place of birth | Kent, Washington, U.S. | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
| Position | Midfielder | ||
| College career | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1986–1989 | North Carolina Tar Heels | ||
| International career | |||
| 1987–1991 | United States | 51 | (4) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1990 | George Washington Colonials (assistant) | ||
| 1991–1997 | George Washington Colonials | ||
| 1998 | United States U18 | ||
| 1999–2006 | Maryland Terrapins | ||
Shannon Danise Higgins-Cirovski (née Higgins; born February 20, 1968) is an American formersoccermidfielder who earned 51caps with theUnited States between 1987 and 1991. She was a member of the U.S. team at the1991 FIFA Women's World Cup and is a member of theNational Soccer Hall of Fame.
Higgins grew up inKent, Washington, where she attendedMount Rainier High School. She graduated from high school in 1986 and entered theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that fall, playing on the women's soccer team from 1986 to 1989. During those four seasons, UNC-Chapel Hill won four consecutiveNCAA Championships. Higgins scored the game-winning goal in the last three championship games. She was a two-time first team All American (1988 and 1989) and the recipient of numerous awards including the 1988 and 1989Soccer America Player of the Year, 1989ISAA Player of the Year and the 1989Hermann Trophy. She won theHonda Sports Award as the nations's top soccer player at the end of the 1989–90 season.[2][3] In 2000, she was named to theSoccer America College Team of the Century. Higgins graduated from UNC in 1990 with abachelor's degree in industrial relations.
Higgins earned fifty-onecaps with theUnited States between 1987 and 1991. Her greatest achievement came in the1991 FIFA Women's World Cup when her playmaking skills were a central part of the U.S.'s championship run. In the 2–1 final, Higgins assisted on both ofMichelle Akers goals.
Following her graduation from UNC in 1990, Higgins-Cirovski was hired as an assistant coach to theGeorge Washington University women's soccer team. In 1992, she was elevated to the position of head coach, taking the team to a 69–59–11 record before resigning in 1997. She was inducted into the university's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.[4] In 1998, Higgins-Cirovski served as the head coach of the U.S. U-18 women's national team. On January 13, 1999, she was hired as theUniversity of Maryland, College Park women's soccer team, a position she held until resigning in 2006. She had a 62–51–10 (.549) record over her six seasons. Her husband,Sasho Cirovski, coaches the school's men's soccer team.
In 2001, Higgins-Cirovski was a color commentator for the television broadcasts of theWashington Freedom of theWUSA.
She was inducted into theNational Soccer Hall of Fame in 2002.[5] That year, theAtlantic Coast Conference named her to its list of the Top 50 ACC Athletes in the first fifty years of the conference's existence.
