Young NJ Athletes Inspired By U.S. Women's Soccer Team Ahead Of World Cup Semis
HAMILTON SQUARE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The U.S. Women's Soccer team beat Germany Tuesday night in the advancing to the World Cup Finals.
Four members of the team are from New Jersey and budding soccer players in the Garden State are taking notice.
As CBS2's Elise Finch reported, the girls of the Hibernian Shock soccer team in Hamilton Square, New Jersey are looking forward to witnessing world-class moves when the U.S. women's national team plays in the World Cup seminfinals.
"It's pretty amazing," said Kolette Schulz, 11.
"It's nice to have the girls take charge in their own sport," said Delanie Perrine.
"They're all very inspiring and a good role model," said Caroline Topping.
"I'm proud of them," 10-year-old Jaimee McEntee said.
The four World Cup competitors from New Jersey are defender Christie Rampone and midfielders Tobin Heath, Carli Lloyd, and Heather O'Reilly.
Jerry D'Apolito's oldest daughter attended a soccer camp run by O'Reilly. He said it was life-changing.
"She really kind of like took to Heather. She got hardest worker at the camp and that really turned her on to travel soccer," he said.
"It was just really sweet meeting them and it was an inspiration for me," said 11-year-old Tatum D'Apolito.
"Because they're really, really good and I like the skills they do," said 8-year-old Bailee D'Apolito.
The girls said seeing female athletes from their home state play for the World Cup inspires them, on and off the field, Finch reported.
"It shows that if you work hard and you dream big, that you can do anything," said 11-year-old Nicole Filipowicz.
Soccer coaches say being able to watch elite female soccer players from their home state has made a difference to the girls they teach and thousands of others across the state.
"It's really gone a long way to grow the numbers as far as how many girls want to play soccer," said Hibernian Shock coach Christian Sanje. "It's just been tremendous for the sport."
"This club started out with a lot of boys teams even in the area and now we have almost a balance between boys teams and girls teams," said Hibernian Athletic Association Director Samantha Hoffman.
The U.S. will play either Japan or England in the World Cup final on Sunday.
